Columbia’s city council will discuss possible expansion of the city’s GoCOMO bus system at their pre-council meeting Monday evening.
The council meets at 5 pm at city hall and will be discussing a 36-page report, including staffing needs and demographics. Tonight’s report will note that Columbia’s population has more than doubled in the past 30 years, from 60,000 to more than 125,000 residents. The report also notes that 26 percent of Columbia households have either one or zero vehicles, and that more than 11 percent of Columbia’s population is disabled.
The report says GoCOMO’s ridership last year was just under 500,000.
Residents who filled out a recent survey want to see buses run more frequently on existing routes, and they would like to see more service added for nights and on weekends. Columbia officials say recruitment and retention of staff is a high priority, especially hiring and retaining high-performing employees. One possible recommendation that will be mentioned this evening is doing weekday night service until 10:25 pm and also running the buses on Saturdays until 10:25 pm.
Columbia Public Works spokesman John Ogan tells 939 the Eagle that having 45 bus operators would be considered fully-staffed. Mr. Ogan says they currently have 31 full-time and three part-time bus operators who are ready to drive.
