A student transit town hall at the University of Alberta on Nov. 20 brought students face-to-face with Edmonton’s key decision makers on transit safety. In collaboration with non-profit organization Edmonton Transit Riders, fourth year U of A business students organized the Trust Transit panel for a capstone project. It hosted panelists Mayor Andrew Knack, Superintendent Fred Macham of Transit Peace Officers and Mariah Eshkakogan of the Community Outreach Transit Team.
“A team of students from the University of Alberta came to us with a proposal to bring transit decision-makers and students together to talk about student transit needs,” said Edmonton Transit Riders on their website. The group advocates for better transit in the city. “We believe in platforming the voices of everybody interested in public transit advocacy in Edmonton, and are happy to support the Trust Transit team in their work to improve the student experience on transit.”
The town hall mostly featured questions from students with the panel answering them. Taking place in the Alberta School of Business’ Carruthers Student Commons, a small crowd of students gathered before everyone took a seat. Before the panel started, the speakers near us were personable and friendly; by the time questions began, though, the town hall was on task and serious.
The main topic was safety — an issue often brought up by students. Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) has been continuously addressing this through an Enhanced Transit Safety Plan introduced by city council in 2022.
The city is pushing to create more day warming stations to deter loitering in transit stations. This way, stations become safer for people using them for their express function.
As well, more dedicated staff are going to be added to the transit peace officers — meaning more peace officers in stations keeping order.
While not a direct strategy, the panelists pointed out that higher ridership leads to safer commutes. The city has already seen a record-breaking 61.1 million trips in 2024 and a 15 per cent increase in ridership since 2023. Riding or being in a station alone in the evening can be intimidating, but as Edmonton’s population grows, more lines open and more people adopt ridership, transit spaces will fill up and therefore become safer.
Lots of encouragement was given to use the outreach phone number 780-232-2782 if students see vulnerable community members who need help.
As Eshkakogan explained, an arrest or expulsion is the last resort. Most of the time, the Community Outreach Transit Team in partnership with the Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society will attempt to get people targeted support. For safety concerns such as harassment, ETS recommends on their website to call or text 780-442-4900. For emergencies, call 911.
In other news, 5G service in underground LRT tunnels can be expected by spring 2026. This means riders will no longer be cut off while commuting downtown.
But the big question I had, that may be close to some NAIT students’ hearts: why does the Metro Line terminate at Health Sciences/Jubilee? As many students might know, if you are coming or going to NAIT from the south side, you must transfer at some point — and in high congestion times, that means packed trains.
The answer, unfortunately, is that if trains were to regularly run through the University Avenue intersection, it would bottleneck cars too badly.
When I asked if there was a solution in the works, Mayor Andrew Knack responded that “the cost to make that change is quite high.”
“When we’re talking about limited capital funding, I would likely see us wanting to prioritize getting more buses on the street, extending other LRT lines like the line from Blatchford across the Yellowhead to other areas before you probably address that,” said Knack.
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a priority in the future, and Knack still wants to hear from NAIT students, who he said “are doing incredible work in this city.”
“I hope all the NAIT students are realizing and remember how much their voice matters right now,” he said. “If you’ve got opinions about the city, if you want to see certain things, reach out to me, reach out to your councillors.” Students can find more information on how to contact their city councillor by visiting the City Government page on the City of Edmonton’s website — NAIT is located in Ward O-day’min under councillor Anne Stevenson.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Nugget’s Dec. 10 print issue.
Feature image via Bradley Houston
