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ETS Bus and General Transit Improvements

Some interesting data from the ETS presentation to Council later this week. Still find it cool that with the switch to Arc pay to go; Edmonton has one of the lowest fares now among the Big Six.

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So one way to really annoy passengers is what a Valley Line driver did this evening of the 3rd of March. A two-car train arrived at the 102nd Street Station after the hockey game at Rogers Place was completed. First of all the train stopped on the southeast bound platform and indicated to all the passengers waiting on the platform that the train was out of service. Now that part was a little annoying but the next part was even more so annoying. As this two car train was sitting on the southbound platform a one car train showed up on the Northbound platform which required everybody that was waiting to change platforms around this other train that had showed up in front of all the passengers waiting. Furthermore when the passengers were crossing the tracks to get to the train that was still in service the driver of the two car train honked her horn at the passengers trying to go to the train on the other platform as if it was an inconvenience for the driver to wait a few seconds. What really surprised me was the fact that just about every time I have seen a train arrive at the 102nd Street Station and is about to go out of service it will usually park on the westbound platform because most people waiting are always waiting on dit South East bound platform.
The other additional part that really didn't make much sense to me is that as we all know the garage for the train is past the Davies station. By the time that the one car train was headed southbound we were already fairly full and had yet to even pick up passengers at Churchill station where the entire train became standing room only.
 
EdwardEdm said:
I don't get why they wouldn't include LRT "stops". TTC's Finch West "stations" are pretty much the same as our VLSE "stops".
Calgary also has many more than just 483 buses. They have over 1100 buses.
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A more trivial detail, but the KM of track does not track (😛) with the Wikipedia figures either, but you have to buy the CUTA report the presentation is citing so idk who to believe.
 
Although it seems not as good expense control, which seems to be an ongoing general problem with the city's management. However, now that the election is over perhaps everyone can focus more on this.
 
David A said:
Although it seems not as good expense control, which seems to be an ongoing general problem with the city's management. However, now that the election is over perhaps everyone can focus more on this.
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There's a very good chance at least some of the increase in expenses is tariff and inflation related, as well as increasing expenses for a rapidly aging vehicle fleet. With LRV's approaching 50 years old, and buses approaching 24 years old. The buses in particular don't have a good outlook for replacement vehicles.
It's worth noting that from the Capital Budget Update that @CplKlinger posted, inflation/ tariffs seems to have ate into replacement bus funding for the 2025 budget year, with 2026 delivery. Originally planned funding was for 6 buses, and the fall 2024 SCBA added one time funding for about 40 buses. We're getting 41, so extra costs have seemingly reduced the purchase by 5 buses. There are also 4 DATS buses.
2026 funding for 2027 delivery is 5 replacement buses and 25 growth buses.
2027 funding will be a new capital budget, but the first buses probably won't arrive until 2028, which will mean somewhere around 22 buses could see 25 years of service. This is pretty remarkable in the low floor bus era.
 
Good points. Not sure how much they contribute, but the tariffs would have may been unexpected when the budget was made.

While repairs should have been reasonably budgeted for, of course unexpected things can come up, which could have a bigger impact with an older fleet.
 
AntonK said:
Leaving off the LRT stops was bullshit, they are still a station.
Also from a bus standpoint, Edmonton is doing quite well with only slightly less busses than Calgary even though as a municipality they are about 30% larger.
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We also seem to be doing well in comparison to other similar sized cities like Ottawa.
 
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