St. Albert’s Handibus system should offer more trips into Edmonton and can do so for less than what the mayor thought it might cost, according to a report presented to city council Monday.
Steven Wilkes of IBI Group presented the final report to council after months of research and public consultation with groups that use the Handibus system in St. Albert. Among one of the chief concerns that arose repeatedly in the process was access to Edmonton, he said. The city could address those concerns by offering daily off-peak-hour service from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. starting in July of next year.
There would be no additional buses required, but the city would be able to add 60 more trips per week for an annualized cost of $195,000.
“This is somewhat of an evolutionary process,” Wilkes said.
The city could add peak-hour service in 2014, provided it was willing to purchase an additional vehicle. St. Albert could also look into partnerships with Edmonton services such as the Disabled Adult Transit System (DATS).
“That can enable residents of St. Albert to use Handibus to get to Edmonton and transfer to DATS to get to other destinations in the city,” Wilkes said.
Currently, Handibus service to Edmonton is only permitted from 7 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 5 p.m. for education or work purposes. A one-way trip costs $11.
“The purpose of this would be to eliminate those restrictions,” said St. Albert Transit director Bob McDonald. “How it might work in the first year is the people using it under those restrictions, we would continue that service, but for new people we would eliminate that whole requirement, just a first-come, first-serve basis.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse expressed some surprise at how small the annualized cost would be.
“The ability to do what they said — about 60 trips per week for a lot less than I thought it was going to be, really stuck out,” Crouse said. “I though there was going to be a recommendation that there would be this full-fledged Handibus service that would cost a quarter-of-a-million dollars.”
Wilkes is also recommending the city further explore the issue of accessible or supplemental taxis, of which there are currently none offered by any of the local taxi companies. Such a service would complement local Handibus service.
“There should be discussions with local or regional taxi companies to gauge the level of interest in the provision of supplemental service,” Wilkes said.
Crouse said the city does not currently have the appetite to do more than encourage discussions between transit and taxi providers.
“At this point we have Handibus. I don’t know if we’ll take it any further,” Crouse said.
Such a service could run afoul of Edmonton’s taxi rules, which prohibit companies from coming into Edmonton to pick up any kind of fare.
“What that means is we have to start working taxi regulators in Edmonton,” McDonald said. “If there’s regulatory hurdles in the way, we need to start working with them to eliminate those hurdles.”
Other recommendations include streamlining the eligibility process for Handibus users by contracting out to a third party to save costs, as well as encouraging the use when possible of conventional transit because all buses in St. Albert are low-floor, accessible vehicles.
The final report will be posted to the city website for public comment for a period of 30 days.
McDonald said the first step in incorporating the recommendations is to bring forward business cases during the 2013 budget process.
