Bus riders Jess and Jeremy Koopmans say they don’t mind that a St. Albert Transit bus won’t be stopping right outside their door, although it would be nice if it meant they arrived at work on time.
Both have been taking the bus into downtown Edmonton from their home in Erin Ridge North for the past two years – walking four minutes down the road to the nearest stop in Erin Ridge.
“A little walk is partly why I take bus – I actually have to walk farther on the other end,” said Jess, explaining that her stop by the Royal Alexandra Hospital is one of many that have been affected by the construction detours.
Her husband agrees.
“I could see if you live further in it could be a bit of a problem,” Jeremy said. “I’m not terribly upset that it will be a while longer.”
Along with other residents of their neighbourhood and as well as residents of Ville Giroux/Nevada Place in western St. Albert, the couple will have to wait another year for improved local transit following a council decision to focus on getting the city’s Edmonton commuters to work on time.
This winter St. Albert Transit received numerous complaints about buses arriving late to their downtown destinations. Edmonton’s numerous construction projects made it hard for the transit system to adhere to its commuter route schedules.
To deal with these challenges, the transit provider started making adjustments to its commuter routes – a process that required additional buses and operating hours, and diverted its resources from establishing new planned routes in the city’s growing northwest regions.
“I would say the commuter part is more important to me,” Jess said, when asked about delays to the local route in her neighbourhood.
Jess noticed that the schedule has been very “erratic” this summer with arrival times to and from work varying 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule – making it hard to co-ordinate things like picking the kids up from the sitter or starting her shift on time.
Bob McDonald, director of transit, told council that St. Albert Transit started 2015 with the intention of providing extensions into the areas of Erin Ridge North and Ville Giroux/Nevada Place, “but as the year progressed we found that our commuter service in downtown Edmonton was being severely compromised” by construction.
“Based on feedback from our customers and our own internal monitoring we felt the need to address those issues immediately,” he said. “But in doing that we came to the realization that we couldn’t do both the construction detours and the business growth cases. We’re restrained by the number of peak buses we have available to us and as a result we felt the priority was to maintain the service to downtown Edmonton.”
Introducing transit service to new higher density areas in the north of St. Albert was approved as part of the 2015 budget. But a report to council indicated that the growth management initiative might be premature given the system’s current route restructuring review, which will be implemented September 2016, and the fact that the road network in Erin Ridge North is still incomplete.
McDonald said that dealing with commuter delays earlier in the year also prevented St. Albert Transit from undergoing the proper planning and consultation processes to determine what the service in the northwest areas would look like.
The areas of Erin Ridge North and Ville Giroux/Nevada Place represent 30 per cent of its weekday boardings. Service changes to these areas are expected to increase ridership by at least five per cent. According to Google Maps, the furthest trek to a bus stop in Erin Ridge North takes about 12 minutes.
To maintain the commuter detour routes in fall 2015 and winter 2016, administration approached council for contingency funds, to the tune of $122,600 for service adjustments from September through December and $238,000 for service adjustments from January through to August.
Council unanimously approved the funding.
So far there have been no complaints or communication from residents after Monday’s meeting concerning the delay to changes in the northwest.
