Normal routines have been hard to come by in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And Belleville Transit has had to create a brand new normal to continue to offer service to the public.
Before the State of Emergency was declared and physical distancing directives were put in place, Belleville Transit buses carried
5,000 passengers a day when Loyalist College was open and around 1,400 a day when the college was closed.
Enter the coronavirus.
Ridership plunged as people were laid off and many having concerns about catching the bug. Belleville Transit couldn’t keep its regular routes running and it was decided the best option was to offer a free on-demand service only, whereby riders could book a time and location for pick-up online.
Manager of Transit Operations Paul Buck says the service attracted around 120 passengers a day in the first two weeks but that total has grown to around 350 passengers a day now.
While no system can serve everyone perfectly Buck says it’s been working well for the most part.
The key is for people to book well ahead of time. “The more time people give us the better,” says Buck. “By booking well ahead, preferably the day before, people are allowing us to plan routes and the number of buses needed to meet the demand. Where we and passengers run into trouble is when people book buses just a few minutes ahead of time. Some people think they can book when they’re standing at a bus stop. That doesn’t work.”
Passengers can also book a ride by emailing bellevilletransit@belleville.ca. If they send the pickup location, drop off location and the time they would like to travel, we enter the trip into the system and send an email confirmation back to let the passenger know the trip is booked. This is an excellent option for workers to use, if they know their schedule for the next few days or weeks, we can enter it in and they will be all set.
And again, the more advance notice we have of trips the better. Buck says it allows them to schedule sufficient resources to get everyone where they need to go!
Buck says the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted a spirit of cooperation between management and staff in the organization. “We haven’t had to lay off people. Drivers and their union have been great to work with. We’re moving buses, drivers, and jobs around. Drivers sometimes are now shifted to sanitize buses and take extra training. Sanitizing our buses is a priority and we do it all the time. We’re running two cleaning shifts a day.”
Meanwhile Buck says there’s much to learn from operating a transit system through a pandemic. “Don’t be surprised to see some form of permanent protection installed on buses to protect our drivers even after the pandemic is declared over.”
