UNBC and CNC receiving better bus service in PG

The Prince George Transit System took a major hit from COVID-19, but service expansions are on their way to cater to post-secondary students in 2022.

During last night’s (Monday) city council meeting it was reported that PG’s transit is running at around 63% of its ridership compared to September 2019, with the provincial average sitting at 65%.

“Seeing these provincial numbers coming back and celebrating being at 65% is a pretty tough pill to swallow. I know we were down 90% at one point, but to see that we’re in Prince George at 63%, ya we’ve got to celebrate, but boy those are hard numbers to take,” said Councillor Garth Frizzell.

It was also noted that about 50% of the entire ridership pre-COVID was from UPass holders.

The 15 UNBC/Downtown is planned to increase off-peak frequency during the day to every 15 minutes from the early morning to the early evening.

The new 19 UNBC/Westgate will operate on weekends between UNBC and Westgate Mall to help reduce rider confusion.

And a new 105 Express bus will go between downtown, Spruceland, CNC and Pine Centre Mall to reduce travel times for CNC students during the week.

More expansion on transit services isn’t expected until ridership numbers start to increase.

“It’s been a slow and steady increase, in terms of the raw numbers, of course, we saw an increase at the beginning of September, and since then it’s moved around a little bit,” said the Manager of Transportation and Tech Services Dave Bradshaw.