Saskatoon Transit outlines strategy to tackle bus overcrowding

The city’s transit department says it has a plan in place to deal with overcrowding on high-traffic routes.

The report comes after a surge of complaints from its student ridership in September, when many in Saskatoon’s newer neighbourhoods were left waiting at stops on their way to school because their buses were already full.

To complicate matters, in November transit administrators cautioned city council that its aging fleet was putting the bus service at an increased risk of disruptions this winter, as the department had not purchased any replacement buses since 2019.

In his report prepared in advance of the next transportation committee meeting, customer support and engagement manager Cory Shrigley says much of the work required to deal with the overcrowding on high-traffic routes is already part of Saskatoon Transit’s regular procedures.

“At least four times a year Saskatoon Transit uses planning software, historical ridership and full bus data to review and develop bus schedules and routes. Most adjustments to service levels, frequency and routing take place during these reviews,” he wrote.

During this process, the planning team identifies overcapacity routes through its data, including reports from riders and operators, and customer complaints.

If a bus completely fills up for four days in a row, Shrigley says it’s considered over capacity and during these quarterly reviews the planning team may either add frequency or assign large articulating buses to the route, if available.

The planning team uses school enrollment data and population growth estimates to plan for growing demand along its routes, but Shrigley says in 2023 demand was greater than expected because of “higher than historical population growth.”

He cites Statistics Canada data showing Saskatoon’s population grew by 5.1 per cent between Oct. 2022 and Oct. 2023.

“This is the largest year-over-year population change for Saskatoon in the post-war era,” he said.

Going forward, Saskatoon Transit also plans to hold regular meetings with the university student unions to gather input as part of its route planning, the report says.

Once the schedules are updated each quarter, changes to routes are limited by the size of the fleet to adding additional frequency if spare buses are available, Shrigley says.

He says resources were added to some of the highest demand routes following the complaints in September, but the lack of available buses means some university and high school routes are still struggling with overcrowding.

As the city purchases new buses and the aging fleet becomes more reliable, Saskatoon Transit intends to fill in the gaps on those routes that aren’t meeting minimum service standards, and adding extra buses to deal with overcrowding on some of those morning and afternoon peaks, Shrigley says.

Saskatoon’s transportation committee meets on Tuesday at city hall.