Halifax Transit fails to meet on-time goal for fourth year in a row

A Halifax Transit bus is pictured in this file photo. (CTV Atlantic)

For the fourth year in a row, Halifax Transit has failed to meet its goal for routes to arrive at stops on time.

The 2024-2025 year-end performance measures report, which will be presented to the Transportation Standing Committee on Thursday, said the on-time performance measures the reliability of routes. Terminals and bus stops have assigned schedule arrival times, and on-time performance shows the percentage of arrivals that are not more than three minutes later than scheduled.

The on-time performance goal is 85 per cent and in 2024-2025, Halifax Transit hit 71 per cent. It continues a downward trend in the company’s efforts to reach the goal, as it reached 73 per cent in 2023-2024, 79 per cent in 2022-2023 and 84 per cent in 2021-2022.

Halifax Transit outdid its on-time goal in 2020-2021, reaching 88 per cent.

Breaking down the numbers, Halifax Transit failed to reach its 85 per cent target across all quarters of 2024-2025. It hit 72 per cent in the first quarter, 70 per cent in the second quarter, 68 per cent in the third quarter and 75 per cent in the fourth quarter.

Ridership

The report notes Halifax Transit buses had 30.4 million boardings in 2024-2025, which was a seven per cent increase over the previous year and the highest number for years going back to 2018-2019. Those boardings brought in $33.8 million in revenue.

The ferry saw 1.7 million boardings in 2024-2025, which was an 11 per cent increase over the previous year. The boardings generated $2.8 million.

Overall, Halifax Transit made $36.8 million in 2024-2025, which is more than $2 million more than the previous year.

Accessibility

In the last year, 74 bus stops have undergone infrastructure changes or improvements, and five shelters were installed at new locations. Eleven new stops were installed, all of which are deemed to be accessible.

Currently, 72 per cent of Halifax Transit bus stops are accessible, while five per cent do not have ramps.

Feedback

The Halifax Regional Municipality is asking residents to share feedback on a new transit plan. It’s specifically looking for input on:

• bus routes that need more frequent service
• travel habits of residents
• new and modified routes to support the growing municipality

The feedback will help shape the Core Service Plan, which will launch this year.

The survey is open until Sept. 28.

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