Cold Lake, AB – Cold Lake Transit is nearing its 10-year service mark, and has seen a significant increase in ridership over the last decade.

Current services, routes, ridership trends, grants, and plans for the future were presented to council on Tuesday, April 15 by City staff.

“A lot of grant funding is based on ridership numbers,” said Mayor Craig Copeland. “Because the service remains free for people to use, we continue to see growth in our ridership.”

Cold Lake Transit offers full-service, accessible transit routes six days a week, free of charge, connecting Cold Lake North, Cold Lake South, and 4 Wing Cold Lake. The routes were adapted and accelerated in 2022, allowing a bus stop to see a bus go by every 36 minutes. The busiest days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the busiest stop is the Transit Centre by Tri City Mall.

“People rely on our transit system to get around,” said Copeland. “You can see in the stats when school starts or finishes and students start travelling around the City. But it’s not just students. It’s seniors, low-income residents, families with only one vehicle, or people who are new to the community and don’t have a driver’s licence yet.”

Recently, Cold Lake Transit was awarded $1,086,030 in federal funding from the Baseline Funding stream of the Canada Public Transit Fund. These funds will be spread out over the next 10 years to keep the transit system functioning smoothly.

“There have been questions about keeping the transit system free ever since it started,” said Copeland. “But keeping it as a free service allows it to remain accessible to everyone. By applying for grants, we can keep the cost of maintaining the service out of the taxpayer’s pockets as much as possible.”

The average cost per rider was part of the presentation, looking at the ridership from 2022-2024. The cost varied, depending on the time of day, but averaged around the $2.00 mark per rider.

“If we were to try and collect this money from riders, it wouldn’t cover the cost of collecting and counting it,” said Copeland. “It could also be inhibiting to low-income riders, which over time could see our ridership numbers falling.”

A decrease in ridership could potentially result in a decrease in grant funding as well, which would put more funding back on the City of Cold Lake and its residents.

As of March 31, 2025, Cold Lake Transit has provided service to 1,361,959 riders since its start in August 2015.

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