Record number of visitors using transit to get to, travel around Banff

An On-It Regional Transit bus is shown. (Banff Lake Louise Tourism)

A record-breaking number of visitors to Banff National Park opted to use regional transit to get to the mountain community this summer.

Anticipating that visitation to Banff National Park would return to pre-pandemic levels, the tourism bureau for Banff and Lake Louise started campaigning for visitors to use the On-It Regional Transit service instead of driving back in May.

On Wednesday, officials revealed ridership on Roam Public Transit’s Route 1, the town’s top tourist transit route, was up 18 per cent this past summer compared with 2019.

In addition, officials say "many more" visitors parked at the train station and took transit, walked or cycled to destinations in the community.

"All this helped to reduce traffic, with Lake Louise shuttles seeing nearly 600,000 rides and Roam with over 1.3 million rides," said a news release.

"Roam Public Transit also had the most number of people reserve ahead for the convenient routes from the town of Banff to Johnston Canyon and Lake Louise, versus previous years."

Nancy DaDalt, the director of visitor experience for Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, says the results of the campaign are encouraging, and will help reduce both the environmental impact of vehicles and area congestion.

“Not only are these greener travel options that help protect our wildlife, but they are also great ways to explore this incredible place," she said.

"With visitation to the park exceeding four million people, using finite roads and parking, transit is the way of the future to get to Banff and to visit all the destinations in the park," added Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno.

The campaign was a partnership between Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, the Town of Banff, Parks Canada, Roam and On-It. It included advertising and a contest encouraging Albertans to share photos of Roam buses "in the wild."