Edmonton Transit System

Edmonton Transit System

Parent	City of Edmonton
Founded	1908
Headquarters	Edmonton, Alberta
Locale	PO Box 2610, Stn. Main Edmonton, AB
Service area	Edmonton, Alberta
Service type	Public Transit
Routes	190; 1 LRT route
Hubs	23
Stations	15 (LRT)
Fleet	949 buses 74 light rail vehicles
Daily ridership	446,480 (weekday)
Fuel type	Diesel
Operator	City of Edmonton
Chief executive	Charles Stolte (Manager)
Web site	Official site

The Edmonton Transit System, also called ETS, is the public transit service owned and operated by the city of Edmonton, Alberta. It operates Edmonton's bus and light rail systems.

Service

High Level Rail Bridge with lower LRT bridge and train crossing

ETS provides service on buses and light-rail transit within the City of Edmonton limits, in addition to Fort Saskatchewan, Spruce Grove, and the Edmonton Garrison at Namao. It also provides connections to suburban transit services operated by the City of St. Albert and Strathcona County. Another trial service to Beaumont in 2003-2004 was discontinued due to low ridership. Beginning in 2011, ETS will also provide service to Leduc.

ETS operates an entire fleet of accessible low floor buses, which have been progressively introduced into the system since 1993. These include the 40-foot (12 m) New Flyer D40LF, and the 60-foot (18 m) D60LF articulated models.

ETS uses the timed-transfer system, where suburban feeder routes run to a transit centre, and passengers can then transfer to a base route to the city centre or the university. During peak hours, some feeder routes provide direct express service to and from the city centre.

Security

In May 2007, Edmonton Transit Security were appointed Peace Officers under the Alberta Peace Officer Act. Transit Peace Officers can hand out tickets for Provincial Statutes and Edmonton bylaws on Transit property. Transit Security uses Crown Victoria Police Interceptor cruisers as their main source of transportation, but are also seen riding the LRT enforcing bylaws. Giving a fake name or otherwise not identifying yourself to an Edmonton Transit Peace Officer is a Criminal Offence, for which you can be arrested.

Night service

ETS currently terminates service on all bus routes and the LRT by approximately 1:30 am on weekdays and midnight on weekends (though many routes cease running significantly earlier than this). In January 2008 the Transit Riders' Union of Edmonton, led by prominent activist turned City Council Candidate, Brendan Van Alstine as well as Lorenzo Pagnotta, Brian Gould, and Bryan Saunders managed to draw significant public and media attention to the dire need for extended late night transit service, ideally having transit operate 24 hours a day. The push was so successful that Transportation Manager Bob Boutilier conceded during the debate that it was not an issue of 'if' the city would provide 24 hour transit, but an issue of 'when'. The 24 hour service debate arose once again in June 2008 as part of an ETS service review where it was deferred to budget. It remains unclear at this time whether the city plans to extend transit hours later into the night, though several groups including the Transit Riders' Union of Edmonton and the Old Strathcona Business Association are continuing to push the issue.

A late night pilot service (561 Night Ride on Whyte) was proposed for Fridays and Saturdays, from September until November 2011, under contract to Responsible Hospitality Edmonton. The pilot project was to provide transit service between Old Strathcona, the University of Alberta and Southgate Centre between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m., but is postponed until stakeholders and community members can be consulted.

List of Transit Centres

Kingsway Transit Centre

Bus on Route 51

• Abbottsfield
• Belvedere*
• Capilano
• Castle Downs
• Century Park*
• Clareview*
• Coliseum*
• Eaux Claires
• Grandin/Government Centre*
• Jasper Place
• Kingsway
• Lakewood
• Leger
• Lewis Farms
• Meadowlark
• Meadows
• Millgate
• Mill Woods Town Centre
• Northgate
• South Campus*
• Southgate*
• Stadium*
• University*
• West Edmonton Mall
• Westmount

* LRT Station

Routes

Main article: List of bus routes in Edmonton

ETS numbers its bus routes based on the community they serve, with numbers 1-29 being base routes. Routes numbered 30-99 are south Edmonton routes, while routes 100-199 run north of the river. For example, routes 60 to 79 are located in Mill Woods, while routes 160-179 are located in Castle Downs. Due to a shortage of numbers in allocation of route numbers, there are a number of exceptions (39, 59, 92, 93, 95, 98, 133, 136, 138, 139, 145). Furthermore, commuter routes have been allocated numbers 196-199. All routes are serviced by accessible low floor buses.

Depots

• Centennial Garage - bus facility opened 2010
• Cromdale Garage - bus facility and historic fleet storage; former Edmonton Radial Railway trolleybus/streetcar barn
• D.L. MacDonald Yard - LRT storage and repair facility; opened 1983
• Ferrier Garage - bus facility; formerly trolleybus barn
• Mitchell Garage - bus facility; formerly trolleybus barn
• Paterson Garage - bus garage; bus disposal facility
• Percy Wickman Garage - Disabled Adult Transit Service (DATS) facility
• Westwood Garage - bus garage; opened 1961

Former

• Strathcona Garage - former bus/trolleybus garage (1951–1986) now home to Old Strathcona Farmer's Market and Edmonton Radial Railway Society High Level Bridge Streetcar storage.

Trolleybus system

ETS trolley bus

Main article: Trolleybuses in Edmonton

Trolleybus service in Edmonton started on September 24, 1939, operating on route 5 from 101 St/Jasper Ave to 95 St/111 Ave. By the end of October of that year, service had started on another route running to 99 St/Whyte Ave via the Low Level Bridge. In Edmonton, trolley buses were often referred to simply as "trolleys".

The trolleybus system used a mixture of Ohio Brass and K&M Elastic (Swiss) suspension for holding up the overhead wires.

The 49 vehicles remaining in use in 2008 were from an order of 100 manufactured in 1981-2 by Brown Boveri & Company (BBC), using bodies and chassis supplied to BBC by GM.^{[citation needed]}

On June 18, 2008, city council voted 7 to 6 in favour of phasing out the trolley system in 2009 and 2010. However, city council decided in April 2009 that trolley bus service would be discontinued earlier than originally planned, in order to reduce the city's expected $35 million deficit in 2009. The last day of regular service was May 2, 2009.

In 2008, a low-floor model of trolley was leased from Coast Mountain Bus Company, Vancouver's bus operating company, for testing of possible benefits of low-floor trolleys over hybrid diesel buses. During its time in Edmonton the bus was numbered 6000, but was returned to its original #2242 when returned to Vancouver.

LRT

An Edmonton LRT train at Health Sciences Station.

ETS SD-160 car 1039

Main article: Edmonton Light Rail Transit

ETS operates a 20.5 km light rail route with fifteen stations, also known as LRT Route 201, between northeast Edmonton and the Century Park community, with a mix of tunnels and at-grade track. Currently, six stations are underground, while the remaining nine are at-grade. The train shown to the right is made in Germany by Siemens/DÜWAG. The same type of vehicle have operated on several underground lines in Frankfurt am Main since 1968 as type U-2. ETS has 37 Siemens SD-160 on order from Siemens, some of which are in service now. The delivery date is 2008-2009 and the new cars are to be used as part of the expansion of the LRT to south Edmonton. In 2009, two new stations opened on the southside, and another two opened in 2010.

Hybrid bus

Further information: Hybrid Technology

The City of Edmonton embarked on an eight-month evaluation of 13 clean-diesel and hybrid buses (and a new trolleybus) in 2008. Edmonton Transit's first two diesel electric hybrid buses went into service in December 2006. The unique design and colour scheme of the two Orion low floor buses have been chosen to enable them to 'stand out' from the rest of the ETS fleet. The buses are part of an extensive test of hybrid technology that Edmonton Transit and the University of Alberta will be conducting over the next year. Bus reliability, performance, maintenance costs, fuel efficiency, noise generation and environmental impact will be monitored and evaluated in all weather and road conditions. As well, customers will be surveyed about their travel experience. Ultimately, the Hybrid buses only recorded fuel savings of 10-20% (in contrast to the 35% touted in the internal ads). In addition, the ISE-New Flyer hybrids (6003 and 6004) were out of service so much that they could not be included in the evaluation.

As of fall 2009, only the two Orion hybrids are in service. New Flyer/ISE hybrids 6003 and 6004 have been parked in the Paterson compound since the early spring, and have since been converted to diesel buses as of 2011, while New Flyer/Allison 6001 was damaged beyond repair in an accident. New Flyer/Allison 6002 was revamped with new features and technology to become the ETS Platinum Bus, also referred to as the "Painted Lady"

Fares

Current fares as of February 1, 2011:

General

	Youth (6-18)	Adult (19-65)	Senior (65+)
Cash	$2.85	$2.85	$2.85
10 Ticket Pack	$19.95	$22.80	$19.95
Day Pass	$8.55	$8.55	$8.55
Monthly Pass	$65.55	$84.65	$13.00
Annual Pass	N/A	N/A	$118.00

Conditional fares

ETS provides several discounts for students and the disadvantaged.

• Low income seniors can pay $51.00 for an annual pass instead of the listed $118.00.
• Public school students can purchase monthly passes from their schools at a subsidized rate ranging from $24.00 to $43.00 depending on grade and location.
• Catholic school students can purchase monthly passes ranging from $27.00 to $39.00.
• Families (1 adult and up to four children age 12 and under) are entitled to travel on ETS all day with the use of a valid day pass.
• Post-secondary students at approved post-secondary institutions may purchase a monthly pass at the discounted rate of $76.95.
• ETS has partnered with the University of Alberta, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and Grant MacEwan University to provide students with a Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass), allowing unlimited access to both the bus and light rail systems for a single (four month) school term. University students pay $81.19 after a $16.24 subsidy from the University while Grant MacEwan students pay the full $97.43. The U-Pass came into effect September 1, 2007.

Fleet

The list is of current and past vehicles:

Trolley buses

See: Trolleybuses in Edmonton

Diesel buses

• Ford/Corbeil Shuttle
• Ford/Crestline Shuttle
• Ford/Diamond Coach PT 2200
• General Motors Diesel Division Buses T6H5307N
• General Motors Diesel Division Buses TA-60102N (Demo only)
• Glaval Bus Easy On LF72 Workhorse Community Service Bus 01-13
• New Flyer Industries D40LF
• New Flyer Industries D40LFR
• New Flyer Industries D60LF
• New Flyer Industries D60LFR
• New Flyer Industries DE40LF (Demo only)
• New Flyer Industries DE40LFR
• Orion Bus Industries Orion VII 07.501 Hybrid
• Overland Custom Coach ELF 125 - some formerly Calgary Transit

Light rail vehicles

• Siemens–Duewag U2 LRV - 1977-79 and 1982-83
• Siemens SD-160 LRV - 2008-09

Service/support vehicles

• Chevrolet Express service van
• Chevrolet Impala
• Chevrolet Suburban
• Chevrolet Tahoe
• Chevrolet Uplander LT SUV
• Dodge Grand Caravan
• Dodge Sprinter van
• Ford Aerostar van
• Ford Econoline van
• Ford Escape SUV
• Ford Excursion SUV
• Ford F250 pickup
• Ford Freestar van
• Freightliner Trucks' FL80 tow truck

denotes wheelchair accessibility

Future plans

Transit Centres

Construction of a park-and-ride at 127 Street SW and Ellerslie Road is currently underway, this will be an LRT station when the funds are available to extend the LRT over Anthony Henday Drive. Another park-and-ride transit centre in the new Eaux Claires neighbourhood, at 97 Street and 157 Avenue opened on May 1, 2011.

NAIT LRT

A 3.3 km LRT route from the Churchill Station in downtown Edmonton to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology has recently began construction. The new line has three confirmed stations: one at Grant MacEwan University (MacEwan Station), one on Kingsway (Kingsway Station), and one near the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT Station). MacEwan Station would be located just east of the downtown MacEwan University campus, and west of the proposed hockey arena, at 104 Street and 105 Avenue. The Kingsway Station would be located on the north side of Kingsway, to the south of the Royal Alexandra Hospital. As part of the plan, the current Kingway Transit Centre would be relocated to the southeast corner of 111 Avenue and 106 Street, to provide service to both Kingsway Mall and the Kingsway Station. A temporary NAIT Station would be located north of Princess Elizabeth Avenue, on the south side of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology's swimming pool and hockey arena (S) wing, before a permanent station is ultimately built after a long-term comprehensive land use plan of the Edmonton City Centre Airport lands are finalized.

Long range LRT plans

City council in the past has looked at creating long range transportation plans that include the LRT reaching St. Albert to the northwest, Lewis Estates in the west (with West Edmonton Mall en route), the Edmonton International Airport and Leduc to the south, Mill Woods in the southeast, and Fort Saskatchewan to the northeast.

See also

• List of rapid transit systems
• St. Albert Transit
• Strathcona County Transit
• Edmonton Airports

External links

• Edmonton Transit System--Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Spruce Grove
• St. Albert Transit (including Morinville service)
• Strathcona Transit (Sherwood Park)
• ETS Photo Galleries
• Edmonton LRT Projects
• Transit Riders' Union of Edmonton (TRUE)