A month after the City of Saskatoon held information sessions about its plans for downtown bus rapid transit (BRT), residents say the are eager to see what the long-awaited system will look like. Some, however, fear it will be anything but rapid.
In October, the city held an open house for its Link transit project, presenting their current plans, intersection drawings and renderings for public consultation.
A spokesperson for a bus riders advocacy group says he is continuing to welcome the plans as it will make the system more reliable and convenient.
“The fewer choke points there are where busses can get tied up in something like traffic, the better,” said Robert Clipperton of Bus Riders of Saskatoon. “And if we have dedicated lanes, that’s going to make things all the better.”
The concept of the system dates back to 2016 when the city’s plan for growth was first released and the project was approved, with an anticipated service launch planned for 2028.
City council approved dedicated transit-only lanes on 1st Avenue back in 2019 after also considering 3rd Avenue as a site for the lanes. The three final bus routes were also confirmed this year.
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But not everyone in the city is receiving the updated plans warmly. Urban planner Cary Tarasoff says potential plans for the city’s Downtown Event and Entertainment District (DEED), which is in the same area where the three Link lines intersect, complicates matters.
“It’s not well designed to have the entire bus network connected solely to one use, which is the DEED. We run the risk that people that do regularly use the bus will get super frustrated every time there’s an event,” Tarasoff said.
Tarasoff also reviewed the lengths of street platforms in the plans, comparing them to the lengths of buses and other measurements along 1st Avenue. He says he’s afraid they will not be long enough for all the buses on the converging routes to drop off and pick up passengers at the same time, if need be.
The lane removals and restrictions for the transit-only lanes are also poorly planned, Tarasoff says, adding that they may cause backups and delays for drivers on the road.
“All we need to do is not do anything here. Just create better bus stops on the sidewalks for now. Run the bus system and get it all working and then decide if it’s feasible to go in the middle of the street,” he said.
In a statement to Global News, the city says planners have “considered the impacts on traffic flow,” adding that current estimates show peak-hour travel times may increase by two minutes for vehicles travelling between 20th Street and 25th Street along 1st. Avenue.
Former Saskatoon city planner Alan Wallace, who left his post in 2016, says he’s in favour of the centre platforms as they dedicate space to transit while maintaining parking on the street level.
“People are going to, you know, be a little bit surprised, they’re going to be a little shocked be when they you know see the changes,” Wallace said. “But it’s part of the transition to a larger city… We have to allow more space for for buses in the future.”
Clipperton agrees that change is needed for improving the system. “The big point about BRT is its bus ride with transit and if you keep chipping it away at the measures that make it rapid… you just have a bus system like you had before.”
City council will receive a report in the first quarter of 2026 about the project’s latest changes, which include a change from transit lanes that go against the flow of traffic to those that go with the flow of traffic, according to a statement from the city.
The city will also be exploring the possibility of removing the median at 2nd Avenue and 21st Street, as the designs shown to the public so far are not final and are likely to have “small changes” before construction.
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