EdmontonTransitService

The last few years LRT stations have become centres of social disorder and crime and made using the LRT unappealing to many. Although average crime severity at LRT stations and transit centres decreased by six per cent last year, calls for services at those locations rose by 12 per cent. Even though ridership grew by 15 per cent in 2024 many Edmontonians still don't feel safe taking transit,

In its latest effort to deal with the problem City Council has redirected $5 million to hire 30 more transit peace officers, increasing the total number of transit peace officers to 126.

Public safety remains a concern for users of Edmonton Transit services. Two City Councillors, Aaron Paquette of Ward Dene and Ashley Salvador of Ward Métis say they would like to see greater police presence on Edmonton Transit but the decision regarding that is left to Edmonton Police Service (EPS). EPS receives almost half a billion dollars per year and has 26 constables dedicated to transit.

Paquette says he has made his concerns known to pretty plain to the city manager, to the police chief, and to our administration and to the province. Salvador echoes Paquette in saying we can share feedback with the police commission but responsibility for operational decision making, allocation of resources, where the patrols go, lies with the chief and the service.

EPS spokesperson Brooke Timpson said transit-related calls are increasing overall and EPS’ “primary approach” is to work with social service agencies to “connect vulnerable community members to available resources.”

In 2017 ETS signed a $31.4 million deal with Vix Technology of Australia to supply and install fare machines at LRT stations, transit centres, on trains and buses. The deal with Vix Techonolgy involved a two stage fulfillment the contract. The first stage began in 2019 with the Vix I-Val machines that was a “closed” payment system that only worked with the Arc card. The second stage of deal is now being fulfilled with installment of the open-payment (tap-to-pay) machines which the existing validators across the network within the first six months of 2025. In a recent interview city manager Eddie Robar attempted to answer the questions many people have about why the two stage contract.

Read the article below to better understand why the City did what it did.

On Sunday, December 1, Edmonton Transit's winter schedule goes into effect. Riders can check the post below from CTV news to find out what routes have been affected.

The Valley Line LRT has been open for about 1 year and Carrie Hotton-MacDonald branch manager of Edmonton Transit Service deems the first year a success with some challenges. Twenty-six trains are online, ridership has climbed, on time-performance is high, and train frequency has increased to five minute intervals are some of the successes.

The Valley Line LRT was four years behind schedule in opening, there have been at least 23 accidents involving the train and drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. Poor reliability, accessibility concerns, social disorder and vandalism have accounted for automatic doors being removed from 76 shelters and shelter redesign would be costly and difficult.

Edmonton Transit Riders have been operating as a group for the past six months and had a coming out celebration on Sunday. Edmonton Transit Service provided the event with a charter train that took off from Stadium LRT Station around noon and carried passengers to the Blatchford Gate LRT Station where about 250 Edmontonians got a sneak peek of the non-operational LRT station.

Edmonton Transit Riders have been engaging with transit users and city officials on ways to improve the transit network and board chair Daniel Witte says the launch party was a chance for Edmontonians to meet with the organization to have their voice heard.

In spite of the huge investment of time & money in creating Edmonton's public transit system and police reporting violent crime in Edmonton’s transit centre is down, a recent poll indicates that majority of Edmontonians still do not feel safe using public transit.

Former Edmonton police officer turned criminologist Dan Jones, the Chair of justice studies at NorQuest College thinks the police report number doesn’t tell the whole story.“ He wonders if its crime that’s going down or is it reporting that going down?

When asked to comment on transit safety Mike Ellis, Alberta’s minister of public safety said that perception is reality and his comment must become a major consideration. As long as people perceive that it is unsafe they will hesitate to use public transit which creates a double whammy that must be addressed. Firstly, public transit must be made truly and actually safe and secondly that will have to be proven and communicated in such a way that will change the public's perception. Until that happens "unsafe" will remain in the minds of too many Edmontonians when they think of public transit.