Edmonton Transit Service is set to cancel regular bus service in three core neighbourhoods, primarily due to low ridership, and replace it with on-demand service.
Route 725, which runs through Lendrum and Malmo, route 726, which runs through McKernan, Belgravia, and Windsor Park, and routes 111 and 131, which run through Riverdale will each be replaced with on-demand service at the end of June.
An ETS route report card from the fall of 2024 showed the Lendrum/Malmo route serves fewer than 100 people per weekday, the McKernan/Belgravia route serves about 160 people per weekday, and the Riverdale route serves fewer than 60 people per weekday. To put those numbers into context, the 518 bus, which travels through the Ellerslie neighbourhood to link Century Park Transit Centre with Mill Woods Transit Centre, sees nearly 4,000 weekday riders.
“Each of (the changing) routes currently operates with relatively infrequent service and attracts low ridership,” Andrew Gregory, manager of planning with ETS, told Taproot. “There is also limited service during certain time periods, so there’s currently gaps in service, and we’ve heard requests and complaints about difficulty getting around.”
The regular bus service — where buses travel a fixed route and schedule — will be replaced with on-demand transit. On-demand transit requires riders to book a trip up to an hour ahead of time using a smartphone, phone call, or computer. The on-demand transit buses don’t collect fares, and will pick up passengers at existing bus stops and drop them off at transit centres or LRT stations.
The switch from regular service to on-demand means that riders will have access to transit service for more hours of the day and more days of the week, Gregory said. “This conversion to on-demand service provides a more consistent span of service during almost all time periods and provides more flexibility for transit passengers to navigate around the areas,” Gregory said.
The Cross Cancer Institute is one destination that should be easier to access with on-demand transit, Gregory said. It’s currently served by the 726 bus, which only comes once an hour Monday to Saturday, and doesn’t run on Sunday. “For some areas, (the change will be) a service improvement — even though you have to book a ride, you could probably get there within a few minutes, rather than waiting an hour if you’ve just missed the bus,” Gregory said.
Cancelling the regular-service routes will free up service hours for ETS buses, which will mainly be allocated to crosstown routes like 54 (West Edmonton Mall to Clareview), 55 (West Edmonton Mall to Meadows via Whitemud Drive), and 56 (West Edmonton Mall to Meadows via 23 Avenue NW). Those routes have between 3,000 and 10,000 daily weekday riders and between 2,000 and 6,200 on weekends.
The service hours will also be used to replace on-demand transit with a regular bus route through the southwest neighbourhoods of Glenridding Ravine and Keswick. There is not currently a standard that determines whether a neighbourhood gets on-demand transit or regular service, Gregory said, “but usually, if we’re in the area of 200 or 300 people (riding a route) a day, then that becomes close to a threshold where a fixed route makes the most sense. It also depends on the length of route and what time periods the ridership is in order to ensure we provide enough capacity.”
The new route in southwest Edmonton will begin on April 27. The shift from regular service to on-demand will happen at the end of June to minimize disruption to high school and post-secondary students.