With reduced ridership, N.B. municipal bus services continue to feel pandemic pinch
CBC
More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic started, transit buses in New Brunswick cities are carrying far fewer people and bringing in less money than before.
As of August, the city-run transit services for Fredericton and Moncton reported transporting on average just over half as many passengers as before the pandemic, resulting in a similar drop in revenue.
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt businesses and schools, a public transit advocate says continued financial support should be coming from the federal and provincial governments to ensure municipalities can continue to adequately offer the service.
"There's no question that the transit systems need some financial support from higher levels of government, and they have been getting that to some degree," said Ted Bartlett, president of Transport Action Atlantic.
"But we must not lose sight of the fact that the help is going to be needed on an ongoing basis until we have full ridership recovery."
Codiac Transpo, which serves the greater Moncton region, saw an 85 per cent decline in passenger demand at the beginning of the pandemic, said City of Moncton spokesperson Austin Henderson.
Monthly ridership dropped from 133,560 to less than 20,000 at the start of the pandemic, and monthly revenue fell from about $200,000 to nothing. Codiac Transpo eliminated fares for the first few months of the pandemic.