Edmonton may get more frequent and farther-reaching public transit in the next two years if the city adds 99 buses to the system, transit managers told city councillors at a meeting Wednesday.
Adding buses will allow the city to offer more frequent service in popular areas, add routes, increase off-peak and peak hour service, and transition some neighbourhoods from on-demand to conventional service.
Edmonton Transit Service outlined its projected needs for 2026 in a report presented to council’s executive committee.
Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, branch manager of ETS, said the demand from the public — a 12 per cent increase on both bus and LRT since 2019 — merits increasing service across the board.
“We can add incrementally more service in all categories,” Hotton-MacDonald said to news media. “Weekend ridership has really dramatically increased.”
People taking transit on the weekends grew 28 per cent in five years, ETS says.
Calls for on-demand bus service jumped 27 per cent in one year, she said.
Edmonton’s population grew by 7.4 per cent from 2021 to 2023 and is expected to grow by another 5.5 per cent, reaching 1.26 million people in 2026, the report says.
Coun. Tim Cartmell isn’t surprised by the increase in demand for public transit.
“Our city is growing by leaps and bounds,” Cartmell told news reporters. “Take a trip through south Edmonton and the number of streets throughout it seems to grow by the week.”
In total, ETS aims to add 4,750 more hours to the system, including:
- More frequent service on existing routes with high productivity.
- Enhanced weekend service on crosstown routes.
- Enhanced Route 747 to the airport (contingent on matching contributions from Leduc County and the City of Leduc).
- New routes for neighbourhoods of Mattson, Riverview and Marquis, which are expected to grow enough in population by 2026 to warrant conventional service.
- Peak service for new secondary and post-secondary schools and schools with an increasing student population.
Edmonton currently runs a fleet of 968 conventional transit buses.
In addition to the 99 new requests, another 260 buses will need to be replaced by 2026, the report says.
More demand for on-demand
Other neighbourhoods considered for conventional service from on-demand include Big Lake, Cavanagh, Keswick, Glenridding Ravine and east Charlesworth.
“For those people who aren’t able to access the service because it’s so busy, that’s an indicator that we have neighbourhoods ready to convert to conventional service,” Hotton-MacDonald said.
As conventional buses are added to the network, ETS can expand the on-demand service as well, she added.
Cartmell confirmed the situation in his southwest ward of pihêsiwin.
“I have the privilege of representing entire neighbourhoods that have no fixed transit at all and so the on-demand buses are, you know, quite frankly, overwhelming,” Cartmell told media outside the meeting.
The city introduced on-demand bus service in 2021, where people in low ridership areas need to book ahead.
Paying for transit
ETS is applying for the Canada Public Transit Fund, anticipated to be available for municipalities by April of 2026 and will be making a request to city council in the 2025 fall budget adjustment.
It’s not clear what type of buses they would be yet, but they are estimated to take up to two years to receive them from a manufacturer, Hotton-MacDonald said.
A traditional diesel bus costs about $1 million. Electric buses cost more, and hydrogen-fuelled buses cost more than electric, she noted.
Zero-emission buses are a higher cost because of the newer types of fuel technology and the different infrastructure requirements.
“So there’s no significant budget impact when you can spread it out over a longer time. That’s definitely the model that we want to move towards.”
Hotton-MacDonald is calling for more consistent funding.
“If we can’t keep up with our service levels, it’s just a more frustrating and more negative experience for riders,” Hotton-MacDonald said.