Edmonton Transit Service Mill Woods Transit Centre- Valley Line
Opened | April 25, 2021 |
Location | 2730 Hewes Way |
LRT Lines Served | Valley Line |
Platform | |
Passenger Access | N/A |
Park and Ride | No |
With the building of the Southeast Valley Line LRT to Mill
Woods, ETS needed to relocate their Mill Woods Transit Centre to meet the LRT
closer to it's intended terminus on 28 Ave, between 66 St and Hewes Way. The new
transit centre is on an East/ West oriented site that was empty space between
the Mill Woods Town Centre and Mill Woods Town Centre Professional Building and
their associated parking lots.
The design is really unlike anything ETS has employed before. It employs East
and Westbound lanes, with perimeter bus bays. No centre island here. This design
was billed as as "European-style" bus terminal. The intention is for the transit
centre to take up less space, while also being able to build shops and what not
along the perimeter. There is no ability for a bus to turn around as is common
at most transit centres. It seems ETS did try, but that didn't work too well
from the testing I saw! Consequently, when bus schedules do require a bus to
interline with a route facing the opposite direction in the transit centre, the
running board includes time and a deadhead routing that takes the bus along some
combination of roads to orient the bus in the correct place in the transit. This
is further complicated due to the location of the West entry/ exit to 66 St
having to traverse the Mill Woods Town Centre parking lot. This is the first
time ETS buses (40' and 60') have regularly operated through a mall parking lot
to reach a transit centre so part of the work included reconfiguring the parking
lot to taking into consideration bus operations, as well as upgrades to support
the weight of frequent buses passing . Although there is a roadway leading to 28
Ave from the West entry/ exit to the Mill Woods Transit Centre, this is not used
for one reason or another. It may have not been upgraded, or perhaps having to
potentially cross the VLSE LRT twice might have been off putting to make use of
it.
The transit centre features a large fully enclosed passenger shelter, as well as
a smaller open air shelter. Regular bus shelters are located at a number of bus
bays around the perimeter. A covered walkway connects the transit centre to the
LRT Station, about 100m away.
The transit centre was ready by late 2020/ early 2021 which coincided well with
the delayed rollout of the BNR, scheduled for April 25, 2021. April 24, 2021 was
the last day for the original Mill Woods Transit Centre, and sometime early on
April 25 crews were out removing fencing to open the new transit centre.
With delays to the opening of the VLSE LRT, precursor bus service operated from
Mill Woods Transit Centre. First, the 510x provide an express service to
Downtown along a somewhat similar route to the pre-BNR routes to Downtown. With
the opening of the Davies Transit Centre, this was replaced by the 73, 3 months
later split into the 73A and 73B, following a routing more closely aligned to
the VLSE and it's future stops.
On Demand came to Mill Woods Transit Centre in February 2022 to serve
Charleswood.
Beaumont Transit arrived on May 1, 2023. Initially contracted out to ETS,
Beaumont operated to Century Park. During Covid, Beaumont suspended the service,
and with the contract up for renewal they put put it out to tender with PWT
being awarded the contract. When Beaumont Transit resumed service, it was now
after the BNR had been launched. My observations were that Century Park had more
bus traffic than before, and there wasn't much space now for Beaumont. What ever
the reason, Beaumont Transit was moved to Heritage Valley where their riders
would have had to transfer to a 700x to access additional ETS services. With
Beaumont Transit able to move into Mill Woods Transit Centre, a shorter trip
than to Heritage Valley or Century Park, they were able to get away with using a
1 bus, and used the savings into increase service on April 2, 2024 to provide
service on weekdays from 6:00-19:00 and on Saturday from 9:00-16:00.
With the transit centre being so young, there isn't hasn't been any significant
changes.
Bay J, Eastbound far West end is a drop off zone.
There was a Bay S facing south on Hewes Way that was labeled for School Service,
but I don't believe it was ever used and later removed.