ETS ridership up, crimes on transit down
Posted June 12, 2024 2:38 pm.
The new Valley Line Southeast LRT is being credited for helping boost transit ridership in Edmonton.
Since the Valley Line SE opened last November, the city says ridership grew from 138,000 people that month to 223,000 in April 2024 – a nearly 62 per cent increase.
“Currently, Valley Line Southeast, which runs from Mill Woods to Downtown, represents around 13 per cent of total LRT ridership,” the City of Edmonton said in a news release.
The city calls it “one of several contributing factors” in explaining why there has been a 21 per cent increase in the number of people using ETS since April 2023.
The city says ridership reached 5.3 million last month, the 37th month in a row where year-over-year monthly ridership increased.
Those new figures come as police data show authorities are seeing a decrease in the number and severity of reported crimes.
Despite this, council heard Wednesday morning how perception of transit is not improving at the same pace.
“Transit is such a huge investment in this city, it’s a core service,” said Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette. “And if we want to see that ridership increase, and therefore some of those revenues back in, a few dollars here leads to a lot of dollars coming out of the system if we went that route.”
Paquette hopes to see more staff – both attendants and police – on transit to help with perception.
