Someone posted a question the other day asking what the three-year budget has in store for St. Albert Transit.
While the transit department doesn't present its budget requests until Nov. 13, I can share a few line items that show up in the draft 10-year capital plan.
Transit highlights:
- More buses for growth ridership, to the tune of $4.96 million over 2009-11. That includes $2.18 million to accommodate students who've taken advantage of discount transit passes through the U-Pass program. The city saw a 10 per cent jump in ridership in September, due in part to U-Pass.
- South park 'n' ride, $500,000 in 2009. The city hopes to buy some land from the province south of the Superstore/information centre, just north of the future ring road. The new park 'n' ride location would replace the Village Landing station, which is jammed full due to lack of parking. Incidentally, the south park 'n' ride is the spot city hall believes would make a great LRT station some day.
- Transit priority pre-emption, $500,000 in 2009 and $500,000 in 2011. I don't have the details, but from past interviews the city is looking at technology that allows transit vehicles to change a red light to green, improving trip times. They're also looking at queue jumps — short bus-only lanes that allow transit vehicles to skirt around lineups at traffic lights. A special signal would tell the bus driver when it's safe to proceed.
The City of Edmonton is currently building a queue jump at St. Albert Trail and Yellowhead Trail (St. Albert chipped in), which should improve travel times to downtown Edmonton. The jump should be open sometime next year. Additional jumps are planned along the Trail, including 137th Avenue.
As engineering director Todd Wyman once told me, transit priority pre-emption is meant to gradually improve public opinion of transit and reduce traffic gridlock.
"You're going to be stopped at a red light and see a bus take off and get ahead of the pack … if you don't like that you have a choice to make: get on the bus or sit in traffic."
- NW LRT study, $50,000 in 2009; LRT planning study, $1 million in 2017. Much like it sounds, this would explore the possibility of extending LRT into St. Albert. The 2017 date alarmed Coun. Len Bracko last weekend when he asked about fast-tracking LRT. "I might be dead by then," he quipped.
Officials reassured Bracko by explaining the city is trying to piggyback on work the City of Edmonton is currently doing on an analysis to determine what route LRT would take to reach St. Albert's border.
- North park 'n' ride, $500,000 in 2010. This only buys the land, located north of Wal-Mart. The station shows up again in 2016 as a $5.7-million expense.
- Bus replacement, $14.6 million over 10 years (2009-18). This would replace existing transit buses (not to be confused with purchasing buses for new routes).
There are other capital requests, but those seem to be the main ones.
I have no details on the operating side, but the rumbling from city hall is the new transit driver contract isn't going to be cheap.
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