Business View Magazine | August 2020

141 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 CKTRANS I T our Chatham conventional service ends at 7:15 PM, which isn’t sufficient for a lot of the employment opportunities and even some of our college classes. Our issue is that, with a relatively lower ridership, it’s very expensive to simply extend our services into those hours. So, we’re experimenting with a demand-responsive, conventional service. We call it CKTransit On Request. It was launched a couple of months ago and it operates between 7:15 PM to 12:30 AM. Instead of a fixed-route service, if you require a ride, you can book it via a mobile application or by a phone call. A bus will come directly to your bus stop and take you, as directly as possible, to the bus stop closest to your destination, while adds. “We’re also looking, and should be going live very soon, for online loading of fare media onto our SmartCards, so you can load from a computer, a smart phone, or device. Those are the things that are also helping us through COVID-19 – the fact that we don’t have to use as much change.” Concurrently, CKTransit is always looking for ways in which to meet the changing needs of its riders. This past March, for example, it launched the CKTransit On Request pilot program. Clark elucidates: “One of the ongoing requests from our ridership is the extension of service hours into the evening. Right now, Pictured: Chris Thibert; Manager, Ann-Marie Millson; Jan Metcalf; Project Manager, Ian Clark