Edmonton LRT fares and how to pay
One flat $3.00 fare takes you anywhere on the LRT. No zones, no distance bands, and — thanks to fare capping — no need to buy a day or monthly pass at all.
What a ride on the LRT costs
One flat fare: $3.00 gets you from any station to any other station. One stop or the full length of the Capital Line, it is the same price. There are no zones and no distance bands, and there is no airport or premium fare — the airport is reached by the Route 747 bus from Century Park, not by the LRT.
Two things are worth knowing up front, and they are the good news:
- Transfers are free for 90 minutes. One fare lets you keep riding — bus to LRT, LRT to bus, or line to line — for a full 90 minutes at no extra cost. On the shared Capital/Metro trunk downtown you often will not even tap again.
- Fare capping replaced day and monthly passes. Edmonton scrapped paper passes: you simply tap, and once your taps in a day reach $10.50 you ride free the rest of that day. Reach the monthly cap and the rest of the month is free too. You never pay more than a pass would have cost, and you never have to guess in advance whether a pass is worth it.
| Fare | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single ride, Arc card | $3.00 | One 90-minute journey, transfers included |
| Single ride, tap to pay | $3.00 | Contactless bank card or phone — nothing to buy |
| Single ride, cash on a bus | $3.75 | Buses only; LRT platforms have no cash sales |
| Transfer | Free | Keep riding for 90 minutes on the same fare (bus ↔ LRT) |
| Cap | Amount | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Daily cap | $10.50 | Tap all day; you are never charged past this. It is the day pass, without buying one |
| Adult monthly cap | $102.00 | A month of rides once your taps reach this total |
| Youth monthly cap | $66.00 | Ages 13–24 with a registered Arc card |
| Senior monthly cap | $36.00 | Ages 65+ with a registered Arc card |
| Child 12 & under | Free | Free with a fare-paying rider |
Fares from ETS (edmonton.ca/ets). Edmonton uses fare capping — tap and you are never charged past the daily or monthly cap.
How to pay
Contactless bank card or phone
Tap your Visa/Mastercard/Amex, Apple Pay or Google Pay straight on the reader. $3.00 — the same fare as an Arc card. Nothing to buy, nothing to top up, no app. If you are visiting, this is the answer.
Arc card
Edmonton's reloadable regional tap card. $3.00 a ride, the same price as a bank card — but you need one to hit the daily and monthly fare caps and for concession or subsidised fares. Reload it at myarc.ca, on the Arc app, by phone, at the Edmonton Service Centre or an Arc vendor.
Cash on a bus
$3.75 paid to the driver, buses only — the LRT has no cash sales or ticket machines that take coins. It is the most expensive way to ride and buys you the same 90-minute transfer window, so keep it for when you truly have no card.
Do I need a pass?
No — and that is the whole point of fare capping. A single ride is $3.00, and if you ride a lot in one day the daily cap of $10.50 steps in automatically: it works exactly like a day pass, but there is nothing to buy and no risk of buying the wrong one. Tap all day and you are never charged past $10.50.
Over a month it is the same idea. Your Arc taps are capped at $102.00 for adults — after that, the rest of the calendar month rides free. Youth cap at $66.00 and seniors at $36.00. Fare capping needs an Arc card, because the caps are tracked against your account; a contactless bank card pays the flat fare each time but is not yet capped.
Visiting for a few days? There are prepaid Arc tickets — a 3-day at $24.00 or a 5-day at $30.00 — but for most short trips the simplest thing is to tap the contactless bank card already in your pocket and pay as you go.
Reduced and free fares
| Who | Monthly cap | How |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | $102.00 | Everyone else — $3.00 a ride, capped over the month |
| Youth & students | $66.00 | Roughly ages 13–24, and post-secondary students, on a registered Arc card |
| Seniors (65+) | $36.00 | The lowest monthly cap. A low-income senior annual pass, and free travel for seniors below an income threshold, are available through the City |
| Children 12 & under | Free | Free at all times with a fare-paying rider |
Fare questions
$3.00 for any journey, however far — one flat fare with no zones and no distance bands. It is the same $3.00 whether you tap an Arc card or a contactless bank card. Paying cash on a bus is $3.75, and there is no cash payment on the LRT itself.
Edmonton moved to Arc tap-to-pay with fare capping, which replaced the old paper day and monthly passes. The single fare is still $3.00. What changed is that you no longer buy a pass in advance — the daily ($10.50) and monthly ($102.00) caps do the same job automatically. Fares here are current as of July 2026.
No. Tap a contactless bank card, your phone, or an Arc card on the reader and you are done — nothing to buy, no zone to choose, no barrier to work out. The LRT runs on proof-of-payment, so keep your Arc card or receipt in case of a fare check.
Yes. One fare gives you 90 minutes of travel, including changing between the LRT and buses. Changing between the Capital and Metro lines on the shared downtown trunk is free and usually across the same platform. Walking between Churchill Station and the Valley Line stop is also covered if you are still inside your 90 minutes.
Children 12 and under ride free with a fare-paying rider, so a family often pays only for the adults. There is no separate group fare, but one Arc card can pay for several people — tap it once for each traveller. Fare caps, though, are tracked per card, so caps only benefit the cardholder.
The LRT uses proof-of-payment, and ETS runs fare checks. Being caught without a valid fare means a fine, and there is no upside — the fare is only $3.00, and children 12 and under ride free anyway.