City transit outlines updated bus routes for riders

By Lethbridge Herald on June 19, 2025.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

Updated transit routes aimed at improving connections to growing neighbourhoods in Lethbridge will come into effect on June 25.

And the $240,000 cost of the changes will have no impact on the transit department’s budget, which has experienced a surplus for the last two years so costs are being covered by a re-investment of that money, says Darwin Juell, general manager of Transit and Transportation.

The changes were announced Wednesday morning at the downtown Park ‘n Ride terminal as buses arrived and departed to various areas of the  city.

The handful of changes include one that will address issues in the Lakeview area.

Transit Innovation and Planning Manager Jeff Gillette says the changes will also affect on-demand routes.

“Specifically, we’re looking at modifications to Route 4,” says Gillette. “It’ll travel  through Lakeview along 20 Avenue South down to Southgate station.”

With the route change, the demand zone will also be altered with the boundary moving farther south. The 4 Orange will run on a 40-minute frequency seven days a week, bidirectionally from Crossings Station to Southgate Station, says Gillette.

According to the City, significant routing changes will happen through Lakeview and the 20 Avenue South areas with customers being advised to carefully review the new route. In addition, the northern boundary of the Southgate On-Demand Zone will be extended to 24 Avenue South.

Route 4 will run from 6 a.m. to midnight so “the customers should be a lot more happy with regular service in the Southgate area,” said Juell.

“The reason we’re doing that is to try to keep these buses more on  time which is exactly what customers want. A lot of the other changes are to create more reliable transit  service.”

On the westside, Route 51 Red Crow is being extended north along Metis Trail to reintroduce fixed-route service to Country Meadows.

The West Highlands on-demand zone is being redrawn to align with the new 51 Red Crow route.

West Highlands and Country Meadows will no longer have on-demand weekdays until  after 7 p.m., according to Gillette.

In other changes, 1 Gold will no longer be accessing West Highlands Station from Walsh Drive. Instead buses will turn left from University  Drive onto Garry Drive, right onto Highlands Boulevard and right again onto Highlands Road to reach the West Highlands station.

The 1 Gold and 2 Blue routes will have increased frequency Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. which is intended to improve performance and  address overcrowding.

Juell said peak hour buses are going to be put on Routes 1 and 2 because peak hours are getting busier and buses are falling behind.

The 60C Stafford Drive route is being extended north along 26 Avenue North with service ending at Sherring Station.

In another change, Route 62 going to Lethbridge Polytechnic – at that institution’s request – is being expanded to 10:15 p.m.

“We’re doing these little subtle changes to improve transit service,”  added Juell.

The City has seen “a dramatic increase in ridership over the past four  years,” says Gillette. Ridership before the COVID pandemic was about 2.1 million and last year there were just over two million riders, he said.

“During this time, we’ve modified the routes to better serve our customers. We’ve noticed a dramatic increase in ridership in the  Lakeview area.”

Gillette notes that there have been requests from the public for bi-directional service there.

Since CityLINK was launched in 2021, Lakeview has seen a dramatic increase in ridership, says Gillette, so it was decided ridership  levels required a fixed route solution.

“That’s what we’re trying to do is add fixed route service back into Lakeview.”

He recommends riders map out their routes in advance before the changes come into effect at Lethbridgetransit.ca.