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Councillors vote to explore new transportation hub — in 2019

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Greyhound Canada and other transportation companies are keenly interested in a common transportation hub for Edmonton, but city officials are too busy with the transit strategy and other projects to take on the challenge now.

Given that, city council’s urban planning committee voted to dip its toes in the water and investigate options with provincial officials with an eye to getting a report back in 2019.

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“We don’t want to go too far down the road without (the province),” said Coun. Michael Walters after planner Sarah Feldman said provincial officials are already working on similar ideas. 

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The province has its own transit plan that’s now gone to the minister for approval, Feldman told councillors Wednesday, although it’s unclear to what extent that plan will address this issue.

Shared space

Greyhound Canada senior director Scott Wright told councillors an intermodal hub would be great for passengers trying to make connections and looking for a restaurant, washrooms and other amenities in a service station.

Bus companies operate out of shared space like that at the airport in Winnipeg and in more central locations in Vancouver and Montreal. Those are public facilities where they rent space for their kiosk and pay for the number of bus bays needed.

That model makes sense for Greyhound, said Wright. “As an operating company, you should be putting your money into your fleet and not owning property.”

A city report says many transportation companies in Edmonton already locate in clusters because they’re looking for similar site characteristics — connection to public transit and to highways. The Edmonton International Airport told officials it is interested in building a transit hub on its site and has already reserved space for future LRT and high-speed rail in its master plan.

estolte@postmedia.com

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Where are transportation providers located now?

City of Edmonton map shows public and private transportation stop locations. Dark green dots represent four private transportation stop locations, light green is one private transportation stop location. Purple dots represent public private transportation stop locations. More information at edmonton.ca/meetings.
City of Edmonton map shows public and private transportation stop locations. Dark green dots represent four private transportation stop locations, light green is one private transportation stop location. Purple dots represent public private transportation stop locations. More information at edmonton.ca/meetings. Photo by City of Edmonton
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