Tag: transit

Touring the Edmonton Transit D.L. MacDonald LRT Garage

Edmonton Transit held an open house today at its D.L. MacDonald facility, known as the LRT garage, as part of Transit Centennial Week celebrations. Sharon and I decided to check it out, and arrived at Clareview just in time for the second last tour. I’ve always been curious to see where the LRT cars are housed and maintained, so I thought the open house and tour was pretty darn cool.

We were led throughout the facility, and got to see where the LRT cars are stored, where their various parts are worked on, where they are painted, etc. The D.L. MacDonald garage is an absolutely massive building, and apparently they are under construction to expand it further. It’s really quite impressive to see.

ETS D.L. MacDonald LRT GarageMack on the new LRV

The highlight of the tour was definitely getting to check out the new SD160 Light Rail Vehicles. ETS will be receiving 37 of them at a rate of two per month, finishing in December 2009. Each car costs approximately $4 million CDN. As the new cars come in from Siemens in Sacramento, the old ones are shipped out for retrofitting. The cost for retrofits is estimated to be another $25 million in total.

At first glance there doesn’t appear to be much difference between the old cars and the new ones, but I’m sure there are extensive differences to the underlying systems (better electronics, for instance). A few of the noticeable changes include: cameras instead of mirrors, digital signs throughout, windows that do not open (which means they must have A/C), more comfortable seats, and slightly different mechanisms on the doors. They also seem a little larger.

The first of the new LRVs will go into service late this year. You can see many more photos of the new cars and the rest of the D.L. MacDonald garage here.

ETS Centennial Week: September 12-20, 2008

edmonton transit Today marks the start of Transit Centennial Week here in Edmonton, celebrating 100 years of public transit in our city. The official proclamation occurred today from 11am until noon at City Hall. All week you’ll be able to find displays, special events, free tours, and more.

The festivities get underway this evening at 7pm in Churchill Square. Local band Shout Out Out Out Out will be on hand along with The Whitsundays and the Trevor Tchir Band.

On September 14th you can see Le Fuzz, Ayla Brook, Manraygun, Ben Sures, and Robin Hunter and Six Foot Bullies, a musical event fit for the entire family. On September 19th at both 8pm and 9:30pm, Rapid Fire Theatre will be performing “Kiss My Bus”, a live play on a bus! They also performed this show earlier this summer at the Fringe festival. The big finale on September 20th will be Movies on the Square presented by ETS.

All week in Churchill Square you’ll be able to find information displays and the Big Tent right in front of City Hall which contains transit artifacts and memorabilia, film footage, and other multimedia displays.

For more information and complete event listings, including free tours and garage open houses, check out the Transit Centennial Week website.

If you’ve never been on the High Level Streetcar before, I’d definitely recommend it. There are free tours from 11am until 4pm on the 13th, 14th, and 20th. I think the D.L. MacDonald garage open house would be pretty neat too (the LRT garage…open house is noon to 4pm on the 20th).

Edmontonians flock to transit in 2008?

100 Years of ETSI never thought I’d write a headline like that, but apparently it’s true. According to an article at CBC last week, Edmonton Transit is reporting that ridership rose by 8% in the first six months of 2008 compared with the same period last year. That’s roughly equivalent to an extra 2.5 million fares. ETS called the increase “astounding”, but seemed confused about the cause:

“Buses are packed, the LRT is packed, ridership continues to increase at an astounding rate,” said Ken Koropeski, director of service development for Edmonton Transit.

The increase is almost three times the growth being experienced by other transit systems across the country, Koropeski said, a trend for the city over the past few years.

The CBC article cites three potential reasons: high gas prices, the booming economy and related influx of newcomers to our city, and the U-Pass. I suspect #2 is the biggest cause, but that’s just my gut reaction. I wonder what impact the growth will have on security calls, which have already increased 20% over the last three years.

I also wonder why ETS didn’t share any of this information back in April? You might recall that Statistics Canada released information at the time that said nearly 80% of Edmontonians get to work in vehicle. Granted the StatsCan information came from the 2006 census, but it would have been a good opportunity for ETS to dispel some myths about stagnant (or least slowly growing) ridership.

I hope the growth continues. ETS turns 100 this year, and will celebrate Centennial Week from September 12th to 20th. You can learn more at the ETS website.

Banff Day 2

Faced with the prospect of $24 for the day for parking or walking for an hour in the rain, I decided this morning to make my way to the Fairmont Banff Springs on the Roam bus. I didn’t know this, but as of June 2nd, Banff is home to Canada’s first all-hybrid bus fleet. Adult fare is $2, and the ride from my hotel on one end of Banff Avenue to the Fairmont on the other was only about 15 minutes.

The first day of the conference went very well, though the wireless was pretty crappy. As more and more people got out their laptops and connected, the speed and reliability of the wifi plummeted. On more than one occasion I crossed my fingers as I pressed the “Publish” button.

You can read all of my nextMEDIA 2008 coverage at Techvibes.

This evening the weather was much nicer, so I walked from the Fairmont back to downtown. The sidewalks are all extremely wide, which I guess is no surprise given that Banff is a major tourist town. I walked the rest of the way back to my hotel tonight too.

Banff Bus nextMEDIA Jeff Barr & Kurt Kratchman Banff Banff The Underground Studio

Tomorrow is going to be just as packed as today, but I’m excited. There are a few sessions tomorrow that look quite interesting, and I’m trying to get a mini-tweetup going. I love meeting fellow Twitter users!

As promised, I’ve written a review of Timbers, the Italian restaurant I ate at last night. You can read it at Only Here for the Food.

2008 ETS Community Conference

On Saturday I attended the annual Edmonton Transit System Community Conference. I went last year too. The free half-day conference, which started in 1999, is a way for ETS to share information with and gather feedback from the public. The event started with a keynote by Bob Boutilier, GM of the Transportation Department for Edmonton (not just transit, but all transportation). His remarks were really interesting, and his love for public transit was definitely on display (he came to us from Toronto, where he had a major impact on that city’s public transit systems). Here are my notes from the keynote:

  • This is the 10th anniversary for the Community Conference, and 2008 is the 100th anniversary for ETS.
  • There were 61.9 million trips in 2007, an increase of 7.8% over 2006. ETS is anticipating 63 million trips in 2008.
  • “Transit will never make you money.”
  • Due to poor planning in the past, ETS is having a hard time acquiring land for LRT expansion.
  • Another challenge is the “pickup truck and two car” mentality of many Albertans.
  • The current city council is viewed as very pro-transit, so there are two years to make serious in-roads before new members are elected.

Bob spent quite a bit of time talking about the “5 legged monster” that is the current LRT expansion plan. The idea is to try and capture riders outside the city, so they don’t need to drive in. This regional plan means working with 23 adjacent municipalities, something ETS is quite far along with.

100 Years of ETS

After the keynote, there were two breakout sessions. I attended the Manager’s Update with ETS Manager Charles Stolte, and a session Exploring New Technologies. Here are some notes:

  • ETS will be hiring 240 additional operators this year.
  • Clean diesel bus acquisitions: 231 in 2007/2008, 57 in 2009, 42 in 2010.
  • The cost of hybrid buses has fallen to about $600,000.
  • LRT car acquisitions: 37 in 2008/2009.
  • The first new LRT car will arrive in mid-May, and ETS will hold a public showcase.
  • ETS is working on a “bus of the future” with features like padded seats, color signs, Wi-Fi, GPS, and TVs.
  • The U-Pass created 700,000 new trips in 2007/2008. There was a 30% increase in ridership at both the U of A and MacEwan.
  • ETS is losing over $3 million per year due to the U-Pass.
  • Centennial week will take place September 12th to 20th, 2008.
  • ETS is testing a new information kiosk called “Info on the Go” at Churchill Station. It helps you with directions, routes, weather, and more.

I found the session on new technologies really disappointing, since they only covered “Info on the Go” and nothing else. Apparently they are exploring the use of text messaging, wireless Internet, and email in addition to having a physical kiosk.

Attendees received a notepad, pen, and ride-guide, and a really cool 2008 ETS calendar. It’s really high quality, and is full of historical transit photos!

ETS fares could rise drastically in 2008

Post ImageIf you think a $59 monthly pass for Edmonton’s Transit System is expensive now, wait a year. A proposed fare policy would increase the cost of a monthly pass to a whopping $74:

Coun. Mike Nickel supports the hike, arguing transit has to recover more of its costs through the fare box. He rejects suggestions that the increase would lead to a drop in ridership.

“No I don’t think it will discourage ridership. Actually, people have to measure their other modes of transit against the costs of ridership. Gas is costing more for your car, insurance is costing more for your car.”

Actually insurance is getting cheaper in Alberta, is it not? And Mr. Nickel neglects to recognize that lots people (myself included) don’t replace a vehicle with public transit entirely, they use both. I save most of my money not on gas and insurance, but on parking.

Here are the prices in a few other Canadian cities:

  • Calgary: $75/month
  • Vancouver: $69/month for 1 zone, $95/month for 2 zones, and $130/month for 3 zones
  • Ottawa: $71.25/month

Compared with those cities, the proposed fare for Edmonton feels like a rip-off does it not? Calgary and Vancouver for sure have better transit systems than Edmonton does (partially as a result of geography and population density). On the other hand, a monthly pass in Red Deer is $58, so maybe it’s not such a bad deal after all.

Any fare hike would not take place until 2008, and it has to get to city council first anyway (currently it is with the council’s transportation committee).

Read: CBC News

2007 ETS Community Conference

Post ImageI went to the Edmonton Transit System Community Conference this morning, and I have to admit it was rather interesting. I’m not a transit geek or anything like that, but I happened to come across the conference online last week, and a couple of sessions caught my eye. One was on new technology, and the other was on web technology. Other sessions included a tour of the LRT garage, an input session regarding the 100th anniversary of ETS (happens in 2008), and an information session about Edmonton’s Transportation Master Plan.

I recorded the welcome and keynote, which you can listen to here. Here are some notes from the two breakout sessions I attended. From new technology:

  • ETS has ordered six hybrid buses, two of which are already in service. Each one costs around $700,000.
  • They also recently finalized their largest single order of buses ever (over 200). The new fleet will replace all the old GM buses, and will allow some room for growth. The 2007 Clean Diesel buses cost about $400,000 each.
  • ETS is experimenting with GPS and other wireless technologies. Lots of buses now have a GPS transmitter on top. The only thing preventing them from doing cool things like an “arrivals & departures” board at transit centres is money.
  • Most buses will be outfitted with a camera system consisting of 5 cameras. The cameras record to a DVR on the bus that has around 1 TB of storage, and uses MPEG-4 compression.
  • They have new automatic people counters! Haha, kinda funny they mentioned this one, but it actually does make a big difference I guess. In the future it could be linked to some of the wireless technologies too so that ETS would know if a bus is full or not in real-time.

And from web technology:

  • The webmaster for ETS is the same lady who records the BusLink information, and the old station announcements on the LRT.
  • I came ready to complain about all the new windows that are spawned on the website. Apparently I’m not the only one with that concern! No word on when it will get fixed.
  • The ETS website is the busiest of all City of Edmonton websites, with over 900,000 visits in 2006.
  • They launched an online store four months ago, where you can buy tickets and passes. It has already done over $100,000 in sales.
  • An average of 89,000 plans per month were created in 2006 with the Trip Planner tool.
  • There is a lot of things they’d like to add to the website, but it sounds like they have to jump through hoops to be able to make any changes.
  • It was mentioned in passing, but it sounds like the City of Edmonton is gearing up to overhaul their entire web presence.

The new technology session was particularly interesting for me…I have long wondered if they were testing GPS and similar technologies. Turns out they are!

It was announced in the keynote that the recent U-Pass referendum at the University of Alberta passed with 84 percent voting yes. You can read more about the vote at The Gateway. The ETS staff seemed pretty excited about it.

I’m not sure I’d go to this conference every year, but it was definitely worth checking out. And hey, you can’t beat the price – free!

ETS Pilots

Post ImageI take the train to work and school every day, except for the weekends and days like last Friday that I just take off completely. Normally, it’s the same thing day after day. Today however, when I took the train from Stadium to the University, things were different!

You know on the airplane right after you’ve lifted off, or right before you’re about to land, or just as you reach cruising altitude, the pilot talks? He’ll say something about the time, the weather, thanks for choosing our service, etc. That’s what the driver of the train did today! It might sound inconsequential, but it was so completely unexpected! I was totally caught off guard.

It’s kind of funny too, when you think about it, because unlike with an airline, you don’t have a choice of what LRT company to use. There is only one! I don’t know if it’s a regular thing now, or if the particular driver I had this morning was just microphone-happy. Time will tell.

Edmonton's Historic Streetcar

Post ImageIt’s amazing how long you can live in a city, and still not explore everything it has to offer. Today was one of those “wow, didn’t realize that existed” days for me. The adult learning class I volunteer for (the students are from the inner-city and learn reading but mostly writing) was taking a field trip today, on Edmonton’s historic streetcar. I had never been on the streetcar before, and actually, I don’t even remember seeing it. I guess that was what amazed me most, that I could be so oblivious.

Mother nature didn’t really want to cooperate, with brief showers every now and then. As soon as we’d go inside, it would be sunny, and yet when we went back out, it would rain again! Our group is a positive bunch though, and the rain didn’t dampen our spirits. My job was to take pictures of the trip, so I ended up with about seventy. Thank goodness for digital!

The streetcar itself was rather interesting! I spoke with the conductor for a while, and he was explaining some of the history. You can read a little about it at the Edmonton Transit site. I found the ride quite short though, I expected it to last longer. It was rather neat to go across the top of the high level bridge, which I cross many times a week by car. The conductor even stopped halfway across so I could snap a few photos. Apparently it is the tallest streetcar bridge in the world.

Next week when the group meets, we’ll write about today’s experience on the streetcar, so I am looking forward to what everyone has to say! If you live in Edmonton and haven’t yet been on the streetcar, why not go for a quick ride? You might even learn something!

Read: Edmonton Radial Railway Society