Edmonton city councillor wants to put brakes on new bus network

Edmonton's revamped bus network is set to start April 25 but at least one city councillor wants the changes to be put on hold.

Councillor Jon Dziadyk said there are too many problems with the network redesign and he plans to raise a motion on Tuesday to delay the launch.

"I'm convinced that the public is not on board with this," Dziadyk said. "People are outraged."

Many of his constituents face longer walks in some cases 15 to 20 minutes to the closest bus stops, Dziadyk said in an interview Monday.

• Big changes for Edmonton commuters as city launches transit redesign

The Edmonton Transit Service Advisory Board, however, recommends the city stay the course and launch the network on time.

Isabell Hubert-Lyall, board chair, saidthe city has invested a lot in the network, which wasthree years in the making, with signsalready up and the transit app launched to show people new routes.

"Delaying it now might be at cost to the public, at cost to the taxpayer," Hubert-Lyall said.

Hubert Lyall acknowledged that the new system will be an adjustment for many people and said it will be important for the city to listen to feedback and tweak the network along the way.

The city had planned to launch the redesign in August 2020 but was delayedbecause of COVID-19.

• Edmonton to roll out revamped bus network by next summer
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Dziadyk saidnow isn't the time for such drastic changes.

People have too many questions about the routes and the timing of the routes, he said, leaving their schedules potentially in more disarray.

"That's a problem, it's a problem that doesn't need to happen right now. We have the time to get this right."

Not everyone is going to return to work as before, even post-COVID, he said.

"This bus network redesign also doesn't contemplate life after COVID in the sense that more people will be working from home, meaning less people will be going downtown," Dziadyk said.

"So a lot of the assumptions of the routes are now incorrect and rendered outdated by virtue of COVID."

On-demand lacking

Sections of Ward 3 are left out of the on-demand service altogether, he said.

The city is offering the on-demand transit service to customers in 37 communities that don't have regular bus routes.

The service takes riders to one of nine transit hubs, where they can transfer to the regular bus or LRT networks.

In most neighbourhoods, it's around 400 metres to walk to the nearest pick-up and drop-off spot.

Communities outside the600-metre range of regular bus or LRT service mustalso have sufficient population to support on-demand service, the city said.

In north Edmonton, the cityaddednew regular bus service to neighbourhoods that did not have it before,such as Crystallina Nera and Cy Becker.

On-demand service will be available from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays andfrom10 a.m to 6 p.m. onSundays and holidays.