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Fort Saskatchewan Transit


M. Parsons

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I knew Leduc was getting transit, but Fort Saskatchewan? I honestly had no idea. It's about time though, with all of that growth in the southern and western ends of the city (hospitals, big-box stores and multi-family housing), it's definitely needed. Also saw Shawn post a map of Route 198 with reduced service through the city (in the new schedule), now I know how this can be explained! Good for Fort. Sask.

Anywhom, from praise to "posting to contribute", since I have not seen this thread before or heard the topic:

http://www.fortsask....sidents/transit - site. Surprisingly, no mention of the new local service, just the ETS service.

http://www.fortsaska...ystem-launching

Instead of depositing a fare, riders can drop a ballot on buses for a chance to win a tablet, courtesy of the City of Fort Saskatchewan.

Paid fares will begin May 1:

• Students: $1 one-way or free with U-pass.

• Adults: $2 one-way.

• Seniors: $1 one-way.

Route 582 will provide service to Westpark, Pineview and the Southfort area to the Dow Centennial Centre; while Route 583 will run through Bridgeview, downtown and Sherridon to the Dow Centre, where riders can connect with Route 198 to the Clareview LRT Station in Edmonton.

Both routes will run weekdays on a 30-minute frequency from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. and from 1:22 p.m. to 8:25 p.m.

Chad Paddick, manager of Transportation Services, said the City wanted to introduce the new transit system to offer improved services in Fort Saskatchewan and to increase ridership from the Fort to the Claireview LRT Station in north-east Edmonton.

Honestly couldn't find a map of the local, not-ETS transit system. Does anyone have a copy, or a link?

And also, reading that, does that mean from 7:30am to 1:22pm, there is no transit service?

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I knew Leduc was getting transit, but Fort Saskatchewan? I honestly had no idea. It's about time though

So what was the service that ETS has been contracted to provide for the past number of years if it wasn't transit service?

And, for the record, the new service is contracted as well. Fort Saskatchewan probably doesn't own those buses. Fort Taxi is the contractor for the service. The other bus decaled for Fort Saskatchewan Transit seems older then FTS14 and is certainly a different make and model, meaning, most likely Fort Taxi just pulled at least 1 bus from the their existing fleet. Basically, the same idea that ETS has provided... The contractor is providing the buses and drivers for the transit service.

Anywhom, from praise to "posting to contribute", since I have not seen this thread before or heard the topic:

http://www.fortsask....sidents/transit - site. Surprisingly, no mention of the new local service, just the ETS service.

The Transit page did have all of the information on it a few days ago. Odd.

New ETS route pamphlets for the 198 include the maps and schedules for the 582 and 583, although, with a note that ETS has nothing to do with those routes. I'm sure ETS has the new PDF of the 198 on their website as well.

In a perfect world transit would run 24/7. Reality is though with limited funding, you have to do the best you can with what you've got. Studies indicated that the desire was there for more of a midday service, so I guess having to choose either morning service or midday service, they went with midday service.

Rumours of all day service have proven to be untrue, but, perhaps in the future we'll see.

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Turns out I still had the page open with original information....

Hopefully the file I attached works.

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

Fort Saskatchewan Transit.htm

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Effective April 27th 2014 rte 198 will run hourly from W Clareview Stn to Dow Centre Ft Sask to connect to the 582 583. I will be driving the 198 on Mondays if anyone is wanting to go out there Monday to confirm, if I connect with those buses ill get photos :)

Assuming you mean hourly starting at 13:26? No service from Clareview between 06:57 and 13:26 :P

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  • Board Admin
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  • Board Admin

Made my way up to Fort Saskatchewan today with a fellow board member. Got some photos of the buses operating routes 582 and 583. The local routes have red text on the bus stop signs. Drivers were nice and had the FST logo embroidered on their uniform!

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Fort_Saskatchewan_Transit_03-a.jpg

Fort_Saskatchewan_Transit_FTS-14-a.jpg

fst-busstop.jpg

I also updated the Wiki with information: http://cptdb.ca/wiki...tchewan_Transit

And a couple of photos of bus stops along the routes:

IMG_3546.JPG

IMG_3547.JPG

And a ticket:

IMG_3556.JPG

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The Lions Club has bus shelters to donate?! This is a surprise... that or they donated money towards one. :P

<_<

There are many bus shelters donated by the Lion's Club around Fort Saskatchewan. :mellow:

Between the U-Haul Charter on Tuesday, and A. Wong's visit on Monday they had redecaled the bus stop flags. Pretty glad we went out of the way to shoot a few bus stops that day.

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<_<

There are many bus shelters donated by the Lion's Club around Fort Saskatchewan. :mellow:

I've never seen any pictures of the bus stops around Fort. Sask. before this thread. I do know though, the Lions Club does take a large interest in the communities its in. Back here in Winnipeg, they turned the local football field behind my house, which had nothing substantial other than a plain football field and airport fencing w/barbed wire (I live under the flightpath) 15 years ago, into a new sports park, with upgraded buildings, paved parking, electronic game signage, a playstructure upgrade... I know they can fundraise and build it when it comes to projects. I just didn't think they would be into bus shelters. Guess i'm wrong! And that they take community improvements/donations into different things than I've seen in Manitoba. Wonder if they would be planning anything bigger in terms of these donations towards public transit.

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  • 6 months later...
  • Board Admin

Sounds like the transit system was in question during the city's budget discussions. Listening to Mix 107.9 this morning, Mayor Gale Katchur spoke on the commitment to the citizens on running the transit system and how they will need to start promoting it better.

http://fortsaskonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18549&Itemid=33

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  • 3 weeks later...

Transit project survives the axe
By Lindsay Morey, Fort Saskatchewan Record
Thursday, December 18, 2014 3:01:56 MST PM

[...]

For the 2015 budget, council approved another $637,000 from reserve funding toward the 18-month transit pilot project, which comes with a total price tag of $1.12 million. Almost $593,000 of that goes towards the ETS commuter contract, and the remainder pays for the two local bus routes.

[...]

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  • 10 months later...

Analyst deems transit pilot a success
By Lindsay Morey, Fort Saskatchewan Record
Thursday, October 29, 2015 2:27:07 MDT PM

Three options were presented for the future of Fort Saskatchewan Transit (FST):
1) Have an ETS commuter route only and eliminate the local service. [...]
2) Extended ETS commuter route through the Westpark neighbourhood but no local service. [...]
3) Modified existing local route with ETS commuter.

Article also includes options for Fort Saskatchewan buying different buses.

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Analyst deems transit pilot a success

By Lindsay Morey, Fort Saskatchewan Record

Thursday, October 29, 2015 2:27:07 MDT PM

Article also includes options for Fort Saskatchewan buying different buses.

I noticed in the transit route maps, the main shopping area - with the Safeway/Wal-Mart off of 86 Avenue, is serviced by only one route, going CCW (but not the other way around). If they had two-way service to that retail area as opposed to a transfer system (having to travel to "D" in order to transfer back to the blue line/582), I honestly believe that transit use would climb over 3,000/month locally. It would cover more ground in less time, build ridership and provide faster travel between other sides of town.

Also, the two massive chemical plant facilities must be big employers... why not try out service as they do in Brandon with Maple Leaf? I'm on Google Maps looking at the parking lots, and by the lots alone, it looks like there is a considerable need for public transportation.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 6 months later...

With Fort Saskatchewan Transit entering it's 3rd era on September 6th with City owned Arboc's replacing the private high floor cutaways, probably a new contractor (haven't checked to see if there's any information on who won the tender), and most imporantly, I believe this means the local system is no longer in the "pilot" stage, figured I should head out for some photos. Bus stop signs for commuter stops were still ETS style. 

 

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