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soupcrate said:
$2.75 x 2 trips x 2 people = $11.
Still a fair point, but the last thing ETS needs is less revenue.
Click to expand...

Yes, $11 if you use the ARC card.

Is it less revenue? The train is running anyways, the choice is between not driving or driving and we are choosing driving because its cheaper for short trips.
 
occidentalcapital said:
If you take a lot of short trips I think ARC is actually a big improvement because of the fare capping over the month.
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A lots of short trips is a frequent user and ARC becomes like bus pass, but yes the incentives are not there for infrequent users.

This idea could also work, say for those who would like to travel from Corona to Central Station when it is cold or rainy out, if you have a lower rate for a short trip.

It could get more people using the LRT, people who are not regular users and so it would be a revenue gain, because otherwise they wouldn't be using it as much or at all.
 
One of the vending machines at Bonnie Doon was out of Arc Cards on Sunday.
20231105_164519.jpg
 
Interesting article in St Alberta media about arc cards dropping Edmonton transit revenue, but they don’t think it will for them. Had some numbers in it too.
33051D27-1D2D-46EE-8912-902706E22C82.png
 
I think off peak is when safety concerns are a bigger issue. A few weeks ago, it took it later in the evening and while it was ok, I saw how the ride transitioned from comfortable to not so comfortable as the train went from south to north station to station. I was quite relieved to get off when I did.
 
Capital Line reminds me of BART, a commuter rail service that uses metro-style trains, coupled with the safety issues, I'm not surprised that non-peak ridership hasn't returned to normal. And given that Oilers and Elks games likely make up at least half the off-peak ridership, that mean non-peak non-game day ridership is probably even less.

There's also a transition from not comfortable to comfortable that happens at around 6:30am. I'd rather drive in than take the train that first hour of service.
 
I tried to ride BART once from SFO and every single ticketing machine was broken, it was incredibly disappointing.
 
dkazzed said:
I'm not surprised that non-peak ridership hasn't returned to normal. And given that Oilers and Elks games likely make up at least half the off-peak ridership, that mean non-peak non-game day ridership is probably even less.
Click to expand...
There's no way that 41 Oilers games and a 9 football games generates half of off peak ridership. Not a chance. In fact, I was quite surprised how busy the Capital line was midday today, to the point that on a 4 car train there weren't many seats left at Churchill.
 
I forgot that midday was also non-peak. I considered peak 6am-6pm.

Still doesn't bode well for late evening.
 
Hello everyone, I am a new immigrant in Edmonton. Because I do not drive and I rely on public transit only. Hence I am going to buy monthly pass and would like to confirm my understanding:

1. The monthly pass cost $100. It is a paper ticket to be mailed to my home address after purchase
2. For ride on bus, I just show my monthly pass to the driver and this is OK?
3. For ride on train, do I have to do anything if I have a monthly pass?
4. Did I miss anything?
 
newcomer2023 said:
Hello everyone, I am a new immigrant in Edmonton. Because I do not drive and I rely on public transit only. Hence I am going to buy monthly pass and would like to confirm my understanding:

1. The monthly pass cost $100. It is a paper ticket to be mailed to my home address after purchase
2. For ride on bus, I just show my monthly pass to the driver and this is OK?
3. For ride on train, do I have to do anything if I have a monthly pass?
4. Did I miss anything?
Click to expand...
You can buy a monthly pass from a retailer to save waiting for it in the mail: https://www.edmonton.ca/ets/where-to-buy-fares-passes

#2 and #3 sums it up, and it is an easy way to take transit if you know for sure you'll be taking a lot of transit.

But you should really go Arc Card. Benefits:
1. It still has a "monthly pass" but rather than paying for it up front, you pay for it as you go. Once you reach $100 in a month, it no longer takes money from your card.
2. You do have to tap in and should tap out any time you take the train and bus. Tapping out is not necessary unless you're taking a suburban bus that has the possibility for a higher fare unless you tap out.
3. If you lose your card, you can call customer service and have the balance transferred to a new card.
4. You can start using it right away for partial months. It's $2.75 to use your Arc Card vs. $3.50 for cash and $2.775 to use one of 10 pack ticket.
 
newcomer2023 said:
Hello everyone, I am a new immigrant in Edmonton. Because I do not drive and I rely on public transit only. Hence I am going to buy monthly pass and would like to confirm my understanding:

1. The monthly pass cost $100. It is a paper ticket to be mailed to my home address after purchase
2. For ride on bus, I just show my monthly pass to the driver and this is OK?
3. For ride on train, do I have to do anything if I have a monthly pass?
4. Did I miss anything?
Click to expand...
Going off what @dkazzed said, their website is https://myarc.ca if you want to learn more! Welcome to Edmonton, we're better with you here :)
 
dkazzed said:
You can buy a monthly pass from a retailer to save waiting for it in the mail: https://www.edmonton.ca/ets/where-to-buy-fares-passes

#2 and #3 sums it up, and it is an easy way to take transit if you know for sure you'll be taking a lot of transit.

But you should really go Arc Card. Benefits:
1. It still has a "monthly pass" but rather than paying for it up front, you pay for it as you go. Once you reach $100 in a month, it no longer takes money from your card.
2. You do have to tap in and should tap out any time you take the train and bus. Tapping out is not necessary unless you're taking a suburban bus that has the possibility for a higher fare unless you tap out.
3. If you lose your card, you can call customer service and have the balance transferred to a new card.
4. You can start using it right away for partial months. It's $2.75 to use your Arc Card vs. $3.50 for cash and $2.775 to use one of 10 pack ticket.
Click to expand...

I have been using the Arc card for about 1 week. What I observe is that in many cases the card reader takes long time to read, like 3-5 seconds or even it does not work on buses. I am worried if I made any mistakes about "entry" and "exit" record and thus wrong fare.

Therefore, combined with the reason that I am a heavy transit user, I would like to have a monthly pass that can skip the card reading process.
 
I believe the issue is, unfortunately, that the actual IT infrastructure for ARC is based out of an Amazon Web Services facility in Montreal (can't say 100% the actual card scanning is handled in Montreal, but myarc.ca routes there, so seems like a fair bet). It takes time to relay data all the way across the country and then for it to be sent allll the way back.

I think this is also an issue with some other online services that just feel glitchier in Edmonton than other cities (Lime I suspect is affected by the same issue for example). Edmonton and Alberta generally just doesn't have that much easily accessible IT infrastructure for companies to tap. I recently needed a server for a personal project I was working on and really had to look for a provider here in Edmonton (went with Net Know, would recommend btw). The difference between a server in town vs. one in Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal where most Canadian web services are based is night and day as far as responsiveness goes.
 
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