Is the cost of running public transit in Revelstoke worth it?
That’s the question that was raised after the annual report on the service was presented to council on Tuesday.
“It is distressing to see the cost per ridership going up over the last year,” said councillor Linda Nixon. “It needs to be a top priority for a new council to address.”
Ridership was down but revenue was up on Revelstoke transit for the 2013-14 fiscal year, according to the report, but only 10.5 per cent of costs were recovered and $21.03 was spent for each trip taken, up from $17.61 the previous year.
Coun. Chris Johnston called the increase in cost per ride “distressing.”
“Sometimes to have public transit you have to pay a whole lot per ride, but it seems to me there’s got to be something that can be done in terms of the model of how the service is provided to make it work a bit better,” he said. “Hopefully it is something that can be addressed. It’s a lot of money for I’m not sure how much service.”
21,523 trips were taken on Revelstoke buses last year, down from 22,262 the previous year. Despite the decreases, $47,599 was collected in revenue, up from $45,877 the previous year.
The cost of running the buses was $589,502 last year — up from $430,052 the year before.