The dawn of a new decade has brought with it two significant, yet subtle, changes to ETS’ bus fleet. Eleven routes now boast bicycle racks — up from three — while the entire system is now served by low-floor buses.
ETS’ bicycle accommodations are still rather spotty compared to many other operators. On the other hand, Edmonton is relatively flat; while some streets may not be terribly pleasant rides, short hops on transit are liable to be slower than just biking the whole way.
With most quadrants of the city well served, the next step should be to provide racks on regional buses to St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan, and Spruce Grove. These rides are long, treacherous, and claim cyclists’ lives.
Along with these new bicycle racks, the bus fleet is now fully wheelchair accessible. This change has been a long time coming, with old buses slowly disappearing over the years. The increasingly misnamed GM “New Look” high-floor buses have been on their way out since 1993, when New Flyer’s low-floors began to arrive.
Assessing the age of a particular bus used to be easy. Boxy was new, round was old, and the blue and yellow livery was downright ancient. Now, the differences are much more subtle, like the move away from wooden inserts, the changes in seat fabric, and the relatively recent rounded fronts.
A few years ago, the high floors had been relegated to little-used industrial runs, peak-of-the-peak service, and the extra park-and-ride service for football games. Relatively few could be seen plying the mainline routes.
Many of the hangers-on were the increasingly antiquated trolley buses, meaning trollies were unfairly associated with those creaking clunkers by the time council decided to scrap them in 2008. Modern trolley buses, like the one that was on loan from Vancouver, are low floor, silent, and carry back-up batteries.
The decision to scrap them did, however, mean the bus fleet was quickly able to approach 99 per cent accessible. As of the end of August, the high-floor buses were only seeing action on 13 routes. All but two of those only saw one trip per day.
In a fleet of more than 900 buses, a couple dozen little-used high floors are easy to forget about. Most riders probably won’t notice the difference, but for those who depend on the lower floors, it’s sure to be a welcome relief from worrying about being stuck at the curb.
