Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

Last time I checked there was a fare box right at the front of the bus or a place to tap the payment card, so payment seems to be a big thing for ETS too.

With that payment comes some expectations of service. Of course there is a need for fares to cover a significant portion of the cost, because taxpayers who are not transit users are understandably not so keen about covering the whole cost of it. So while transit is not entirely covered by customer payments, it is definitely a part of the model.

I don't think the people who run the system are always mindful of the fact people who use it do pay, so if service is not good they put that portion of their budget towards other transportation options.
 
Last time I checked as well there was also an extreme cold weather alert with drivers allowed to exercise discretion for boarding passengers. Imagine that at an airline!

It's very simple, running a public transit service means less of an emphasis on quality, because the operational mandate is based on essential need. If there is enough usage that the organisation approaches competitiveness, great. That doesn't always happen, especially not in NA.

This often is ignored or misunderstood by the paying public who only understands the concept of 'customer is king'. Such is the culture of capitalist NA.
 
Oh, nobody really expects the customer is king any more. But in a free country, you can't force people who pay to use transit, or any other particular transportation service.

The extreme cold weather has affected service with many forms of transportation and discretion is exactly that, but essential need is not a good argument for poor or mediocre service.
 
Foolworm said:
ETS does not have a customer service mentality, they have a passenger service mentality. This is because ETS is not a business run for profit.
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Agreed

They do have recovery ratios in terms of fare revenue, but it does seem the current approach is based on this being a social service for the poor, not transportation for the masses. Besides revealing a disrespectful attitude towards lower income people, this approach also has the effect of making transit worse for everyone, including low income persons.
 
Valley Line West: Bridge Girder Installation over Anthony Henday Drive​

January 17, 2024

News media are invited to join Brad Baumle, Construction Manager, Marigold Infrastructure Partners, for details about the upcoming installation of bridge girders over Anthony Henday Drive for the new Valley Line West LRT bridge.

Date: Thursday, January 18
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Media Room, Main floor, City Hall

Please RSVP to Sheila Keenan at sheila.keenan@edmonton.ca. News media will have the opportunity to ask questions.​

For more information:
Construction Bulletin
edmonton.ca/valleylinewest

Media contact:
Sheila Keenan
Communications Advisor
Integrated Infrastructure Services
780-886-6415​
 
MacLac said:
Is that a lot? 5,000/day is too much or too little?
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If you listened to the interview ETS is happy about the daily ridership - it was what they hoped for. If it stays at that level around 135,000 plus they will be well on target and increase frequency. Currently the train frequency is at Level 8 but they are increasing it next month towards a "train" in rush hour every 5 minutes. Whether that means 1, 2 3 or 4 or 5 cars was not discussed. Someone more knowledgeable will hopefully chime in and flesh that out in more detail.
 
EdmTrekker said:
If you listened to the interview ETS is happy about the daily ridership - it was what they hoped for. If it stays at that level around 135,000 plus they will be well on target and increase frequency. Currently the train frequency is at Level 8 but they are increasing it next month towards a "train" in rush hour every 5 minutes. Whether that means 1, 2 3 or 4 or 5 cars was not discussed. Someone more knowledgeable will hopefully chime in and flesh that out in more detail.
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What is the passenger threshold to go from 8 to 9 in the P3 contract? That should tell you the current ridership.
 
EdmTrekker said:
The Report you reference does not break down by LRT Line on the last page of the PDF. It states at end of 3rd Qtr 2023 total LRT weekday ridership is 73,100 which excludes the new Valley line.
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Yup that's correct, my point was that the current LRT service including Metro and Capital Lines had a ridership lower than 135,000 according to the APTA report which makes me think the figures given for the Valley line were monthly ridership numbers. It's possible the current actual ridership is higher since much of Q3 has lower student ridership, but the Q1 report shows 76,500 and Q2 shows 77,200 so I doubt it is much higher. I just said the Capital Line since that's where the bulk of the current ridership lies, apologies if that was confusing.
 
EdmTrekker said:
The Report you reference does not break down by LRT Line on the last page of the PDF. It states at end of 3rd Qtr 2023 total LRT weekday ridership is 73,100 which excludes the new Valley line.
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That seems quite low still compared to the pre-pandemic ridership which was consistently north of 100,000 iirc.

Fwiw the LRT between Stadium and Churchill looked packed this morning around 9 AM as I was biking along the shared use path, so I reckon 2024 numbers will be much higher than last year's for the Capital Line alone.
 
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