The curtain falls on Edmonton Transit Service’s traditional ticketing units this Tuesday. A well-established mechanism for dispensing paper tickets, their role is being transferred to Arc fare dispensers that can be located across selected transit centres across the city. This includes all LRT stations.
Arc fare vending machines deal with single-use tickets and rechargeable cards, allowing payments made through cash, debit, or credit cards. The older machines, which only allowed for cash transactions, are due to be powered down until they can be substituted with Arc devices, as stated in a recent media bulletin.
Transit stations are equipped with signposts that readily identify which machines have been taken out of service, efficiently guiding transit users to the nearest Arc machine. Reassuringly, fare products that were once available in the traditional machines, such as paper tickets, remain accessible through ETS sales points and online via the ETS store. Paper-ticket validating devices remain in operation at several transit stations.
As far as procurement of Arc cards and tickets is concerned, accessibility remains a priority. Services are available online, via the Arc call centre at the toll-free number 1-888-302-0001, and at multiple retail locations across Edmonton and the surrounding areas.
As for the fare vending machines, they are conveniently stationed at all LRT stations, West Edmonton Mall Transit Centre, Mill Woods Transit Centre, and the Airport in Edmonton. Strathcona County hosts them at the Bethel Transit Terminal and Ordze Transit Centre, while St. Albert has it at the Naki Transit Centre. Fort Saskatchewan also houses them conveniently at the Dow Centennial Centre.
In-person services can be accessed at the Edmonton Service Centre, St. Albert’s City Hall front desk and StAT head office. Spruce Grove makes them available at Border Paving Athletic Centre and Stony Plain Town Hall. Fort Saskatchewan offers these services at Dow Centennial Centre and City Hall. Beaumont and Leduc offer these services at their respective City Halls and recreation centers. Transitioning from the traditional dispensing units to the technologically advanced Arc fare vending machines marks an era of enhanced convenience and speed in public transportation within the city.
