City to take added precautions while maintaining public transit

By Kalinowski, Tim on March 17, 2020.

Transit buses arrive at the downtown terminal as the City announced Monday it will be maintaining public transit while taking added precautions against the COVID-19 pandemic. Herald photo by Ian Martens @IMartensHerald

Lethbridge Herald

The City of Lethbridge will be maintaining public transit while taking added precautions against the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Enhanced cleaning measures, announced on Monday, will be in place to protect riders and City employees. This includes additional staff deployed to the downtown Park ‘n’ Ride terminal to clean touched surfaces throughout the day. All transit staff have also been briefed on the importance of their own hand hygiene and social distancing practices to help limit any possible transmission.

“As part of regular cleaning practices, the transit fleet is disinfected regularly using the Noco Spray process,” the City states. “This is the same fogging procedure used by Fire and Emergency Service to ensure all vehicles are disinfected and as free of contagious pathogens as possible. This system is very effective and was developed with the support of research undertaken at the University of Lethbridge. Transit began using Noco in September and each bus has been treated several times. Staff will continue this practice along with enhanced nightly cleaning of touched surfaces to ensure the fleet is as clean as possible.”

The City says riders also must take responsibility for their own health, and that of others by staying home if experiencing flu or cold symptoms, and practising social distancing as much as possible while using transit services.

More information on the recommendations from the Government of Alberta is available at http://www.alberta.ca/coronavirus. Updates on the City of Lethbridge response to COVID-19 can be found at http://www.lethbridge.ca/covid19. Residents are encouraged to visit these sites regularly for the most recent developments.

Meanwhile, with lower-than-typical rider volumes, Lethbridge Transit will move to 30 minutes service on Route 12 as of today and until further notice. The move mirrors the City’s summer service hours in operation while post-secondary institutions are no longer in full session.

The change will help provide more capacity for Transit while still meeting the needs of the community.

Route 12 typically provides service every 15 minutes to accommodate peak morning and afternoon passenger volumes weekdays from 6:45-9:30 a.m. and from 3:45-6:15 p.m.

Further information on Lethbridge Transit routes and schedules is available at: http://www.lethbridge.ca/transit.

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