Bussing Program Successfully Concludes on Friday, December 22, 2017

As construction of the Sturgeon Refinery nears completion, the successful NWR off-site bussing program comes to an end. The bus ride home on Friday, December 22 is the final voyage for NWR’s bussing program.

Currently, there are 34 bus routes transporting workers to and from site for day shift, down significantly from peak construction which saw over 100 busses on day shift and 16 on night shift. With workforce numbers continuing to trend down, the ridership threshold has been reached.

The program was established in September 2014 to safely and efficiently transport thousands of employees to site from across the Capital Region. The program was highly successful, achieving a ridership of greater than 77% throughout its existence. This greatly reduced the number of passenger vehicles travelling to site every day, making area highways safer and alleviating the challenge of traffic congestion. In addition, it eliminated the emissions that would have come from each of those passenger vehicles.

All totaled, the kilometres logged by the busses equal over 350 trips around the earth – that’s one per day for nearly a year. The number of passengers during the program is the equivalent of transporting the entire Capital Region to site and back.

With the program concluding, construction and operations employees will now travel by passenger vehicle. Carpooling is encouraged. It is likely there will be a noticeable increase in traffic in early January after the holiday break. As such, NWR continues to contribute funding along with several other industrial companies to enhanced enforcement by RCMP. Enhanced policing on local highways will help ensure driver safety. As workforce numbers continue to trend down, traffic volumes will decrease throughout February and March.

We’d like to thank all employees and contractors for utilizing the bussing program, the community for sharing the road with our busses, and Diversified for their safe and professional service for the past several years.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact:

Vanessa Goodman
Manager, External Relations
vgoodman@nwrpartnership.com
P: 587.469.6325
C: 780.231.9802

Dated: December 20, 2017