For Calgary Transit, improved service literally means the problem of being able to afford more rubber to meet the road.

That was the theme as councillors peppered transit officials with questions during the 2026 budget deliberations on Nov. 28.

It’s the fifth day of budget conversations, which kicked off with a little more than two days of public submissions. The past three days have involved questions of different business units at the City of Calgary.

It was transportation and transit’s turn in the hotseat, and overall, Calgary Transit said that it’s seen one of the fastest post-COVID ridership recovery rates in North America. Demand is still rising, according to Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming.

“I feel like we’re at a point where we have a lot of demand, pent-up demand for more, but we don’t have the tools in which to expand the way people would like us to,” she told councillors.

Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule asked about fixing the increased demand based on ridership, particularly on the Max Green (formerly Route 301), which sees 10,000 riders daily – including many overloaded buses.

Director Fleming said that there’s a risk in chasing more ridership on those routes, particularly at the expense of providing service to other Calgarians.

“If we continue to pour… transportation dollars into the same corridors, we’re going to see more riders because they’re getting the fast and frequent service that people want, and at the expense of other neighbourhoods who haven’t had a chance to receive that fast and frequent network,” she said.

 “That’s the tension we have without investment. We’re torn between base service for Calgarians and communities that are underserved and more service in communities that are very well served.”

The proposed total operating budget for Calgary Transit $577 million for 2026, which includes a net operating cost of $417 million, with roughly $180 million in revenue, $25 million in one-time costs (low-income transit pass additional cost), and other minor costs.

Calgary also approved its Route Ahead plan, which would see increased frequency on a primary transit network. That means service every 10 minutes, 15 hours a day, seven days a week. Calgary city council heard in 2023 that capital costs alone to implement Route Ahead would be more than $750 million over the next 10 years.

Additional spending required to grow: Director Fleming

As the budget stands, there’s no additional funding for an increase in base service, according to Fleming. This is the lowest level of service expansion to new and different parts of the city.

The proposed budget does include $14 million for further Route Ahead implementation.

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson asked about the lowered operating cost of Calgary Transit per capita, compared to what was projected by Calgary Transit.

The target operating cost per passenger is $6.06 per passenger trip, according to the budget. In both 2023 and 2024 it was $4.89.  Director Fleming said the $6.06 was set in the middle of Covid when ridership was down, but costs remained.

“Our operating cost per trip is down. That’s mostly because of the increased return of ridership since Covid,” she said.  

“We’re also seeing more demand in some key areas. A lot of people moving into the city have high expectations of how they’re going to use transit, and it’s showing up in these numbers.”

Calgary Transit’s on-time performance, however, has dropped. In 2022, it was 87.7 per cent, then dropping to 84.4 per cent in 2024. The target is 90 per cent in 2026.

“Our on-time performance actually is decreasing, and part of the reason for that is the increase in traffic. As we moved out of Covid, we have more utilization of our main corridors from regular car drivers, and that slows down the buses,” Fleming said.

“We’re doing our best to adjust our schedules so that we don’t see that number dip.”

In terms of transit hours per capita, Fleming said that they’re trying to squeeze every bit of efficiency out of the funding that’s available. She noted that bus purchases have a two-year lead time and they’re only now starting to see the benefit of capital investments (buses) that were started in 2022-23.

Atkinson asked about the cost to get the current system up to maximum capacity. Fleming said it would take $5 million extra to increase base service, and $1 million more for the primary transit network to use the existing fleet of vehicles at maximum capacity.

“We are doing our best with the dollars that we do have to provide the service we are,” Fleming said.