The Globe is visiting communities across the country to hear from Canadians about the issues affecting their lives, their futures and their votes in this federal election.
The train was mostly empty as it ambled and screeched toward downtown Edmonton around 9 o’clock on an overcast Monday morning.
Harman Grewal, a 19-year-old student and one of the approximately 250,000 people riding the city’s trains that day, said transit is both handy and a money-saver.
“I use it in my day-to-day life. It’s convenient,” he said, as he headed to his finance classes at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. “If there’s more public transport, then there will be less cars and it will be more affordable, right?”
But, he added: “Sometimes you feel like you are not safe, right? Many incidents have happened to me as well. I think it happens to everybody.”
Beside him, 21-year-old Jashan Malhi nodded in agreement.
“Many people have had incidents, so they have to have more security or something so that people feel safe,” she said. “Sometimes, especially in the nighttime, I feel scared and I skip the LRT and I take Uber or something else. Especially in the downtown area, because it’s too scary.”
Harman Grewal, left, and Jashan Malhi ride the train in Edmonton on April 7. Mr. Grewal says public transit is a convenient and affordable option for him, but safety is a concern.
Edmonton became the first northern city to introduce light rail transit in 1978. Almost 50 years later, its train service is undergoing dramatic expansions, criss-crossing the city and snaking farther into the growing suburbs – ambitious additions that have taken years longer than planned and gone hundreds of millions over budget.
The future of public transportation is a crucial issue in Edmonton, as the city continues to sprawl and swell. An estimated 50,000 people moved into the Northern Alberta city last year, and the population is projected to almost double in the next 20 years, surpassing two million residents.
“I think public transit is pretty important, and I think safety on the transit is more important,” said Zosia Brown, taking the Valley Line out of downtown on her way to high school that morning.
Edmonton was the first northern Canadian city to introduce light rail transit (LRT) in 1977. Almost 50 years later, train service has expanded considerably, crisscrossing the city and reaching further into the surrounding suburbs.
Zosia Brown boards a train in downtown Edmonton during her commute to school. Ms. Brown said she’s had people chase and grab her, and has seen people vandalize trains and stations.
The teenager said she has had people chase and grab her, and has seen people lighting fires on the train and in stations. More than once, she has gotten off at a stop that wasn’t hers, to get out of a situation that felt unsafe.
Edmonton isn’t alone in its struggle to deal with crime, drugs, homelessness, disorder and a hollowed-out downtown core, issues that are bedevilling cities around the country. Both the Conservative and Liberal Leaders have pledged stricter measures for criminal and public-safety offences.
“I still take transit because I need to go places,” Ms. Brown said. “I don’t really feel like I’d drive enough to get my licence and to get a car, but it’s definitely something I have been considering just because of the fact that I feel unsafe.”
The fear is not unfounded. In February, a 13-year-old boy died after a group of teens randomly attacked a man and woman waiting at an LRT station. Police said charges wouldn’t be laid in the youth’s death, because evidence indicated the teen was stabbed in self-defence. The other teens are facing weapons and aggravated-assault charges.
Weeks later, a 34-year-old man was stabbed in another random attack by a group of youths at a bus shelter, the same day a woman was randomly stabbed at the Belvedere LRT station.
“Edmonton is a growing city. We’ve had a lot of population growth, and transit is also growing,” said Edmonton Transit Service branch manager Carrie Hotton-MacDonald. Last year, she said, ridership hit a new record, surpassing even prepandemic levels.
But the Edmonton Transit Service’s 2024-25 Annual Service Plan found that only 61 per cent of transit riders reported feeling safe throughout their last trip.
“I think transit has ended up being at the intersection of these very complex, very broad social issues in our communities, and it’s been hard to move away from that,” Ms. Hotton-MacDonald said. “As we’ve come out of the pandemic and resumed our normal activities and ridership has grown, there are lingering impacts and effects.”
On Monday morning, the windows of many waiting areas at downtown stations had been shattered. In one, a man was smoking crystal meth. In another, drug paraphernalia and a knife blade lay on the ground. In the next, a pile of clothing and excrement. Across the tracks, a man shouted obscenities.
At a station down the line, burn marks traced up the walls at the entrance, and blood and other stains marked the tiles.
“Public transit is a necessity. It would be nice if it felt safer sometimes,” said Sandy Clark, as she headed north on the Metro Line that morning. She said she takes the LRT into downtown three times a week for work, and in the evening to go to the symphony.
“I’ve had to step over people that are sleeping and the security guards are standing at the bottom of the stairs,” she said. “It’s almost like they’re afraid to deal with people.”
Like many Canadian cities, Edmonton is struggling to deal with crime, drugs, homelessness, disorder and a hollowed-out downtown core.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised “the biggest crackdown on crime” in Canada’s history, with proposals including mandatory minimums, a “three strikes” law for repeat violent offenders, strict limits on bail, and life in prison for fentanyl traffickers.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s proposed changes include stiffer penalties and consecutive sentencing for some crimes, tougher approaches to bail, and a legion of new RCMP and border officers to crack down on organized crime.
In Edmonton, Acting Chief of Police Warren Driechel acknowledged that there is a continuing problem on city transit, and said police are approaching it with targeted deployment, increased visibility, data analysis, and partnerships with the city and community agencies that seek to deal with the complex underlying issues.
“We’re taking weapons off individuals in transit quite often, or we’re dealing with violent incidents. We had a peace officer assaulted last night,” said Acting Chief Driechel, who was formerly deputy chief of the Community Safety and Well-Being Bureau, which oversees the police service’s transit and downtown teams. “We don’t want to cause fear, but it’s enough to know that we need to deal with the problem.”
Police check for tickets and disorder at a LRT station. In April, Edmonton city council approved hiring 30 more peace officers specifically for the transit system in part to increase safety for those on board.
In April, city council approved hiring 30 more peace officers specifically for the transit system in Edmonton, and Ms. Hotton-MacDonald said progress is being made through partnerships with police, and through other initiatives to both bring more people onto transit and increase safety for those on board.
“We have a lot of safety tools in place and processes to support riders. We’re going to see an increased presence from enforcement resources, and they’re there to help,” Ms. Hotton-MacDonald said, adding that there are “hundreds of thousands of completed trips per day without incident.”