An Edmonton resident working in St. Albert says the consistent tardiness of St. Albert Transit's 201 route in September caused her to lose graphic design contracts and lower pay from a dog-sitting client.
Deanna Malanchen, 26, a full-time Athabasca University student who works three jobs to help pay her way through school, told The Gazette that between Sept. 14 and 25, the 201 bus she uses to commute from Edmonton to St. Albert was more than 20 minutes late on seven consecutive occasions, causing her to lose needed pay.
“This has impacted all of my jobs quite severely,” Malanchen said.
Malanchen estimated that in the 12-day period, between docked pay, lost contracts, and the cost of two taxis to make it to medical appointments, she has lost $500.
“That’s a big stressor for me because there’s a reason I have to work three jobs. I do need that money."
A St. Albert resident until last December, Malanchen said she found the 201 was usually reliable, which is why she could continue working in St. Albert after moving to Edmonton.
"I’m a very community-centred person so I wanted to make sure I was still giving back to the community that I really care about,” she said. “All my family’s here, all my friends are here, I really like this place."
For her graphic design consultancy work, Malanchen said she caters to retirees launching small businesses.
“I try to focus on older members of the community that are starting businesses. I worked at a farmers' market for a bit and that’s where I actually started finding my first contracts with helping people that were retired from their normal jobs," she said.
“With those people, it’s very important to connect in person, and unfortunately I have lost a few contracts because … when I show up very late or I have to reschedule meetings because I know I’m going to be more than an hour late, it has impacted the relationship with those people quite dramatically."
Malanchen said one of her clients terminated their contract, and for another client she recommended they find another consultant who could provide a more reliably hands-on service.
“That’s hard for me to say because I still consider myself a member of the St. Albert community, so to have to turn down contracts that I need … it’s hard for me to accept that I’m no longer part of the St. Albert community.”
For her dog-sitting job, Malanchen said her pay was understandably docked since she arrived late to care for the "high needs" pup, and she is paid based on her time spent with the dog.
“It was hard for me to see that, but it’s very understandable why they did dock that pay."
City spokesperson Nicole Lynch said the city keeps track of on-time performance for buses that arrive and depart from the Nakî Transit Centre, and in the month of September the overall on-time performance was 92 per cent.
"Of nearly 3,000 departures and arrivals conducted so far in September, fewer than 250 were behind schedule,” Lynch said in an email on Sept. 29.
“There can be specific routes and times of day where timing challenges are more prevalent due to traffic congestion or construction. However, the city monitors these trends and attempts to address them where possible,” Lynch said.
Lynch also stated that in the month of September the city received three complaints from the public related to late buses.
For now, Malanchen said she hopes the 201 becomes more reliable, but she has been looking for work in Edmonton.
“The drivers are always very, very nice and I don’t think this [is reflective] of their attitude or their effort or anything like that, I think it’s just a matter of the city isn’t focusing their resources in the right direction," she said.
"These issues are real and they’re impacting the younger generation of people that don’t quite have the money to be in St. Albert at this point of their lives.”
Too little, too late
An immediate solution to Malanchen's situation, she said, would be if the 201 bus route ran more frequently. During the week, the 201 currently runs once an hour during non-peak times, and three times per hour during peak times.
Come next spring, if the Edmonton Metro Transit Services Commission's (EMTSC) initial service plan begins operating as scheduled, the St. Albert Transit 201 route and 211 route will be amalgamated, and renamed "Metro Northwest 1," according to EMTSC communications manager Lucas Warren.
The EMTSC plans to have the Metro Northwest 1 run five times an hour during peak hours, Warren said in an email.
"For me increasing the frequency [of the 201] would be a solution to the problem I’m going through, but I think St. Albert also needs to really consider why the transit doesn’t have a large uptake," Malanchen said, adding, "because in my mind … if St. Albert transit was more accessible, and it was more convenient, I feel like it would have a much larger ridership on it.
"In my mind the problems I’m dealing with now are just the symptoms of dealing with the constant ignorance of the city management [towards] these issues."
