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Beaumont Transit


DavidW

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Interesting. I don't have the stats, but it seems that part of the reason the last ETS Beaumount venture failed was because of the decision to run the bus all the way into Downtown. Running it only to Mill Woods TC would mean that you either need less funding to run the service, or get more trips for the same amount of money.

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There was the Beaumont service before that. It was privately run with two retired ETS Jimmies. It ran from MWTC. I caught it once and there were not a lot of people on it. It was around 1500-1600 hrs when normally there should have been more than three or so people on board.

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  • 7 months later...

Tenders and Request For Proposals

Request For Proposal - Transit Feasibility Study

The Town of Beaumont wishes to undertake a Transit Feasibility Study to determine the demand

for inter-city bus service to the City of Edmonton and local bus service within the Town of Beaumont,

and to identify the associated operational, financial and other implementation requirements

for the potential service. Deadline for Submission: February 21, 2012 (please note this change of date from February 20, 2012.)

Submit proposals to:

Jarret Esslinger

Environmental Sustainability Coordinator

Town of Beaumont

Site Address:

24130 Twp Rd 510

Mailing Address:

Unit 1, 5600 - 49 Street

Beaumont AB T4X 1A1

For more information download the Transit Feasibility Study Request For Proposal

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  • 2 months later...

The service that Beaumont had before was two morning trips and two afternoon trips on 60 minute frequency and only ran to MWTC. Service was stopped because grant money ran out and Beaumont did not want to continue the service.

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A privately run service the year before, utilising ex-ETS fishbowls, only ran as far as Mill Woods TC, but only lasted a couple of months.

I remember this service, I took the liberty of riding / checking it out (as part of my above and beyond duty !). The guy driving it was also the owner and he gave me his business card. Sorry, can't remember his name. Very nice fella.

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  • 2 years later...

Tender out for a contractor of peak commuter bus service to Beaumont.

Also, found this: http://www.thebeaumontnews.ca/2012/09/17/beaumont-millwoods-shuttle-bus-now-operating

Interesting find. I googled the telephone number in the article you found and came up with these two newspaper ads.

beaumont-BMWS-2012Sep07beaumontnews.jpg

The Beaumont News 07 Sep 2012

beaumont-BMWS-2012Sep21beaumontnews.jpg

The Beaumont News 21 Sep 2012

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Beaumont is going to try again

Town takes second try for bus service

The Beaumont News

15 September 2014

The town is sending out another Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide bus service, with hopes of getting the wheels on the bus rolling by May of 2015.

[...]

In addition to the original requirements, such as a minimum of six trips and two buses per peak period, the RFP stipulates that the service term would begin on May 1, 2015, and go until Aug. 31, 2017.

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Just ran some times on Google Maps. 19 minutes to Century Park and 14 minutes to Mill Woods Town Centre. I am a little surprised at the time to CP! With LRT taking about 20 minute to Downtown, that is the faster option as a bus from MWTC would be 30 minutes at best.

Century Park would probably realistically be a 45 minute round trip, and that's without a local loop. I guess 15 minutes would be enough for a local loop, but I think it would be pushing it.

The one thought I've had is join Leduc Transit. Run a bus to Hwy 2 via Hwy 625, with transfers made to/ from the Edmonton bus. Great part would be a common image for Leduc County's transit, common fare structure, would be possible for riders to reach Nisku, Leduc, and the Airport somewhat easily. It has the potential to create a full blown transit system, rather than a collection of independent routes.

Also, as I detailed in my Leduc Transit post a week ago, 1 direction of the Edmonton trip has a massive loop through Nisku. Use a Beaumont bus to do that loop and make the Edmonton bus a straight run with a transfer point.

Of course, it isn't without it's challenges... not a 1 seat ride, Leduc bus seems busy enough at times those transferring from Beaumont might not find space on the bus, no easy place to transfer as the roads are laid out now.

My original reason for this idea was more bang for their buck... shorter run to Hwy 2 and maximizes the existing Leduc Transit service.

Give it 5 years though. If the growth continues, I could see 2 main Leduc County Commuter routes. 1 to CP, 1 to MWTC once LRT reaches there.

Even now, my opinion is that Leduc Transit should take over the airport bus. Again, provide 1 common image, 1 fare structure and perhaps efficiencies. As an example, outside of peak hours, Leduc could run the airport bus through to Leduc for all day service to Edmonton. During peak, they would run the routes separate.If Leduc Transit wanted to provide hourly midday serve between Edmonton and Leduc only they would probably need 2 buses, for a total of 3 in operation between ETS and Leduc Transit, while extending the airport bus would probably only require 1 extra bus, for a total of 2 on a combined Edmonton-Airport-Leduc route.

As is right now, ETS maintains 4 buses for airport use, 2 in use at once. 50% spare ratio. Leduc Transit has 4 buses, 1 spare so 25% spare ratio (102 hasn't been spotted in service yet!). Combined right now there are 5 buses at peak (2 ETS, 3 LT) with 3 spares. If Leduc operated all service they would probably only need 7 buses. 5 for service, 2 spares. It's a minor savings of 1 bus, but, it is a savings. In particular, the one that could see the savings is the airport as I believe they are helping fund the 747.

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  • 11 months later...

A lot of time has passed since the proposed 01 May 2015 start of commuter transit service between Beaumont and Edmonton. I'm guessing their RFP process again failed to produce an acceptable bid. I googled but didn't even find any news about what happened. Has anyone heard anything?

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  • 2 months later...
  • 9 months later...

http://www.beaumont.ab.ca/pages.php?pg1=1005&pg2=2006&pg3=3002&pg4=4001&pg5=5008

Looks like Beaumont is slated to start running their commuter service in September 2017.

Beaumont is buying the buses, which are apparently down to 3 buses? Unless it's 3 buses for service and 1 spare? The timings though look like they only need 2 buses on the road at a time. 

ETS will operate the service, garaging and maintaining the buses at an ETS facility.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Some action from Beaumont's first day of operation. Apparently destination signs aren't working yet?! and they weren't showing on trackers either. ETS had enough time you would have thought to get things like that sorted out!

6950 was on the first run into Edmonton.
btltDSC07253.thumb.jpg.31df582be87aecf6c904653a2b9f410c.jpgbt6950-DSC07209.thumb.jpg.ba74ab2cf1075c4f5edab8958286b755.jpgbt6951-DSC07425.thumb.jpg.41ef3d900c6226244b6e5b52270058dc.jpgbt6951-DSC07435.thumb.jpg.46f08f7f70e89fc2bd1f221b21b2ba56.jpg

beaumont-012.thumb.jpg.b2dcb6b1ae7793a96a06addb5eb87cd2.jpg
Bonus: Beaumont Transit Services 948 departing Mill Woods TC over 15 years ago.

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  • Board Admin

Great shots! Interesting to see that the bottom half is more white.

18 minutes ago, M. Parsons said:

Some action from Beaumont's first day of operation. Apparently destination signs aren't working yet?! and they weren't showing on trackers either. ETS had enough time you would have thought to get things like that sorted out!

Don't forget about how long it took them to get the destination signs on the U2s working after refurbishment!

And while you're including bonuses, here is a shot of the first run of the ETS-operated commuter service in 2003!

ets4279c.jpg

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