Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) from municipalities in the Edmonton Metro Region have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a new, collaborative framework intended to improve regional transit services.

“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.

Collaboration to improve regional transit is built upon established positive working relationships, and existing agreements between regional transit providers and a history of collaboration and mutual support.  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 as well as 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 adjustments to existing services which improve the rider experience, said Wade Coombs, Chair Regional Transit Technical Roundtable.

“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 improving connectivity where riders need it most.”

Some recent examples of how this collaboration has worked include:

• Strathcona County Transit stopping in Edmonton’s Cloverdale Neighbourhood
• Sharing of Naki Transit Centre in St. Albert for special events service
• Beaumont transit providing service to Mill Woods Transit Centre
• Tri-lateral agreement for integrated inter-municipal service between Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County.

“In Spruce Grove, we recognize the importance and the value of providing our residents with a connected and collaborative approach to transit services,” said Spruce Grove Mayor Jeff Acker. “We have already taken steps in this direction with our on-demand local transit service, which provides service within Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland Village and Acheson, as well as our commuter service that offers several Edmonton destinations.”