Edmonton and regional mayors celebrate Arc card introduction

Reloadable transit fare cards arrive in Edmonton Starting next week, Edmontonians will be able to pay transit fares on reloadable electronic cards.

For the first time, transit users in the greater Edmonton area were able to use the Arc e-fare payment system on Monday when boarding buses and the LRT.

Amarjeet Sohi and several mayors representing the other participating municipalities were at the West Clareview Transit Station to celebrate the occasion, which was five years in the making.

The fleet of 1,000 Edmonton Transit System buses and all LRT platforms have Arc card readers, as well as Beaumont, St. Albert, Spruce Grove, Strathcona County and Leduc buses.

Leduc and Fort Saskatchewan will offer Arc to riders starting in 2023.

"It's going to make using the transit system much more easy and convenient and also affordable because there's a cap on how much can be charged per month and per day," Sohi said.

"This is a very good way of collaborating and making our transit system integrated," Edmonton's mayor added.

The new system allows transit users to purchase a reloadable card that acts like a debit or credit card, letting them decide how much money to add onto the card, with a minimum of $4.

Cards are to be tapped once a person first boards a bus or enters the proof of payment area at an LRT station.

The $2.75 fare will automatically be deducted from your card and is valid for unlimited transit use for 90 minutes.

Upon arriving at your destination, transit riders are to tap off when disembarking from their bus or at their final LRT station.

When a user spends $10.25 in fare in a day or $100 in a month, the Arc system automatically caps further fare charges for the day or month, respectively.

"Tap-off signals that you've completed the trip and allows us to get a better understanding of the various ways Edmontonians use transit," said Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, ETS branch manager.

Cathy Heron, St. Albert mayor, hopes the seamless system encourages more people to use public transit and that increased user data will be helpful for future planning.

"That helps our transit staff design new routes, put more buses on certain routes," she said.

Arc cards can be purchased at vending machines at transit centres or at certain retailers. Funds can be added to cards online, over the phone at 1-888-302-0001, or at transit stations.

For more information, visit the Arc website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach