Fredericton Transit will run every 30 minutes on most routes

Some transit users in Fredericton will find it takes less time to catch a bus as of Monday.

The city is rolling out a planned increase to the level of frequency for most Fredericton Transit routes in response to record increases in the number of people taking the bus in recent years.

"Transit has been a priority for this council as you can see by this additional service, and I can say that it has definitely paid off," said Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers, at an event to announce the changes.

"The success of our improvements that we have made are reflected in our increased user base."

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Most of the city's buses operate on an hourly schedule, except during peak commute times. Between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. — Monday to Friday — they run every half hour.

But as of Monday, routes 12, 13, 14 and 15 will also run every half hour between the rush hour windows of 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

The change will also be applied to routes 16 and 17, but only on the south side.

"That'd be great. Really great," said Sherry Brewer-Long. "Yeah, it would be awesome."

Brewer-Long takes the bus almost every day from her home on the north side. Some days she needs it to get groceries, while other days she needs to get to appointments in the city's uptown area.

She said having to wait an hour in some cases to catch the next bus hasn't been ideal.

"When you go up to the doctor's office and you wait for the bus and stuff, it's kind of hard when there's no shelter and stuff."

Up until a few months ago, Tabatha Christie took the bus to get to her job at Walmart at Two Nations Crossing.

While she now uses a car, she said the more frequent bus service will make other people's lives easier.

"I think it'll help quite a bit because ... I always got off at 2:30 in the afternoon. I'd have to wait until 3:00, if not 3:30, before I could go home," Christie said.

"And I worked really long hours. It was like eight-and-a-half, nine-hour shifts, and I was constantly moving, so when I finished my shift, I just wanted to get home. I didn't want to have to wait an hour in the store before a bus came."

Increasing the frequency of bus routes is the latest in a round of improvements made to Fredericton's transit service, many of which have been ushered in by transit director Charlene Sharpe.

Hired in 2022, her first goal was to install technology that closely tracks ridership patterns.

Using data from that tech, she led the push to implement Sunday bus service last year for the first time in the city's history.

Standing room only, people being left behind

It's unclear if the changes are responsible but over that period Fredericton Transit has also seen increases in its ridership, which climbed 19 per cent from 2023 to 2024.

Rogers said that heavy use was becoming apparent in the middle of the day, with buses running just once an hour.

"Most of the routes that we're increasing, they are at full capacity, and that's standing capacity where we've seen peaks of more than 55 people on a bus where those buses can only hold 36, 37 seated," she said.

Rogers said there were also instances when bus drivers had to drive past people standing at the bus stop because there was no more room on board.

"So we've been able to pinpoint with the data where this was happening, and so that's why we've chosen the areas to increase the service — to support that demand."

The increases in transit frequency will cost the city $624,000 this year, an amount that was already agreed to by councillors as part of last fall's budget process for 2025.

The change also involved promoting five bus drivers from part-time to full-time employment, in addition to hiring a new part-time driver to help cover scheduling gaps.

Two other routes — the 116 and 216 — will also see their peak half-hour service start an hour earlier as of Monday.

Buses on routes 10 and 11 are already running at half-hour intervals, said Rogers.