Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) from municipalities in the Edmonton Metro Region in Alberta have teamed up to improve regional transit services by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a new collaborative framework that hopes to improve transit efficiency and accessibility.
“This marks an important step forward for growing and improving transit service across the Edmonton Metro Region,” said Darrell Reid, CAO for Strathcona County and chair of the Regional Transit CAO Roundtable. “There are tremendous opportunities to permanently transform our transit network and coming together in this way opens the door to bettering the lives of every transit rider.”
Signatories to the MOU included the city of Beaumont, town of Devon, city of Edmonton, city of Fort Saskatchewan, city of Leduc, Leduc County, Parkland County, city of Spruce Grove, city of St. Albert, town of Stony Plain and Strathcona County, Alberta.
In contrast to previous attempts to grow the regional transit network, the MOU outlined the following principles:
- Municipalities retain sole control of their assets and workforce
- Municipalities retain sole control of their public transit service decisions
- Municipalities have mutual respect for each others’ values, policies, areas of expertise and jurisdictions
- Municipalities will continue to seek to make efficient use of existing resources.
- The CAO of each municipality will be responsible for achieving the desired level of collaboration
Municipal CAOs and local transit leaders will have regular meetings to discuss needs, look for efficiencies and keep lines of communication open.
“Regional transit collaboration will identify opportunities to provide better connections, better use existing services and make no-cost adjustments to existing services which improve the rider experience," said Wade Coombs, transit director for Strathcona County. “The Edmonton Metro Region is growing and regional transit collaboration provides a venue to identify and prioritize service gaps. Each municipality can look at possibilities for sub-regional agreements to improve connectivity where riders need it most.”
Some recent examples of how this collaboration has worked include:
- Strathcona County Transit stopping in Edmonton’s Cloverdale neighborhood
- Sharing of Naki Transit Centre in St. Albert for special events service
- Beaumont transit providing service to Mill Woods Transit Center
“The city of Edmonton believes this collaborative approach will help better connect riders to their destinations throughout the region,” said Andre Corbould, Edmonton city manager. “By working together, we can enable the development of a convenient, reliable and seamless regional transit experience, which will further support mobility, ridership growth and economic investment across the Edmonton Metro Region.”
