There was good news and bad news from Saskatoon Transit at the virtual online Transit Committee meeting.
The good news is the annual Transit report indicates ridership and rides per capita were up in 2019, compared to the previous 3 years.
The bad news was that the University of Saskatchewan closed because of the pandemic and so asked Transit to move its hub off campus.
McDonald says they were told last Tuesday that it needed to be done by Thursday.
For now, the buses are stopping on College Drive, but they are looking for something more appropriate until the pandemic is over and everything is open again.

More detail from the 2019 annual report:
There were more than 13-million riders over the year, with over 1.1-million customers every month.
Transit Director James McDonald says even though there weren’t any big changes to routing or scheduling, there was a 2.5 per cent increase in ridership.
He expects it’s a carry over from the service changes between 2016 and 2018, where frequency was increased on the most popular routes.
The operating budget for conventional and Access Transit was $49.1-million, but both came in under budget for a surplus of $450-thousand.

Another topic at the meeting was possible changes to the walkway policy.
A report to the committee stated that 80 requests for walkway closures have been received since 2004.
Of those, 42 are now closed and the rest didn’t proceed for reasons that include a lack of community support, a lack of support from an adjacent resident, or the walkway is a primary route to a school or park.
Director of Transportation, Jay Magus, says the estimate for a final report with recommendations is next April.
The reason it will take so long is because it doesn’t just involve transportation.
It also include police involvement, roadways, graffiti removal teams and then engaging the public.
Plus it’s an election year so there will be fewer opportunities for meetings in the fall.
Magus says if they can get it done sooner, they will bring it forward before next spring.