Barrie is preparing to return to some sense of normalcy with its city buses and that includes the reinstatement of paid fares, possibly as soon as mid-July.
City buses have been operating with reduced capacity for several weeks and riders weren't being asked to pay during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a memo to council, city transit director Brent Forsyth provided an update on Barrie Transit service levels and resumption of fare collections.
"Even though ridership is at a fraction of its regular operations, the current restrictions limiting capacity to a maximum of 15 passengers per bus has resulted in denying passengers," Forsyth said. "These restrictions limit the capacity on buses by approximately 75 per cent."
In response to capacity issues, the city implemented a so-called "floater" bus program where four buses are staged throughout Barrie and can be quickly deployed to pick up passengers "abandoned at stops and finish the route to get them to their destination," Forsyth said.
"This is not an ideal solution, as it still poses issues with getting individuals to their destination on time," he added.
Barrie Transit adopted several new measures to handle the COVID crisis, including heightened sanitization, personal protective equipment for transit employees, rear-door boarding, temporary suspension of paid service, restricting passenger capacity to 15 people on buses, taping off every other seat, and installation of hand-sanitizer dispensers on transit vehicles.
Barrie Transit has seen its ridership dip to as low as 25 per cent of its normal levels. As a result, service hours were reduced to approximately 65 per cent of usual levels.
"It would be difficult to reduce any further, as this maintains the minimal service level to maintain the base coverage area for the entire city," said Forsyth, who also noted ridership is trending upwards and is back to around one-third of pre-COVID levels.
When front-door boarding is permitted to resume, that will allow the service to increase capacity by approximately four passengers per bus.
"Front-door boarding will also allow the operations to return to paid services," said Forsyth, who added that will likely result in a reduction in ridership, because "imposing fares will further support the prioritization for essential travel."
Free transit is currently in place until at least July 2.
Before front-door boarding and passenger payment can resume, Forsyth said protective barriers around drivers need to be installed and the Barrie Transit Terminal must reopen to issue fares.
Driver barriers are expected to be installed by mid-July, but Forsyth said the timeline needs to be flexible as information around coronavirus and provincial guidelines change. He says two weeks' notice will be given to the public about forthcoming changes.
"When the transit terminal is reopened, it will operate differently than it did pre-pandemic," said Forsyth, noting additional resources will be required to limit the number of people inside the Maple Avenue facility.
"Those restrictions will be maintained, reviewed, and updated to align with the ongoing provincial guidelines with reopening the economy," he added. "The terminal will be opened approximately one week ahead of reinstating transit fares to provide riders the opportunity to purchase fare products."
If paid transit services resume mid-month, Forsyth says the cost of a monthly transit pass will be pro-rated based on the number of days remaining.
To limit the transmission of COVID-19 and person-to-person contact, the use of multi-ride cards will be temporarily suspended.
"In the meantime, staff are investigating alternative options to the ride cards," Forsyth said. "Riders will still be able to pay cash fares at the farebox on the vehicles and purchase monthly passes from the terminal."
