As T3 Transit prepares to tweak some routes, company is missing former international riders

Ryan McKellop · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 14, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

A caller survey shows sentiment about taking the autobus successful the greater Charlottetown area has dropped successful the past 5 years, though a Stratford authoritative says the request is expanding successful that P.E.I. municipality for T3 routes that easy link to others.

Jeremy Pierce is the manager of recreation, civilization and events and the lawman CAO for the Town of Stratford, which is serviced by T3 Transit on with Charlottetown and Cornwall. He said this is an accidental for the privately operated and publically funded system to grow.

"People ... privation to spot much opportunities to determination astir wrong Stratford, but besides person a quicker time, quicker entree routes, to get to larger centres similar Charlottetown," helium said.

One imaginable crushed helium cited for the nonaccomplishment successful ridership momentum: changes to Canada's migration system.

"The flimsy downtick, we believe, has to bash with immoderate of the migration changes. We've seen a alteration successful the fig of visitors utilizing the transit strategy to spell to acquisition institutions similar Holland College and UPEI," Pierce said.

"They've seen downturn successful presumption of full migration successful the province... That was astir apt 1 of our larger demographics utilizing the transit system."

Mike Cassidy, the contracted relation of T3 Transit, said they are seeing ridership numbers commencement to flatten out, and adjacent dip beneath past year's level on Stratford routes. He agrees that the migration changes mightiness beryllium to blame.

For the archetypal fractional of 2025, for example, Cassidy said, wide ridership is "rather flat — we are witnessing roughly one to 2 to 3 per cent maturation compared to the archetypal six months of 2024." 

In contrast, during the archetypal six months of the years 2022 and 2023, "when we were coming retired of COVID, we were experiencing adjacent to 15 to 25 per cent growth, play implicit period, truthful we person seen a saturation successful the ridership this twelvemonth compared to past year." 

Cassidy said T3's drivers person told him they tin spot colonisation dynamics affecting ridership numbers each day, fixed that the system's tiny size lets them get to cognize a batch of their regular passengers.

"We [had] students from Holland College. We cognize that they were billeted successful Stratford, close determination connected Heron and Rankin; we picked them up each morning. There was six of them. Guess what? They're gone," helium said.

"We cognize we are losing people." 

Cassidy said immoderate of these passengers near "Thank you truthful overmuch for being my autobus driver" notes for T3 unit arsenic they near connected their travel to question imperishable nonmigratory (PR) presumption successful Canada.

"They archer the driver, 'Look, we person to determination away, we person to spell backmost home, we can't get our PR card, we person to go... [to] another state successful Canada' to effort to get their PR," helium said. 

Cassidy said this is besides the lawsuit for different transit systems, specified arsenic in Moncton. 

More Stratford-centric routes

In presumption of trying to turn ridership among the radical who person not left, Pierce said redrawing immoderate routes could beingness easier wrong communities similar Stratford.

"A batch of the respondents that we talked to implicit the past fewer years felt that it was precise hard strategy to navigate," helium said.

"A batch of times a idiosyncratic that was picked up astatine location would person to question into Charlottetown earlier getting to a destination similar Sobeys to bash their shopping, and astatine the aforesaid time, erstwhile they return, they could beryllium entering Charlottetown earlier returning backmost to their home.

"A caller Stratford-centric exemplary would person routes wrong the assemblage first, and past besides let radical to question backmost and distant to Charlottetown."

Pierce said T3 Transit has been listening and immoderate caller routes should beryllium launching this September, oregon October astatine the latest.

"We're excited for it. It's been immoderate clip since we've made immoderate large changes to the routing system, truthful we recognize that determination whitethorn beryllium immoderate aboriginal hiccups," helium said.

"But we expect successful the agelong tally we volition beryllium capable to marque the archetypal changes and aboriginal changes to... have transit go portion of the norm successful our community."