The manager of the Edmonton Transit Service says she wants a frequent and reliable system — one where a rider can show up at their stop and know that a bus or train is just minutes away.
"I tell everybody, frequency is freedom," Carrie Hotton-MacDonald told Taproot. "I want that on a T-shirt, because it's the truth. It's a complete game changer for us as riders."
But it's hard to deliver that frequency in a system that lacks predictable and sustainable investment, the branch manager for ETS said. "We're at the point where we've checked the couch cushions, and we have, I think, made decisions to be as efficient as we can and stretch every dollar," she said. "I need more buses. I can't sugarcoat it. It's just a lack of investment and capacity."
Edmonton city council will spend this year shaping the 2027-2030 operating and capital budgets, and Hotton-MacDonald said her branch is getting ready to build a budget based on the direction of city councillors. "We've got a lot of competing pressures on the renewal side, let alone considering anything growth-related, so we'll have to wait and be patient and see how this all shakes out and what they prioritize in a very constrained environment," she said.
ETS needs about 250 buses over the next four years to replace the oldest vehicles in the fleet, a city report said. ETS also needs 100 buses over four years to address the rapid population growth the city has experienced in recent years. With diesel buses costing around $1 million each, simply meeting minimum service standards with newer vehicles represents roughly $350 million in capital spending.
That aging fleet affects everything from reliability to frequency, Hotton-MacDonald said. "It's really difficult to have a reliable service when some of (the buses) are over 10 years past their end of useful life. That's insane. It's embarrassing."
The city's capital investment outlook, which council is scheduled to discuss on Jan. 27, describes just how constrained finances are ahead of the next four-year budget. The report suggests the city will be able to spend about $11 billion on both renewal and growth projects across all departments in the next 10 years, representing a funding shortfall of $10 billion. City administration has advised council to keep growth projects to a minimum and instead focus on renewing the city's aging assets.
Hotton-MacDonald said ETS is willing to find creative solutions to rider issues if need be. For example, Coliseum Station requires riders to go down a set of stairs in a narrow and dark environment and then back up the stairs to access the train. Instead of completely redesigning and replacing the station, as the city did with Stadium Station, she said a cheaper solution could be to provide at-grade access at Coliseum and get rid of the lower level entirely. "It serves no valuable purpose, in my opinion," she said. "I think we can completely change how people interact with the station and how they connect over to the bus side."
Increasing frequency is a priority for Edmonton's head of transit, but that requires investment, she said on the Taproot Exchange members-only livestream. (Stephanie Swensrude)
Funding constraints loom large as council enters its version of zero-based budgeting this spring. Starting in March, city departments such as ETS will present reports to councillors with an overview of the branch, a line-by-line budget, structural budget variances, staffing composition, service levels, comparisons with other municipalities where possible, and any audit information.
"I want to get a better understanding of, 'What are they prioritizing? What do they want me to focus on?'" Hotton-MacDonald said. "I have ideas of what I'd like to bring forward around bus rapid transit opportunities, transit priority measures, and those types of things, service-related investments, and obviously, bus renewal is a big priority."
This story is based on a larger conversation with Carrie Hotton-MacDonald on the Jan. 23 edition of Taproot Exchange, a members-only livestream conversation that goes deep on issues of interest to Edmontonians. Become a member for access to future livestreams, as well as recordings and transcripts.