{"id":40391,"date":"2026-05-11T13:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/40391\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:32:06","slug":"edmonton-transit-advocates-warn-of-possible-13-reduction-to-service-if-city-doesnt-invest-more-in-its-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/40391\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton transit advocates warn of possible 13% reduction to service if city doesn&#8217;t invest more in its buses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A group of transit advocates in Edmonton is calling on city council to invest $387 million in its aging bus fleet, otherwise, they warn of potential cuts to service, longer wait times and a decline in ridership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The group, a non-profit called Edmonton Transit Riders, is speaking up as the city&#8217;s urban planning committee prepares to review a new report Tuesday that lays out three possible scenarios moving forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But the group says it believes there is only one scenario, involving a targeted renewal of buses, that can avoid a possible reduction to Edmonton\u2019s bus service of at least 13 per cent, as warned about in the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cCutting our service by 13 per cent means cutting our reliability by 13 per cent,\u201d Emily Stremel, the chair of Edmonton Transit Riders, told CBC News on Friday. &#8220;We know that reliability is the No. 1 driver of ridership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe will lose a lot of that ridership that we&#8217;ve gained over the past few years. Ridership means cars off the road, it means less congestion, it means less pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">State of bus fleet<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the report, the city implemented a midlife bus refurbishment program years ago to extend the useful life of buses beyond the manufacturer\u2019s 12-year standard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The report says while the average bus in North America is retired after 15 years, in Edmonton it&#8217;s 24. Stremel noted more than 50 per cent of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\/edmonton-mayor-infrastructure-funding-provincial-budget-9.7106037\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:city&#039;s bus fleet is considered to be in poor or very poor condition;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;city&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">city&#8217;s bus fleet is considered to be in poor or very poor condition<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Coun. Jon Morgan, a former bus driver, praised the ingenuity of Edmonton&#8217;s mechanical\u00a0crews for stretching out the life of city buses over the years, but said he believes it can\u2019t continue like this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe [Edmonton] Transit Riders are correct that we need to make sure that we are investing in renewal just as much as maintaining our current fleet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Morgan said a 13 per cent reduction in service would impact \u201cpeople trying to get to school, people getting to work and could have a hugely detrimental impact on our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Morgan is part of the city&#8217;s urban planning committee that will review the report Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of transit advocates in Edmonton is calling on city council to invest $387 million in its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[17571,7852,52,17572,17570,17569],"class_list":{"0":"post-40391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-bus-fleet","9":"tag-bus-service","10":"tag-edmonton","11":"tag-emily-stremel","12":"tag-jon-morgan","13":"tag-transit-riders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}