Council Statement: Metrobus Service, Ridership and Budget

In light of reports and discussion of Metrobus service and budget reductions, I would like to offer some clarification for taxpayers.

In preparing the 2021 budget, Council asked all city departments, St. John's Sports and Entertainment and Metrobus, to find savings in an effort to avoid raising the mill rate.

Metrobus has significantly lower ridership rates since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this looks to continue well into 2021 as many people will work from home and our post-secondary institutions announce campus closures for the foreseeable future.

Given this reality, the St. John’s Transportation Commission has identified savings in two primary ways:

• by deferring its planned Frequent Transit Network on core routes until September 2021; and,
• by following a slightly modified reduced-service summer schedule until the end of August. 

These are difficult choices to make.

City Council and the St. John’s Transportation Commission remain committed to enhancing our public transit service.

By September, further decisions on achieving budget targets, scheduling and the implementation timeline for the Frequent Transit Network will be re- evaluated by the St. John’s Transportation Commission.

Once we begin to emerge from the pandemic, we will adapt our transit service. We will review the goals and strategies identified during the Public Transit Review process to pursue a long-term recovery plan to improve transit service and attract new riders.
 
Dave Lane
Council lead for Finance and Administration
dlane@stjohns.ca