By Adel Ahmed
With the weather changing constantly in the city, the Edmonton Transit System is making a change of its own. As of February 6th February 6th, ETS adjusted service to 16 routes to accommodate feedback given by riders.
Routes that are affected include the #4 Lewis Farms and the #7 West Edmonton Mall. Additionally, ETS is adding on-demand transit at the Mill Woods Transit Centre starting February 14th. This is one of five times throughout the year where ETS reviews rider feedback. Despite the changes, some NAIT students like Cory Taylor, who lives in Mill Woods, feel that more needs to be done.
“Anytime I wanna go anywhere it takes me an hour with transit,” Taylor said.
“The routes down in [Mill Woods] haven’t changed that much. It’s just not enough buses coming from the south end of the city.”
So the question arises, what can the city do more of when it comes to transit? For Taylor, it’s adding more buses to the roads, especially in residential areas.
“We need more buses on the road to deal with more people,” Taylor said.
“And unfortunately, that means there’s going to be emptier buses because if they come more often then there’s less people waiting around. Having more buses run between transit stations and going into the neighborhoods would mean that it becomes more of a viable thing to the city for somebody who didn’t have a car.”
With the Valley Line train expected to open in the summer of 2022, Taylor hopes it’s a sign of better days ahead forlocal residents who rely on the ETS as their daily commute.
“Hopefully once the [Valley Line] train is up and running it will free up some of the city’s buses and bus drivers so that the city can do more routes to residential areas,” Taylor said.
“The only feedback I’d give to the city is once the LRT starts running, focus on running more bus routes into residential areas. There’s one bus that goes past my house but it comes every 30 minutes. If buses came every 15 to 20 minutes instead then it would be easier to get to your connections and other places.”
To find out the latest bus updates and bus service adjustments, check out the City of Edmonton’s website for more information.
Photo from Vanstrat via Wikimedia Commons
