Action on airport bus route on hold until after election
Edmonton officials will keep looking for help funding the city’s airport bus service, pushing any debate on service cuts to after the election.
“There’s some really positive discussion around the airport table,” Mayor Don Iveson said Tuesday, suggesting the Edmonton International Airport, City of Leduc and Leduc County may be interested in helping fund the service, especially if it can be rerouted to serve more regional passengers.
The bus debate is one part of the larger discussions on how to manage the airport, an effort coming out of the Leduc County-Edmonton annexation discussions.
“I met with the airport this morning and I totally agree with you,” city manager Linda Cochrane told Iveson in front of council before the vote to postpone any debate to a November committee.
Council will break this week for the election campaign. The election is Oct. 16.
Several members of the Edmonton Transit System Advisory Board came to council Tuesday to try to prevent it from cutting service on Route 747, which currently runs between the Century Park LRT station and the airport every half-hour during peak times.
Transit officials had suggested Edmonton could cut service to just once an hour, end it at 10 p.m. and increase fares to $7.50 from $5 to make up for a $500,000 annual subsidy the airport discontinued in April.
Advisory board member Sean Lee said outside the council meeting that the current 747 route is “fundamentally a successful service.”
“It’s been operating very well,” Lee said. “It’s serving over 170,000 passengers per year.”
The route also covers roughly the same share of its costs through fares as other Edmonton Transit routes, he said, making the case that the current service levels need to be maintained as the hunt for additional funding continues.