The Intercity Express bus (ICE) will soon make a few more stops.
During council May 21, alderman agreed to add additional stops in the bus route to accommodate employees of CrossIron Mills mall.
“We’ve had difficulty in the reverse flow market,” said City Transit Coordinator Chris MacIsaac.
The ICE bus travels from Calgary to Airdrie in the morning and Airdrie to Calgary and back in the afternoon.
The reverse trip in the morning, and the initial trip in the evening currently collects two per cent of the total ICE ridership.
The new plan will change routing for bus 901 in the morning. It will now have an additional stop at Calgary Transit’s Saddletowne LRT station in the northeast of that city. The route will also include one additional stop at CrossIron Mills mall on Bass Pro Way for mall employees or the general public.
The routing, once the bus gets into Airdrie, will remain the same.
Bus 902, which is a second bus that travels from Airdrie to Calgary and back, will remain as is with no changes to its current routing.
“We are trying to reduce service duplication,” explained MacIsaac who said currently CrossIron Mills pays for busing services for its employees from Saddletwone LRT station to the mall.
In a report to council, the new routing is expected to add an additional 5,000 passengers per year.
CrossIron Mills will contribute $20,000 to operation costs.
“Twenty-thousand dollars makes good sense to CrossIron Mills mall, but I question if it does the same for citizens of Airdrie,” said Alderman Murray Buchanan, who asked staff how much additional wear-and-tear the bus will receive from the change in routing.
“What we’re gaining is $20,000 and potential new customers from Saddletowne station to CrossIron or Airdire,” said City Manager Paul Schulz.
Alderman Allan Hunter asked if any of those return passengers would stop in Airdrie or if they would all be stopping at the mall.
MacIsaac said one Airdrie business has expressed interest that two employees would make use of the service with the potential for 20 more.
“There was unanimous support by community services (for this),” said Aldermen Kelly Hegg, adding that this is a way to get people on the return trip back.
He motioned to approve the changes in the routing.
Buchanan and Brown were opposed.
Aldermen Hegg, Hunter, Ron Chapman and Fred Burley approved.
After council MacIsaac said he doesn’t know how soon people can expect the routing changes.
He said it is still dependent on final approval from Alberta Transit.
