City seeks members for new transit committee

By Lethbridge Herald on August 27, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

The City of Lethbridge is inviting members of the community to join the Transit Advisory Committee to help them shape the future of public transit.

Darwin Juell, general manager of Transit and Transportation, says applications are now open for the Transit Advisory Committee (TAC). It will bring back a similar committee that existed from 2016 to 2021, but was dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic 

“We want to resurrect the Transit Advisory Committee to get feedback on our current transit,” says Juell. “There are two different committees of up to 12 members, and we want to have representation from different demographic groups, different mobility groups.”

The two groups will be divided into one for fixed route service and one for Access-A-Ride service. There are 12 public advisory positions open in each group, for a total of 24 committee members.

Juell says those interested in joining the TAC would ideally be familiar with transit to be able to provide feedback about what is going well with transit and what needs to be improved. 

The committee will meet quarterly with City representatives to contribute new ideas and recommend ways to improve public transit in Lethbridge. It primarily serves to promote communication, collaboration and transparency between fixed route and Access-A-Ride customers and Lethbridge Transit.

“This committee should be able to help us out within our operating budget giving us some tips on how we can improve transit even further,” said Juell. 

Residents can pick up an application at the Downtown Park ‘n Ride or they can fill one online at lethbridge.ca/transit. Applications close Sept. 30. 

“We want to learn from the public what their specific interests are, what groups they want to represent on the application form,” said Juell. 

He said one of the reasons for resurrecting the TAC is to tackle the increase in ridership and the pressure that has put on the buses. 

“We’ve now added peak hour busing for morning in number one and number two. And in September for university start there will be a peak afternoon bus for the number two going to the university down to Southgate,” says Juell. 

The City added the peak buses to accommodate the increased ridership within the current operating budget. 

“We also want to hear from the public on where else we can improve, where the service might not be as frequent as they would like, or maybe the buses only run until 7 p.m. and they want to keep it longer. That’s one of the university’s requests to us,” says Juell. 

He adds that the Access-A-Ride service is at capacity, and they are doing the best they can to accommodate the needs of the general public with mobility issues. 

“Also, our dialysis unit at the hospital we are also constrained by our operating budget so we are hearing from the public on how we can improve that service. Maybe it’s different buses at different times a day.”