Rocky View County, CrossIron Mills mall and the City of Airdrie have joined forces to include an additional stop Airdrie’s Intercity Express (ICE).
Pending approval by Alberta Transportation, routes 901 and 902 will stop at CrossIron Mills mall on the morning return-trip from Calgary to Airdrie.
Route 901 will stop once a day at the mall, as will route 902.
ICE Transit Coordinator Chris MacIsaac said ICE is hoping to have an in-service date set by the end of this month as it waits for Alberta Transportation to approve the route change.
A report prepared for Rocky View County council July 16 requesting the permission to use county roads to operate the bus service stated the ICE service has been successful in creating a transit culture for Airdrie commuters into downtown Calgary, but has struggled to attract riders for reverse flow trips.
“Currently, ridership on the reverse flow accounts for approximately two per cent of total ICE ridership with ample capacity to provide additional trips,” said county General Manager Byron Riemann.
He presented the report to council on behalf of administration.
The ICE has been in operation for three years and is the region’s only two-way public transit system.
Route 901 services the east side of Airdrie and 902 services the west.
CrossIron Mills General Manager James Moller said the partnership will combine private, public and government resources to make better use of existing services.
He said the mall has been operating a shuttle service for mall employees from north Calgary to CrossIron Mills since 2009.
The shuttle operates seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., which Moller says overlaps with the two-hour window the ICE operates its return-route from Calgary to Airdrie in the morning.
“Rather than running two sets of buses on a pretty similar route, we thought it would be resourceful to collaborate and pool resources,” he said.
He added the CrossIron Mills employee shuttle will operate from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
“The (mall’s) shuttle ridership has increased from 140,000 in its first year to about 180,000 now,” he said.
“We’re expecting with the new stop, those numbers will only increase and we’ll be able to extend that service to more people.”
The new stop will be at an already-existing bus lay-by on CrossIron Blvd.
Moller said the City of Airdrie and CrossIron Mills are in ongoing discussion about the possibility of including a morning stop at the mall on the way into Calgary as well as providing a shuttle between the City of Airdrie and the mall on weekends, but details were not finalized as of Rocky View Weekly press time.
“We’re exploring options and seeing what will be best to expand on, but we expect this new addition to work very well.”
