Edmonton set to increase bus service hours in April as transit demand rises

Edmonton plans to add 1,000 weekly service hours to the transit system to help keep people moving. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti reports.

With a record number of people using public transportation in the city last year, Edmonton Transit is adjusting routes to optimize them and provide more service.

Among the service increases: The Glenridding Ravine and Keswick neighbourhoods will be served by a new regular bus route, replacing in-demand service, and the popular Route 747 service between Century Park and the international airport will see increased bus frequency.

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The 747 service is being upgraded in partnership with the City of Leduc and Leduc County.

The moves come after Edmonton saw 61-million completed trips on its public transportation system, according to Edmonton Transit Service (ETS).

Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, the branch manager of ETS, said Sunday the city has also seen increased use of crosstown bus routes, so they, too, will be getting more frequent service.

Hotton-MacDonald told CTV News Edmonton at a transit open house held at city hall one challenge her department faces is getting enough buses on the road to meet demand.

ETS delivers 2.2-million service hours each year and has a gap of 247,000 such hours, she said.

“It works out to be about 99 more busses and that could meet our minimum standards for service,” Hotton-MacDonald said, adding ETS is looking to access funding via the federal Canada Public Transit Fund.

“That’s something that we’re actively aware of. Hopefully, in the future, as we can add more busses, we can make those service improvements.”

Buses that run to Mill Woods on the south side, to Klarvatten on the north side and to high schools with high enrollment growth will also see increases in service.

Other service changes will see conventional routes serving Riverdale, Belgravia/Windsor Park and Lendrum/Malmo converted to on-demand service while adding new route alignments to connect The Quarters and Chinatown in the city core.

The first set of improvements – 50,000 more service hours – are slated to arrive in April with the schedule change, Hotton-MacDonald said, with more following in September.

More buses on Edmonton streets mean more people will see transit as a viable option to getting around the city, Coun. Michael Janz said Sunday.

“When they’re looking and they say, ‘It’ll take me this long to drive or this long to take the bus,’ they will choose whatever option is fastest for them,” Janz told CTV News Edmonton.

Daniel Witte, the chair of public transit advocacy group Edmonton Transit Riders, said increasing bus service is “one of the most important things that we can do as a city to increase ridership and increase the satisfaction of public transportation.”

“It improves reliability. It means people aren’t waiting 20, 30 minutes out in the cold or in the hot sun before their bus comes,” Witte, who attended the open house on Sunday, told CTV News Edmonton.

“It makes trip planning for everybody easier when they’re trying to figure out how they’re going to get to work, to school, to pick up groceries, to any health care appointments or anything else.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti