Belleville Transit continues to see record ridership.
More than one million rides have already been taken on city buses this year.
Transportation and Operation Services General Manager Joe Reid says it’s the first time they’ve achieved that number this early in the year.
Generally it happens around November.
Total ridership through the end of August was 1,035,221 with just over 119,000 rides taken on Belleville Transit last month.
“The need for transit is great in our community. You know, we’re seeing an influx of, you know, people wanting to use public transit. You know, we have a really good robust transit system that is reliable and people are becoming accustomed to that reliability.”
Total Belleville Transit ridership for all of 2022 was 1,196,147.
Reid says while they have been using an on-demand service for early morning and late night rides, that will be changing.
“We’re gonna be transitioning away from the on-demand to sole fixed service. Demand has been there and, you know, we see it right from the ridership stats that we need to move forward with complementing our ridership and helping them more.”
Reid says this justifies the changes they’re making to the Transit Master Plan to improve service and make the system more user friendly.
