Should Edmonton move ahead with building a centralized transportation hub? If so, who would pay for it? These are the types of questions Edmonton administration has been asked to look into.
The idea of an intermodal hub stems from the debate over Greyhound, after the company moved its operations from downtown Edmonton to an area north of the core to make way for Rogers Place and surrounding development.
Concerns about inaccessibility at the main terminal were raised early last month, after Global News spoke with several visitors who were forced to drag their luggage through the snow to get to the depot.
“It’s garbage here, you can’t get anywhere,” said one passenger after getting off a Greyhound bus.
“It took us 20 minutes to walk here because there’s no bus out here,” added Silas Schmidt, a German backpacker visiting Edmonton.
READ MORE: Travellers ‘surprised’ by inaccessibility of Edmonton’s Greyhound depot
City Coun. Andrew Knack has asked the city to study the idea of an intermodal hub, a transportation interchange used in Toronto and other major cities in Europe.
The idea is to bring together several modes of transportation, including bus service, metro service and taxis, at one central location.
“Step one is to start a planning discussion around what type of opportunities exist in the city of Edmonton to set up an intermodal hub,” Knack said Tuesday.
“The mayor’s addition to put it in the top of the motion is to have that conversation with the province as well because this is not just something where I would envision you would connect LRT, public transit, taxis, commuter bus service. The province has talked on and off again for many, many years about the idea of high-speed rail, so even thinking about that in any potential plan as we go forward.”
Iveson said the more modes of transportation you can connect together, the better. And if they can connect to local tourist attractions, that’s even better.
“I think that eventually we’ll find a solution for this and there’s no shortage of sites that are well connected around the city that could work.”
In a statement, Greyhound said it worked with the city for five years ahead of the move to find a suitable location.
Stuart Kendrick, a senior VP with Greyhound Canada, said the company independently tried to address the issue of getting travellers to and from the site and currently runs a shuttle twice a day to a drop-off site downtown.
Greyhound officials are working with the city and transit officials to see if their buses can stop at the Kingsway terminal on 118 Avenue.
“One of the proposals we’ve made would have ETS provide transit along 121 Street,” Kendrick added. “We have 20 to 22 buses arriving and departing daily, a potential source of customers for ETS.”
In the longer term, Kendrick said Greyhound would be interested in being part of a transportation hub in the city.
Watch below: Some Edmontonians say they are embarrassed at the inaccessibility of the city’s north end Greyhound depot. The reaction comes after several travellers were forced to drag their luggage through the snow. Vinesh Pratap speaks to the city for answers.
There are still several questions surrounding the idea, including who would partner to bring it to fruition and where the money would come from.
“It sends a signal out to the market and the province that we’re open to working to deliver this,” Iveson said. “But it also sends an important signal that it can’t solely rest on the City of Edmonton to deliver this solution. It will require partners.”
Administration is expected to report back to the city in about three months.
With files from Vinesh Pratap, Global News.
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