ETS Bus and General Transit Improvements

[EdwardEdm]

Did the city finally work out the repair contract issues with Proterra and get the electrics back on the road? I keep seeing an electric bus on Route 523 in the morning.

What you are seeing is a 523 block that does an AM peak round trip from Downtown to Mill Woods and back. ETS has either 12 or 14 blocks that they send out Proterra's on. The active fleet is about 14 or 15 buses, and ETS will rotate buses to maintain that number if an bus in service suffers a major failure. This level of use has been consistent for over a year now. This sign up there's quite a few blocks on the route 5, as well as at least one that does and 2 and 7, so they might be a bit more visible Downtown than previous sign ups.
While ETS has lost warranty support, the bigger problem is spare parts supply.
Banff just spent $1 million on 3 batteries for 2 Proterra's, and otherwise their fleet, mostly add ons to ETS's orders, have been doing ok.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

Very interesting video article
How this Small City built Light Rail gor cheap
I found it interesting how Edmonton Valley Line was in the price comparisons

 

[The_Cat]

Looking back, I think Edmonton’s timing was very good with proceeding with the Valley Line LRT.

 

[MacLac]

Where is this?

 

[johnnyboy]

Castledowns

 

[Edmcowboy11]

Wow, when did this transit centre get renoed?

 

[chrisvazquez7]

That looks amazing. I really hope they built that with LRT in mind (unlike the West Edmonton Mall transit centre) and doesn’t get torn down during construction for the Metro Line extension.

 

[yeggator]

That looks amazing. I really hope they built that with LRT in mind (unlike the West Edmonton Mall transit centre) and doesn’t get torn down during construction for the Metro Line extension.

While it's not in the way, it unfortunately won't be adjacent to the future station and they may have to relocate it.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

While it's not in the way, it unfortunately won't be adjacent to the future station and they may have to relocate it.

Of course it may have to.

 

[EdwardEdm]

Wow, when did this transit centre get renoed?

2019

 

[YEG imagineer]

This is a cool transit tool. Seems to show real me running of buses and LRT too.

TRAVIC - Transit Visualization Client

This tracker provides movement visualization of transit data published by transit agencies and operators from all over the world. The movements are mostly based on static schedule data. Wherever real-time data is available it is also included in the visualization

travic.app

 

[EdwardEdm]

This is a cool transit tool. Seems to show real me running of buses and LRT too.

TRAVIC - Transit Visualization Client

This tracker provides movement visualization of transit data published by transit agencies and operators from all over the world. The movements are mostly based on static schedule data. Wherever real-time data is available it is also included in the visualization

travic.app

Real time running? Nope. ETS doesn't feed real time data for the LRT, and besides, when you click on a bus or LRV it outright notes it is based upon schedule data. Neat yes, useful not really.
Case in point:

A ridiculously late 900x on Transit55.

Same area, screenshot taken seconds after the T55 screenshot, but since this map is based upon schedule data, that late 900x doesn't show up.

 

[Glenco]

That is really cool

 

[IanO]

 

[TAS]

View attachment 687627

I think this is a good reflection, in part, that Edmonton motorists have it better than almost any other Canadian city (especially the big 6) in terms of commute times and parking availability. And even with large road construction projects and bridge closures, driving is still considered more convenient and viable than the alternatives.