Centralized Service Dispatch Still ‘many years’ away, Knack warns

In early December, deliberations continued for Edmonton’s next budget, with a significant amount of discussion focused on public transit. One such discussion centred on the construction of a new integrated transit control centre to support the growing LRT system and rising ridership.

Council eventually voted to approve a 6.9 per cent tax increase.

The original Edmonton Transit Control Centre opened twelve years ago in the Churchill LRT Station. Former mayor Don Iveson, who oversaw the opening, said at the time that the centre was about “building the foundation for a system that can develop and expand.”

Despite this forward-looking sentiment, the city has since decided it needed a new facility to accommodate the expanding LRT system, increased ridership, and to provide better security for the transit system.

During the budget discussion Coun. Jon Morgan, Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohts, asked about the new Transit Control Centre’s possible savings from efficiency. He was especially interested in whether other services, such as fire dispatch and traffic control, could be integrated into the centre.

“I think we want to start by getting bus and LRT and security all together, and move them into the facility we have, and then we can look at other groups beyond that,” said traffic director Carrie Hotton-MacDonald.

Mayor Andrew Knack said that the idea would be a perfect scenario, but that some of the organizations doing dispatch work are not able to move and it may take “many, many years” to resolve the problem.

However, the mayor was confident in their current choices.

“This is a good decision, it’s not the perfect one, but the perfect one likely can’t be a reality based on what we’re dealing with right now,” he said.

The only opponent of the proposed funding was Coun. Karen Principe, Ward tastawiyiniwak, who proposed withholding $7.3 million in funding from the centre. Her motion was defeated by a 12–1 vote.

Riley Travis

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