The River Route saw a decline in use in January.
The Town of Prescott, one of the four municipalities helping to organize the bus route for its six-month pilot program, has released a report detailing its ridership since it began in August. After three months of more than 240 riders each, only 128 people rode the bus route from January 1st to 28th, according to the report.
The Town says the pandemic was the main reason for the drop in riders. “The Omicron COVID variant and subsequent provincial restrictions caused a substantial decrease in the daily ridership,” the report says. “This has started to recover at the end of January with an average of 10.2 rides per day for the week of January 24th to 28th.”
According to the report, nearly half of the route’s riders are picked up or dropped off within Prescott. Edwardsburgh-Cardinal is the next most common, followed by Augusta.
According to the report, its findings will be discussed at Monday night’s council meeting, and a final decision on whether to make the bus route permanent or not is expected to be made at the following meeting on February 22nd.
