St. Albert city council has given the green light, and more than $19 million, to purchase 19 new transit buses over the next three years.
Of the 19 new buses, two represent an overall expansion of the St. Albert Transit (StAT) fleet to create two new peak-hour-only routes in the Jensen Lakes and Riverside neighbourhoods, while the remaining 17 will replace buses set to be retired in 2025-26.
Coun. Wes Brodhead said he was excited to see that investment in the local transit service was warranted.
“It says a couple of things, number one is that our city is growing and the growth requires public transit services ... and number two it's desired by the people,” he said.
“There's a real need for servicing in Riverside and (Jensen Lakes) and it's come upon us, so we have to deal with that.”
The two expansion buses have a budget of $1.62 million, which council heard on Aug. 29 will both be 40-foot clean diesel buses and hopefully in service before the end of 2024, depending on procurement wait times.
The city opted to get two new 40-foot clean diesel buses, rather than two electric buses, in order to maintain service levels. Electric buses, which the city has seven of, have just a 12-year lifecycle, whereas the 40-foot clean diesel buses have an 18-year lifecycle, according to a report to council by the city's manager of transportation, Jay Mason.
The need for service in Jensen Lakes and Riverside was first identified in 2019, Mason's report said. However, because of the then-pending creation of the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Services Commission (EMTSC), as well as other budgetary priorities, the project charter for the two new buses went unfunded in the last four consecutive budgets.
“Now that the transition to a commission has been halted, the issue of new service to these communities (needs) to be addressed,” Mason wrote. “Customer inquiries have been received that question the fairness of this service absence.”
During the Aug. 29 council meeting, several councillors asked whether administration could arrange some temporary service in Jensen Lakes and Riverside until the new buses arrive, but Mason said any service added in those neighbourhoods would require decreased service elsewhere because of fleet limitations.
“We have explored other opportunities and we're continuing to work with our regional partners as well as our (Pacific Western Transit) team to see what other options (are available),” Mason said. “We talked with Edmonton a little bit (about) utilizing them as a charter, (but) the costs were extravagant.”
Pacific Western Transit is a private company that employs all StAT bus drivers.
Council was asked to approve the $1.62 million in funding from the capital reserve ahead of the 2024 budget so city staff can start the procurement process early, as receiving the new buses could take more than a year.
As the funding will be drawn from the capital reserve there will be no tax impact in 2024; however, once the two new routes are offered the operational costs are estimated to be between $270,000 and $282,000 on an annual basis.
The addition of two 40-foot clean diesel buses means StAT's fleet will be made up of seven electric buses, 20 60-foot clean diesel buses, 35 40-foot clean diesel buses, and seven handi-buses.
Replacement buses
The remaining $17.5 million council unanimously approved for future transit bus spending on Aug. 29 will fall under the repair, maintain, replace (RMR) budgets in 2025 and 2026 so the city can replace 17 40-foot clean diesel buses nearing the end of 18-year life cycles.
Another report to council written by Mason says eight buses will need to be replaced in 2025, and nine in 2026. Council heard each 40-foot clean diesel bus will usually surpass over a million kilometres during its useful life, and some have been driven as many as 1.15 million km.
Similar to the early approval council gave to the fleet expansion, Mason's report states council's commitment to the 2025-26 RMR spending means administration can start the procurement process early, and possibly earn bulk purchase discounts from the manufacturer.
The report says administration estimates another $20 million will be needed in 2027-28 combined for additional bus replacements.
Council heard on Tuesday while replacing so many buses at the same time isn't ideal from a spending standpoint, administration's options are extremely limited to stagger the replacement schedule, since so many of the current buses were purchased at the same time in the past.
Council pleased to see transit investment
Coun. Natalie Joly said while she's disappointed the EMTSC was shut down, she's happy to see city administration be proactive in trying to procure new buses so that StAT's service remains reliable.
“The end of that partnership means that we have to catch up in terms of our investment in transit,” Joly said. “This service is invaluable for many St. Albert residents.”
Although she did vote in favour of both spending items, prior to the Aug. 29 meeting Coun. Shelley Biermanski said she had some concerns about approving budget items in future years in advance of finalizing the actual budgets because she didn't want to see a “chain reaction” with other projects coming to council ahead of annual budgets.
“I don't like the one-off (items) three months before we even have the total budget just because there's an urgency in procurement,” she said. “I understand discussing it and talking about certain things that are upcoming, but there's a difference between discussing a direction you're going to go in for a budget ... but approval is different than discussion.”
Mason's reports both say although council's early approval of future budget items allows administration to start the procurement process ahead of time, no actual dollars will be spent until the corresponding budget year.
