ETS Bus and General Transit Improvements

[fromyeg]

Edmonton councillors vote to purchase 25 new buses on Day 2 of budget talks

Councillors opt to keep bike rack replacement for ETS, new transportation command centre and continue with Argyll Velodrome demolition.

edmontonjournal.com

We're getting 25 new buses

People who know more about buses than me, what are we going to be getting?

25 New Flyer Xcelsior Clean Diesels?

 

[EdwardEdm]

People who know more about buses than me, what are we going to be getting?

25 New Flyer Xcelsior Clean Diesels?

ETS has a long term contract, so yes.
These 25 buses should be growth buses as that was an unfunded profile that was included in the Supplemental Capital Budget Adjustment. Presumably they approved the associated operating costs. Some of the buses will go towards converting some On Demand to fixed route that have achieved sufficient ridership.

It should be noted that replacement buses are dangerously underfunded.

 

[degrandprix]

Edmonton councillors vote to purchase 25 new buses on Day 2 of budget talks

Councillors opt to keep bike rack replacement for ETS, new transportation command centre and continue with Argyll Velodrome demolition.

edmontonjournal.com

We're getting 25 new buses

And new bike racks!

Sounds like they will be replaced with the newer style ones that accept fat tire bikes?

 

[CplKlinger]

And new bike racks!

Sounds like they will be replaced with the newer style ones that accept fat tire bikes?

They'll also accept e-bikes and children's bikes!

 

[TAS]

They'll also accept e-bikes and children's bikes!

Principe and Elliott proposed to cancel funding for bike racks. Other new councillors - Morgan, Clarke, Parmar voted against that proposal along with rest of council.

 

[EdwardEdm]

The operating budget increase for the 25 growth buses was approved this afternoon.
There was also a $3 million increase to the DATS budget approved, with funding from the EPCOR dividend.

 

[EdwardEdm]

These numbers are very positive and a source of pride right now at ETS. Just everyone don't freak out too much when Q4 numbers are released and it shows a huge decline. The three weeks of school strike had ridership down 25% on the buses. LRT is not as affected but Q4 numbers will be brutal.

Well, there's good new and bad news with September and October transit ridership. At first I thought things looked pretty good for October ridership. September was 5,853,408 October was 5,369, 681. Less than 500K less in October.
However. the numbers don't look as good compared to 2024 numbers. September 2024 was 6,082,678 and October 2024 6,447,161. About 230K difference September 2024 vs September 2025, and over 1,000,000 difference October 2024 vs October 2025.

So on one hand comparing 2025 to 2025 it looks ok, on the other hand comparing 2024 to 2025 though is significantly different.

Data from: https://data.edmonton.ca/Transit/Transit-Ridership/wj6v-epas/data_preview

Ridership in November 2024 then dropped to 5,471,805. I don't recall if there was anything that could have inflated the October 2024 number, but it does seem like an anomaly. I will be curious to see where November 2025 ridership ends up.

 

[Avenuer]

Next week you will be able to pay for the bus or LRT by just tapping your credit card on the Arc Readers.