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A bus that frequently doesn’t show up on time can be a frustrating experience.Â
Turns out, some bus routes have better track records than others, according to new data from the city’s route report cards.Â
The reports have been done by the city for a few years.
The Fall 2025 report, published online on March 26, analyzes data from 122 bus routes in Edmonton, collected between Aug. 31 and Nov. 29. The data excludes three weeks in October when Alberta teachers were on strike.
The city defines on time as departing from timing points between one minute early to five minutes late.
The rankings show some highly reliable routes hit the mark 95 per cent of the time. On the slower side of things, some routes were off-schedule more often than not, with some only meeting the standard 32 per cent of the time.
So which routes were some of the worst offenders? CBC took a look at the data to determine the six routes that ranked as being least likely to be punctual.
Route 8: Abbottsfield – University
By far the busiest route on the list, the No. 8 bus makes 169 daily trips, carrying over 13,000 riders each day. The route is one of the common ways to get up and down Whyte Avenue or travel to the University of Alberta.
But the bus only met the on-time mark 67 per cent of the time on weekdays, making it the sixth least-reliable route in Edmonton.
Route 106: Dunvegan – Belvedere
The No. 106 bus comes in fifth in the reliability ranking. It stretches across the city north of the Yellowhead, stopping at Northgate Centre.
Carrying just over 3,000 daily riders during the week, the bus was reliable about 66.4 per cent of the time.
Route 107: Belvedere – Clareview
A route that circles the northeast corner of Edmonton landed in fourth place, being punctual 65.6 per cent of the time.Â
The bus executes about 3,400 daily rides, connecting north-side residents to Londonderry Mall, the Clareview Community Recreation Centre and the Capital Line LRT.Â
Route 110X: Eaux Claires – Downtown
Third place goes to Route 110X. The X stands for express, meaning it’s a route with fewer stops often oriented toward carrying suburban commuters into the core.
And while this route has fewer stops as it travels from Eaux Claires to downtown, it only departed on schedule 65.2 per cent of the time.Â
Route 924: Jasper Place – Rio Terrace
The second-worst route was No. 924 with an on-time rate of 60.8 per cent. This relatively small neighbourhood route running from the Jasper Place Transit Centre to Rio Terrace, carries about 207 daily riders and runs every hour during off-peak hours.Â
Route 900X: Lewis Farms – Downtown
The least-punctual route on the city’s list is another express bus, this one running from Lewis Farms into the core.
It only met the city’s reliability standard 57.4 per cent of the time on weekdays. On Saturdays, it was more likely than not to depart either early or late, with an on-time performance of 32.4 per cent.
Not all bad
Overall, buses in Edmonton were more punctual than they were pre-pandemic, according to city data showing annual bus on-time performance dating back to 2019.
However, average on-time numbers across all routes fell from 86 per cent in 2023 to nearly 83 per cent in 2025, the data shows.
Some routes were going above and beyond service standards, meeting the mark about 95 per cent of the time.Â
These include the No. 6 from Davies to Southgate, the 912 from Lewis Farms to Jasper Place, and a special 589 route, which runs from the Coliseum Transit Centre to the Edmonton Waste Management Centre four times a day.
In addition to the reliability ranking, the Bus Report Card also includes route lengths, ridership, frequency and how often it is crowded.Â
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