Beaumont expands daily bus service to Edmonton

Beaumont's #540 bus to Mill Woods in Edmonton arrives at the Ken Nichol Regional Recreation Centre on April 5, 2024. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

As of Wednesday, Beaumont has all-day-long bus service to south Edmonton.

In the aftermath of an Edmonton regional transit plan falling apart in late 2022, Beaumont pursued an alternative with Leduc and Leduc County.

"Eight out of 10 people work outside Beaumont in their full-time jobs. Most go to Edmonton," mayor Bill Daneluik told CTV News Edmonton

"Our services are expanding into Edmonton to allow our residents to, perhaps, not have a second car and use transit to get to and from their workplace or be full-time students, living in Beaumont and going to school at the U of A or MacEwan, leaving Beaumont at nine, 10 o'clock in the morning and be back by three o'clock.

"They can do that now. They couldn't before."

Buses from Beaumont's Ken Nichol Regional Recreation Centre to Mill Woods Transit Centre leave every 40 minutes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

The system uses Arc cards, like Edmonton's transit system does.

As ridership grows, the city will explore expanding service to Leduc, Nisku or the Edmonton International Airport, Daneluik said.

"Beaumont is actually the fastest growing municipality in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. And as such, we're now 22,000 people. As infrastructure requirements increase, and our residents require more services, transit's a big part of that."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Cam Wiebe