ETS Bus and General Transit Improvements

[IanO]

What appears to be black duct tape. 'Good enough'.

 

[Gronk!]

On the agenda: Community revitalization levy, violence prevention, transit priority

This week, council committees will meet to debate whether to extend the community revitalization levies in downtown and the Quarters, hear about the city's new plan to prevent violence, and discuss more locations for transit priority measures.

edmonton.taproot.news

• City staff have developed a metric to calculate transit passenger delay hours, which measures both ridership and traffic congestion delays to identify routes that could benefit from transit priority measures. The new locations identified by the metric include 114 Street NW between Belgravia Road NW and 87 Avenue NW, 107 Avenue NW between 120 Street NW and 156 Street NW, 124 Street NW between 107 Avenue NW and Jasper Avenue NW, and the area around Clareview Transit Centre. The routes are outlined in a report scheduled to be presented to council’s urban planning committee on March 4. In other areas, the city is already implementing such measures, like dedicated bus lanes, queue jumps, and intersection modifications, but there is no funding available to address the newly identified routes. Administration said it will develop a program to identify locations that need transit priority measures and funding.

 

[constance_chlore]

Edmonton set to increase bus service hours in April as transit demand rises​

Edmonton set to increase bus service hours in April as transit demand rises

With a record number of people using public transportation in the city last year, Edmonton Transit is adjusting routes to optimize them and provide more service.

www.ctvnews.ca

With a record number of people using public transportation in the city last year, Edmonton Transit is adjusting routes to optimize them and provide more service.

Among the service increases: The Glenridding Ravine and Keswick neighbourhoods will be served by a new regular bus route, replacing in-demand service, and the popular Route 747 service between Century Park and the international airport will see increased bus frequency. [...]

Hotton-MacDonald told CTV News Edmonton at a transit open house held at city hall one challenge her department faces is getting enough buses on the road to meet demand.

ETS delivers 2.2-million service hours each year and has a gap of 247,000 such hours, she said.

“It works out to be about 99 more busses and that could meet our minimum standards for service,” Hotton-MacDonald said, adding ETS is looking to access funding via the federal Canada Public Transit Fund.

“That’s something that we’re actively aware of. Hopefully, in the future, as we can add more busses, we can make those service improvements.”

Buses that run to Mill Woods on the south side, to Klarvatten on the north side and to high schools with high enrollment growth will also see increases in service.

Other service changes will see conventional routes serving Riverdale, Belgravia/Windsor Park and Lendrum/Malmo converted to on-demand service while adding new route alignments to connect The Quarters and Chinatown in the city core.

The first set of improvements – 50,000 more service hours – are slated to arrive in April with the schedule change, Hotton-MacDonald said, with more following in September.

 

[CplKlinger]

Yes and by pre-pandemic they mean 2019 levels, which weren't as high as 2014 levels. Our population has also grown by 15% since just 2019 so as a mode share, public transit is actually decreasing. The only thing actually increasing in terms of mode share is travel by vehicle - which of course just leads to more congestion and costs to city.

I came across a report from 2019 that actually analyzed this (as well as the value of transit, and also the ride transit program). Attachment 2 is a nearly 40-page analysis about the stagnating transit ridership; who rides transit, who doesn't, and why; the impact of density, etc., and I highly recommend taking a look.

 

[The_Cat]

It's still a positive step, even though more is needed.

 

[Offworld]

What appears to be black duct tape. 'Good enough'.
View attachment 633832

Hey, at least it's better than the usual go-to, namely grey duct tape.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

January 2025 having double the raw numbers from 2024 checks out. Just from anecdotal observation, the Valley Line has gotten much busier compared to last year.

I haven't seen anything lately but of course that's cause I'm out of town, but based off of my observations, driving past or riding the train from Davies in January there have been more and more vehicles parked in the park'n'ride.

 

[trevorhayden]

Valley Line trains smell like gym locker rooms. Need more frequent cleaning.

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

 

[constance_chlore]

Valley Line trains smell like gym locker rooms. Need more frequent cleaning.

Government Centre station always smells like a urinal. And not just the stale piss, but even the urinal cakes they use to mask the smell.

 

[archited]

Government Centre station always smells like a urinal. And not just the stale piss, but even the urinal cakes they use to mask the smell.

On the accessibility survey from CofE that is making the rounds now -- I made the point clear that there has to be a means of dealing with this problem. Disabled Edmontonians who most frequently use these kinds of facilities should not have to suffer the obnoxious odors evident in elevators, and tunnels because of inconsiderate others.