Airdrie Transit is excited to bring a new transit service, called on-demand transit, starting July 3. 

Billie-Jo Arnott, the Contract Performance Specialist with Airdrie Transit, says the app called hello-to-go helps with this new service. 

“With on-demand transit, customers can book their trips in advance, either through the app, online or by phoning our offices,” says Arnott, “There's no set schedule and there's no fixed route that the buses travel along. The buses run according to whatever the customer requests and trips are determined based on the most efficient pathway.” 

This new form of transit is available seven days a week from Monday to Friday between 6 am and 10 pm. It’s also available on Saturdays from 7 am to 10 pm and on Sundays from 8 am to 6 pm. 

“The on-demand hello-to-go model is going to replace our existing large buses that operate on all the fixed routes in the city. Those routes have been operating below our ridership targets. So, hello-to-go will use smaller vehicles, which will allow us to connect customers across the entire community within Airdrie.” 

Arnott mentioned communities that don't currently have fixed route service will now be able to access bus service, no matter where they live in Airdrie. 

“The change from larger buses that are operating on these underperforming fixed routes to the smaller buses is anticipated to save the city close to $140,000 a year.” 

According to Arnott, it allows them to have service seven days a week, whereas before, they didn't have local service on Sundays.  

On July 3 they will have three of these smaller buses starting. While these smaller buses are replacing larger buses on the fixed routes, they will still be running the larger buses on the fixed routes, just at a reduced schedule. 

“Any of the monthly bus pass tickets that you use on our local service, you can use on hello-to-go, so no change in price for the new service,” assures Arnott. 

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