Calgary Transit ridership down 5% from last year

The number of people taking Calgary transit is down five per cent over last year, with city officials blaming the economic downturn.

Transportation manager Mac Logan says much of the decrease is due to fewer people riding trains or buses to get downtown to work.

"What we have witnessed so far...is a decrease in adults, significant decrease in adult ridership," he said while addressing city council on Monday.

"We actually have a slight increase in youth ridership, about the same on our U-Pass program all the post-secondary institutions and seniors' ridership is off very slightly."

No service disruptions

Logan said no major service changes are planned as a result of the decrease.

"We have not decreased service other than some very selective pulling of buses on individual routes where maybe we have 10 buses an hour and we don't have enough ridership, so we've pulled back to eight," he said.

"But we have not cut routes, we have not cut hours of service."

Transit fees are frozen this year, after council voted to provide relief amidst the downturn.