Southland Transportation takes over Calgary regional transit

Southland Transportation is taking over regional transit in the Calgary area as the quasi-governmental agency responsible for co-ordinationacross municipalities shuts down.

The company was already providing the buses and the staff for the On It service, but now owns the brand, website and routes.

It did not have to pay for the transfer, but allowed the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP)to walk away from its contract without penalty.

Colleen Shepherd, the executive director of the partnership, says that amounts to around $80,000 or $90,000.

"So that saved the CRP and the taxpayer considerable amount of money to do that," she said.

'Minimal changes' expected

The regional partnership is being replaced by a regional board mandated by the provincial government, but that board does not have power to oversee transit.

Jonathan Weal, the regional director for Southland Transportation in southern Alberta, said the change offers the company the chance to tweak service to better serve communities.

"There's going to be minimal changes for the users," he said.

"What this is going to mean is there are going to be more service offerings."

One change will be the blending of Southland's existing commuter service from Okotoksand the On It service, giving On It users the ability to ride into downtown rather than the CTrain station.

Expansion anticipated

The company is also looking at expanding into Strathmore and Cochrane something that was being examined under the old management as well as bringing back summer service to Banff and Canmore.

"I just want everyone to understand that the rumours of the death of On It were greatly exaggerated and that it was a successful pilot," said Weal.

Shepherd said she's excited that regional transportation won't die.

"It's taken us up to 30 years and the CRP itself 13 years to develop the regional system, and it's critical to the economic development of our region."

The transfer will be official at the end of the month.

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