Council greenlights Iqaluit shuttle bus service
Privately-run IQ Transit awaits livery licence approval from city’s administration department
IQ Transit’s bus sits parked after council voted in support of granting the service a livery licence. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
A proposed shuttle bus service in Iqaluit is one step closer to launching after city council approved its request for a livery licence.
IQ Transit, a venture announced last year by Nunavut Marketing owner Jacinto Marques, now awaits approval from city administration.
That review is set to take place over the next two weeks, said Geoff Byrne, the city’s economic development officer.
“Many residents, especially those with mobility challenges, have expressed interest in a transport solution that improves their access to essential services and activities,” said Steve Allen, Iqaluit’s chief municipal enforcement officer, during Tuesday’s council meeting.
“The application is supported by our department.”
Councillors echoed their support as well.
“I’m happy that there’s the potential of [an] alternate form of transportation for people to get around,” said Coun. Romeyn Stevenson, noting many residents rely on taxis as a form of public transportation.
IQ Transit is planning a 21-stop route, extending from the airport to Abe Okpik Community Hall in Apex, with stops across most of the city’s neighbourhoods and in front of landmarks such as NorthMart, Arctic Winter Games Arena and Qikiqtani General Hospital.
The entire route takes about 45 minutes to drive, Marques told city councillors.
In his livery licence application, fares are listed as $5 for riders ages 11 to 54, $4 for riders 55 and older, and free for kids 10 and under. IQ Transit also plans to sell monthly unlimited rides passes for $189.
Operating hours would be 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, and no service on Sundays. The bus will be wheelchair-accessible and have security staff on board.
Over the past few weeks, IQ Transit’s one bus has been parked in a lot near the CBC building. It was moved there after Noble House, where Nunavut Marketing was based, was destroyed by fire.
IQ Transit may acquire a second bus this summer, Marques said.
Steve England, Iqaluit’s chief administrative officer, told council the city will work with Marques to establish bus stop signage.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Marques thanked councillors for their support. He said he doesn’t have a launch date planned but expects to meet with city staff to finalize the licence details.
“I’m excited to give this service to the community,” Marques said.
“I think as this community’s growing, it’s going to benefit a lot of people in a lot of ways.”
I’d like a washroom on the bus plz.
lol
The security on board is an amazing idea, and not running the bus at night is a fantastic idea. Too much goes on after 8pm that would put many people at risk of getting to situations they did not ask to be in on a simple bus ride.
Hope this succeeds.
This is a much needed initiative and i do hope it is successful.
However, some simple math gives me cause for concern. 21 stops and 45 minutes allows for just over 2 minutes for each stop, unload, load and drive to the next stop. How’s that going to work during the morning, lunch and afternoon high-traffic periods, which, coincidentally, will also be the periods of highest demand for this service?
Seems to me that, instead of trying to design an implement a schedule, the owners would be better suited planning for some type of real-time location monitoring and an app that will let people know about how long they can expect to be waiting for a bus to arrive at their pick up location.
I agree that this is a nice idea. But math is not its friend.
Working for 13 hours a day on weekdays, doing 45 minute trips, means about 17 one-way trips, so let’s call it 8 round trips. With the bus making that many stops, It’s going to use about 100 litres of fuel in a day, at a cost of around $160, let’s say $100 on shorter scheduled Saturdays. So your fuel cost is about $900/week.
Then you’re going to employ a bus driver and a security guard for 75 hours per week each, 150 hours of labour. Let’s suggest the (very low) wage of $25/hour, that’s $3,750, plus employer-related costs brings it up to about $4,500 per week in labour.
Then you’ve got insurance and maintenance. That’s going to be a pretty big one, insurance will probably be $10,000/year for a commercial bus to be on the road 3800 hours per year. Wouldn’t surprise me if maintenance is also $10,000 for the year, possibly more considering the usage this poor bus will get on rough roads. So let’s add another $400/week for insurance and maintenance.
We’re now up to $5800 in expenses per week. $5 single rides and $43/week for monthly passes. What’s your mix of single fare and monthly pass riders? My suspicion would be more single-fares. Maybe around 3:1 ratio? What’s your ratio of Standard to Elder passes? Maybe 4:1 ratio? So average $4.80 fare. In a standard week, you’d need about 34 people paying for monthly passes and 904 single fare riders (about 150 per day: 30 Elders and 120 standard). Plus kids riding for free.
Just to break even. No profit. And that doesn’t include depreciation on the actual capital cost of the bus. If you want a sustainable business model, the bus will need to do double that amount of business.
Is it totally unrealistic? No, it’s not. But it’s hard to run a bus service with a single bus because people don’t like to wait knowing a single bus can easily get delayed by 20 minutes. And I’m ever a pessimist.
Wonderful memories of Iqaluit bus service in the 1970s and the hospitable services of driver Charlie Sagiaktuq (spelling?) who made us passengers feel welcome on his vehicle. A helpful man, he knew everybody and was full of stories and advice.
give it time and effort and hope it works out this time.