ETS Bus and General Transit Improvements

[Blizzard]

Stony Plain Road Shuttle (repurposed DATS vehicles, within ETS operating budget) will be discontinued as of April 27.

Could those resources be used to offer some weekend morning/evening span of service (Eaux Claires - Castle Downs) outside of ODT hours that route 103 has in North Batuyrn/closer than walking to Castle Downs RD?

ETS was all about “transit is essential, we improved span of service” last year.

This year, 106 gets late evening span of service from Dunvegan adjusted to end sooner without any mention about whether it’s permanent or if it’s because construction detour kills ridership. I doubt memo to council and/or ETSAB Branch Highlights detailing service changes will mention anything.

That being said, 30 min late evening service on a local route is a privilege, not a riright.

These are good questions and comments and I appreciate them. I will take the shuttle hours question back and see what comes out of it.

Ridership on the Stony Plain Road shuttle is reeeally low. It was getting very hard to justify to DATS why we were tieing up their much needed resources.

Route 106 is an interesting one with all the detour madness for the past few years. It's maybe the peakiest route in the system. During AM and PM Peak its got a median peak load of 40 riders and it could probably pull off 7/8 min frequency. But then ridership falls off a cliff at 4 pm and after 8 pm it has median peak load under 5 riders. When we see data like that we are basically forced to cut.

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

Edmonton Transit Service Advisory Board (ETSAB) - April 2025 Meeting

 

[Kosy123]

Overall LRT ridership increasing 26% year on year for March is actually ridiculous lol. 40% rise in Valley Line SE ridership year on year is pretty good too.

 

[Kosy123]

I was lurking on Reddit when I saw this analysis. Unsure how correct or accurate the numbers are but this is pretty cool to see.

 

[thommyjo]

I was lurking on Reddit when I saw this analysis. Unsure how correct or accurate the numbers are but this is pretty cool to see.

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I'm guessing translink looks bad because they have ferries, some roads/bridges, transit police, land development, etc type stuff all under their umbrella. ETS doesn't have those things, which probably helps us? Cool to see us beating calgary and montreal though!

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

City, transit union reach tentative agreement

 

[TAS]

I was lurking on Reddit when I saw this analysis. Unsure how correct or accurate the numbers are but this is pretty cool to see.

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Edmonton is closest to Ottawa in terms of population and transit ridership, but what a difference in terms of the bang for our buck.

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

 

[fromyeg]

Transit Ridership increases 22% (2019-2025)

Total transit ridership was 15.74 million in Q1 2025, representing an 11 per cent increase from 14.21 million in Q1 2024 and a 22 per cent increase from 12.95 million in Q1 2019 (pre-pandemic levels). Year-over-year ridership growth was highest in January 2025 at 23 per cent, with 5.4 million...

www.michaeljanz.ca

Seems like things are trending in a positive direction.

 

[yeggator]

Transit Ridership increases 22% (2019-2025)

Total transit ridership was 15.74 million in Q1 2025, representing an 11 per cent increase from 14.21 million in Q1 2024 and a 22 per cent increase from 12.95 million in Q1 2019 (pre-pandemic levels). Year-over-year ridership growth was highest in January 2025 at 23 per cent, with 5.4 million...

www.michaeljanz.ca

Seems like things are trending in a positive direction.

That roughly matches population growth since 2019 (27%) which is good. Hopefully, the LRT extensions can increase transit growth faster than population growth by shifting mode share too.

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

Changes to transit service for Riverdale, Belgravia/Windsor Park and Lendrum/Malmo:

Starting June 29, ETS will be replacing conventional transit with On Demand Transit in the following neighbourhoods: Riverdale, Lendrum, Malmo, Belgravia and Windsor Park. This change will result in extended evening and weekend service.

ETS will be hosting free, drop-in virtual information sessions through Google Meet about these upcoming changes on the following days:

• Belgravia and Windsor Park - Monday, June 16 at 10am (information sheet)
• Riverdale - Monday, June 16 at 7pm (information sheet)
• Lendrum and Malmo - Wednesday, June 18 at 7pm (information sheet)

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

That roughly matches population growth since 2019 (27%) which is good. Hopefully, the LRT extensions can increase transit growth faster than population growth by shifting mode share too.

Ridership could be lower (to some extent) if it wasn't for immigration related population growth streams (international students, work permits, Ukrainian refugees) & South Asian ethnic enclaves in the Mill Woods area.

 

[The_Cat]

I think it’s a matter of attracting ridership too. People take LRT or transit to university or to events at Commonwealth or Rogers Place. If we gain knowledge about transit well more likely use it.

 

[YEG Bus Rider]

Transit Service Changes - As of June 29

 

[BrettB]

It's not clear to me where the hours from the cancelled routes will be redistributed. Anyone have info on that?