The Town of Olds hopes some funding from the feds eventually helps its residents go places.
CAO Brent Williams notes that the federal government announced the successful recipients of the Rural Transit Solutions Fund grants this week (Monday, September 22nd). According to Williams, Olds had applied for it a little over a year ago and they have received $50,000 to conduct a needs assessment and feasibility analysis for expanding transit options in Town. Williams says “as you probably have noticed we have quite a large increase in our purpose built rental construction happening right now. We expect to bring on 150 to 200 units in the next 24 months. So this transit study aligns with the housing strategy that council passed earlier in 2025 that speaks to as our population grows and our commercial base expands, the need for transit options will increase and this study will help us, not necessarily implement new transit solutions tomorrow but as our population grows give us options and give council options of what their options are for transit expansion.”
He points out that they biggest thing in Olds is obviously the college, but given the decrease in international students this fall, the need is not as acute as it was in the last several years. Williams says “Olds has also traditionally been not just a hub for students, but also for seniors and for our general commercial hubs. So we have seen a large increase consistently in our Sunshine Bus – which is our accessible transit for seniors program – and we think as the population grows and our commercial businesses expand there will be further demand in other demographics and sectors of the society.”
Williams says the Town has hired Dylan Consulting to do the study with a planned early-November kick of for it. He suspects that the transit study will be ready for presentation by May of 2026.
