Saint John Transit is looking at route changes to help offset the financial impact caused by the pandemic.
Transit commission members are expected to make a presentation to Common Council on Monday night.
“We recognize that as a result of safety procedures that we have been forced to implement that we have both limited passenger capacity and no longer have a mechanism to collect fares on our buses,” said the commission in a letter to council.
“This has a direct impact on the financial health of our organization.”
The commission’s revised route plan would “closely mirror a regular Saturday schedule,” reducing runs and frequency for some routes while maintaining service for higher demand routes.
“Data indicates that some main routes are seeing on average 7-9 passengers per run, which is our ‘pandemic capacity’ and we cannot introduce bottlenecks into the system,” said the commission in its presentation, noting some feeder routes may be able to be optimized.
The 20 per cent reduction in service hours would lead to an estimated 17 to 19 layoffs, which would include drivers, mechanics and maintenance staff.
Commission members estimate salaries and benefits will be reduced by $120,000 a month while fuel consumption will decrease by around $14,000 a month.
In its presentation, the commission noted it has a “major cash flow deficiency risk” based on the 2020 budgeted city subsidy which will impact its ability to meet future payment obligations. It also said there is a “high risk” for the city since it is responsible for all transit deficits.
The commission said it is also looking at installing driver protective barriers so fare collection can resume, noting it is losing about $360,000 a month in revenue.
