The Town of Bracebridge will be renewing its transit contract for another five years.
HammondBus.com, formerly Hammond Transportation, has been the provider for Bracebridge Transit since 2017 and in 2018 picked up the contract for Bracebridge Mobility, the town’s accessible transit service. On Tuesday, General Committee voted to renew those contracts until August of 2028.
Geoff Carleton, the town’s Director of Public Works, said ridership numbers have yet to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, but are still steadily increasing. According to a staff report, ridership increased between 2018 and 2019 by 30 per cent for Bracebridge Transit and 46 per cent for Bracebridge Mobility.
Carleton added staff is looking at changing up and adding routes, to better service businesses and services such as the Manna Food Bank.
“We’re also looking at routing,” said Carleton. “There are some underutilized stops already currently within the network. And by looking at that, we can kind of reconfigure and rejig key timeframes for everyone, so it’s a reliable timed service.”
The first year of the new contract is expected to cost the town $541,140, with about 11.5 per cent coming from transit fares, and another 28.5 per cent coming from other sources. The contract will need to be ratified by council at next week’s meeting.
