Commuters in Calgary’s satellite towns will soon have transit access to the city’s downtown core through double-decker buses which were unveiled in Cochrane yesterday.
Airdrie will be the first of the towns to get bus service in the fall, followed by Cochrane’s planned service in 2012, with Okotoks and Chestermere three to five years down the road and High River and Strathmore on the horizon.
“It started in the regional plan we put together, we looked at regional transit as the backbone of our strategy,” said Colleen Shepard, executive director of the Calgary Regional Partnership.
Much of the funding for the service came from the Alberta government’s GreenTRIP program, with the rest being offset by fares which will be around six dollars.
“We started to envision this before GreenTRIP came in, but it certainly would’ve taken us so much longer without it,” said Shepard.
The double-decker buses were chosen for their cheaper operating cost, increased capacity and more attractiveness for riders, McBride said.
“In Cochrane, people are very excited about this. We have a large commuter population,” he said.
