St. Albert now offers transit service on holidays but it won't be operating buses on Easter Sunday.
Easter is one holiday that was left off the schedule of a new pilot program that started this year. Easter is a holiday that traditionally brings low demand for bus service, said Dawn Fedorvich, co-ordinator of customer service for St. Albert Transit.
"Eventually we would like to have some sort of service on all the holidays but there's not as much demand for the Easters and the Christmas days," she said.
St. Albert Transit did not provide service on Good Friday either. On Monday, it will offer its modified Saturday service, which includes three routes into downtown Edmonton, as well as a route to the University of Alberta and one to West Edmonton Mall.
Service will begin early in the morning but will run every half hour rather than 15 minutes during peak times.
"We've tried to make it as convenient as possible for those that do have to work a regular business day," Fedorvich said.
City council endorsed holiday transit service by approving $11,500 in funding during the 2011 budget process last December. The funding allows St. Albert Transit to offer service on the year's three busiest holidays, which are Family Day, the August civic holiday and Remembrance Day.
Holiday service has been transit's top priority since a 2008 survey revealed it as the top wish of transit users. The immediate goal is to do well with the pilot and further expand service in the future.
"Edmonton offers at least limited service on every day of the year so eventually we probably will too," Fedorvich said.
Ridership low so far
The transit service has one holiday under its belt: Family Day in February.
That day saw 183 people ride transit, for a rate of seven per hour.
"The minimum we would like to see is 10 rides an hour but it was the first holiday and we're trying to build that," said transit director Bob McDonald. "We're a little less than we'd like to be but it's a good start."
