Officials seek to calm fears over dramatic transit system overhaul
Transit officials issued a note of caution Friday to calm jitters over what would be the largest overhaul of the transit system in more than 20 years.
“It doesn’t end here. All the stuff you’re seeing is conceptual planning,” said Eddie Robar, Edmonton’s head of transit.
“We’re going to be going out to communities, to the people impacted by these changes in their neighbourhood,” said Robar, promising a new series of areabased consultation to finalize both local bus routes and the backbone routes of the new system.
After two years of consultation, transit officials released a concept map Thursday afternoon for a network of high-frequency routes in the core, plus new crosstown service and high-speed commuter routes for the suburbs.
Robar spoke about the new plan for the first time Friday, saying designs for local routes will come next. Residents will see simplified, more direct community buses that connect local destinations to the major backbone routes.
On social media and in councillors’ email inboxes, residents sent messages saying they are worried changes could remove a transit link they depend on, force them to walk farther than they’re able, or simply don’t get enough service to certain areas of the city.
“They’re really low on specifics,” said Coun. Bev Esslinger, who heard from a senior living in the far north end of the city who uses the bus all day to get to medical appointments and do grocery shopping.
Esslinger worries few high-quality routes are being proposed for the northwest. But project leader Sarah Feldman said detailed design work will refine how local routes connect residents and industrial areas with the primary transit network.
Officials said they heard innercore residents clamour for a highfrequency system available for short trips during any part of the day and more service on weekends.
Outer, suburban residents most wanted high-speed peak-hour routes to facilitate an easier commute. Transit officials said they talked with or surveyed 20,000 people.
Officials said they would like to investigate partnerships with private companies to serve people in low-use areas where running a community bus for just a couple people doesn’t make financial sense.
Any of those recommendations would go to council for approval. The transit union has come out against any private partnerships, especially with Uber. But Robar said it has to be on the table: “It’s really about increasing ridership and keeping our transit service viable for the future.”
Transit officials are aiming to do the re-organization within the existing roughly $350-million budget. Of that, $214 million currently comes from the city’s general budget and the rest is from ticket revenue. Transit ridership has been falling.
The goal of the plan is to take a “market responsive approach,” said Robar, where bus routes are targeted to get maximum ridership. The plan also calls for better pedestrian connections to key stops.
The first phase could be implemented in September 2018, but the whole strategy would roll out over three or four years.