With a record number of people using public transportation in the city last year, Edmonton Transit is adjusting routes to optimize them and provide more service.
Among the service increases: The Glenridding Ravine and Keswick neighbourhoods will be served by a new regular bus route, replacing in-demand service, and the popular Route 747 service between Century Park and the international airport will see increased bus frequency. [...]
Hotton-MacDonald told CTV News Edmonton at a transit open house held at city hall one challenge her department faces is getting enough buses on the road to meet demand.
ETS delivers 2.2-million service hours each year and has a gap of 247,000 such hours, she said.
“It works out to be about 99 more busses and that could meet our minimum standards for service,” Hotton-MacDonald said, adding ETS is looking to access funding via the federal Canada Public Transit Fund.
“That’s something that we’re actively aware of. Hopefully, in the future, as we can add more busses, we can make those service improvements.”
Buses that run to Mill Woods on the south side, to Klarvatten on the north side and to high schools with high enrollment growth will also see increases in service.
Other service changes will see conventional routes serving Riverdale, Belgravia/Windsor Park and Lendrum/Malmo converted to on-demand service while adding new route alignments to connect The Quarters and Chinatown in the city core.
The first set of improvements – 50,000 more service hours – are slated to arrive in April with the schedule change, Hotton-MacDonald said, with more following in September.
www.ctvnews.ca
edmontonjournal.com
