Garage capacity key to expanding transit service, advocate says

Transit advocates are urging Edmonton city council to consider the long-term effects of shrinking the southeast transit garage to stay within budget.

"We aren't just making these decisions for the next four years, we are making these decisions for the next decade, for the next 15 or 20 years," said Emily Stremel, chair of Edmonton Transit Riders. "Kicking these things down the road will not solve the problem."

Administration has proposed reducing the scope of the city's next transit garage in southeast Edmonton from 430 buses to between 255 and 290 buses to keep the project within its $367-million budget. Coun. Aaron Paquette introduced a motion earlier this month asking administration to analyze how the reduced capacity would impact transit service in the future and how much it would cost to build the facility to its original capacity.

The city's transit fleet storage strategy, which guides the renewal and development of storage facilities to allow for growth and electrification, identified the southeast garage as a priority, with completion originally targeted for 2027. ETS is out of garage space and can't buy more buses without a place to store them. Stremel said transit garage capacity is further complicated by the age of Edmonton's buses, maintenance space, and other storage considerations. The fleet is old, with some buses more than 10 years past the end of their useful life. Older buses spend more time in maintenance bays and need more spares to replace them when they break down, which in turn requires more parking spaces.

ETS needs about 250 buses over the next four years to replace the oldest vehicles in the fleet, a city report said, but when those new buses come in, they take up garage space as they are inspected and prepared for service. The service also needs 100 buses over four years to address the rapid population growth the city has experienced in recent years. Those 350 buses would only bring the city up to minimum service standards, not expand the service with increased frequency.

"That's not even talking about the service growth," Stremel told Taproot. "That's not talking about the buses that we need to provide the level of service that we want."

ETR will be pushing for the southeast garage, at its original capacity, to be included in the 2027-2030 budget, Stremel said.

Because ETS doesn't have the extra bus capacity to make large changes to the network, it funds service improvements by reallocating service from the lowest-performing routes to those facing the most pressure.

Some routes have excess capacity, making it possible "to take service down a notch without impacting customers or causing overloads," Andrew Gregory, manager of transit planning, said at the Annual Service Plan Awards, hosted jointly by ETS and ETR on April 26. "So in some cases, this is only a two- or three-minute change in frequency, but if the buses are running frequently and at times only half full, this is a better use of resources, and (we are) able to serve more people."

Starting this year, some routes will see frequency reduced, or see service start later or end earlier. Route 522 will be partially replaced with on-demand transit in Capilano and Gold Bar. Last year, ETS replaced conventional transit service with on-demand in some central neighbourhoods. Those service reductions will help increase service in other parts of the city.

As city administration prepares the 2027-2030 budget, advocates are urging councillors to include investments in transit and active transportation.

The southeast transit garage represents one of the core values that Stremel hopes that council considers in budget deliberations. "Philosophically, the biggest thing that ETR wants is to stop creating bottlenecks for the future," she said. "Let's get (started on) these infrastructure projects that need to start happening."

The group also hopes to maintain fares at $3 and fare caps at $10.50 per day and $102 per month.

As for active transportation, Aaron Budnick from the Edmonton Bike Coalition said the last time city council debated the four-year budget, it made a splash by announcing $100 million to expand the bike-lane network, which raised the ire of opponents.

"I've got mixed feelings on that — certainly having $100 million for bike lanes is not good from a media and marketing standpoint," Budnick said. "It draws a lot of attention."

Optics aside, the investment was warranted, as the percentage of the 2023-2026 capital budget allocated to new bike infrastructure is about the same as the percentage of Edmontonians who regularly cycle, Budnick said. The coalition would like to have that sort of formula baked into the budget.

"Instead of having to fight for it every four years and have this big, splashy number, we just tie it directly to modal share and say, 1% or 2% or whatever percentage of the population bikes, we're guaranteeing that much money from our capital budget is going into making new infrastructure every year."

The coalition would also like to see higher-quality bike lanes, and it wants shared-use paths to be upgraded at road intersections for safety.

The winners and losers at the transit awards

Transit enthusiasts gathered to celebrate Edmonton's bus routes for their reliability and scenic attributes, and to shame other routes for lateness and bumpiness at the city hall ceremony. Four awards were based on data in the annual route report card, and three were decided by voting on social media.

• The Rising Star Award went to Route 54 (West Edmonton Mall to Clareview), recognizing the route's high year-over-year growth in ridership.
• The Crammed Like Sardines Award went to Route 56 (Meadows to West Edmonton Mall), because up to 18% of trips on that route meet the "crowded" definition.
• The Ol' Unreliable Award went to Route 900X (Lewis Farms to Downtown), which has the lowest on-time performance of any route at 57.4%.
• The Punctual Award went to the route with the most improved on-time performance: Route 55 (Meadows to West Edmonton Mall).
• Route 9 (Eaux Claires to Southgate) was voted the Bumpiest Ride.
• Zone R was voted the Favourite On Demand Zone.
• Route 701 (Southgate to Kingsway) and Route 902 (NAIT to University) tied for the Scenic Route Award.
• A live vote to decide on the fan favourite route between the 4 (Lewis Farms to Capilano) and the 8 (Abbottsfield to University), two routes that have been anthropomorphized through memes on Instagram, resulted in a tie.

This story is based in part on a larger conversation with Emily Stremel and Aaron Budnick on the April 24 edition of Taproot Exchange, a members-only livestream conversation that goes deep on issues of interest to Edmontonians. Become a member for access to future livestreams, as well as recordings and transcripts.