The Calgary Regional Partnership will be making the daily commute easier for Foothills residents.

A two year pilot project will see a transit system called the On-It Calgary Regional Transit Service cater to Nanton, High River, Black Diamond, Turner Valley, and Okotoks.

The service will bring residents north to the Somerset Bridlewood LRT station in Calgary every morning with return trips in the evening.

Dawn Smith, sustainability coordinator with the Town of Okotoks, says this project creates potential for business opportunities.

"This program could also bring people from Calgary to employment in Okotoks and to the other communities as part of the pilot," she says. "We want to build a lot more professional jobs here so getting people coming from Calgary is key. Employment movement between Black Diamond, Turner Valley, High River and Nanton to Okotoks is also quite critical because a lot of people in those communities also work in Okotoks."

The CRP received the thumbs up from it's member municipalities last week giving the project approval to move forward. Next, each of the projects participating individual town councils will go back and vote to pass the initiative this fall.

Smith says the transit system won't gouge residents wallets due to money committed from the partnership.

"Half a million dollars has been committed each year for 2016 and 2017 to help cover the operational costs with fare recovery," she says. "The $500,000 covers the rest of the cost because obviously when you grow a transit service uptake isn't always huge in the beginning, it takes quite a few years to grow ridership."

Smith adds ideally by year three there would be full ridership numbers allowing for a majority of operating costs to be covered through fare recovery, which she says would be kept affordable for residents.

The CRP will host open houses to gather feedback from residents this fall.

The On-It Calgary Regional Transit Service will launch in September 2016.

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