BRT in Edmonton

[thelakelander]

I just stumbled across this forum, while doing research on BRT in some other cities.  It appears that Edmonton's transit authority wants to spend $500 million on BRT and their forum members aren't happy about it.  Take a little time to see what they are saying.  They sound a lot like us.

Here's one interesting post, since JTA refuses to give cost estimates on this thing:

I've had a bad feeling about this BRT situation ever since those wBRT open houses. Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.

This entire BRT issue looks like a cleverly crafted PR project.
The open house materials and website are a mix of solid facts (some useful) and misleading, missing or incomplete information.
And then all of a sudden, less then 2 weeks before the public hearing they release this $500 million price tag.

I think the reason why they waited till last minute to announce the price tag is so they could say (at the hearing) that the public was previously made aware of this fact and so nobody would go deaf from the outcry that would result. That and so there is little time for potential nay-sayers to hear the information before it's too late.

It goes to public hearing on July 10.
Hopefully there will not be any gaping holes in their plans this time.
It's win-win regardless. If council approves it goes forward. If council defers or postpones they get to study alternatives.
Of course council could toss the entire BRT idea out the window, not very likely, but if so they'd have to do a study to see if that's the best thing to do.


Oh yes, feedback based on the facts at hand.
5-10 years before BRT is ready.
- Is this because of incompetence, lack of funds, or they have to re-evaluate the study every 6 to 12 months?
Will improve travel times in the short term.
- What about the long term? Better, worse, no change? By stating it as they did I get the impression that the plan will be detrimental to travel times in the long term.

As for the edmontonbrt.ca website in the documents I believe it states $21 million for the first phase. It does not list any other information to my knowledge.


I was led to believe that "BRT is a cost effective way of quickly providing high quality, rapid transit to areas in the west, north and southeast parts of the city".
I do not consider $500 million to be cost effective for 3 new super express routes - that's basically what they are.
Then again I wonder... does that $500 million include operating expenses or is that extra? What am I saying, of course that's extra. How much? We'll probably find out in 5-10 years (minus 2 weeks).

Anyone in the public feel manipulated? I do.

link to forum: http://www.connect2edmonton.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?p=43436


another interesting thing taken from this forum.  It's Ottawa's BRT numbers before and after the O-Train started running.

[Lunican]

How do you build roads with federal money earmarked for transit?

Answer: Bus Rapid Transit