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 the LRT has no premium fares. The one exception on ETS is the airport, which is reached by the Route 747 bus from Century Park, not by the LRT: the 747 costs $6 one way, and the regular 3- and 5-day passes are not valid on it.
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 paper day and monthly passes. You tap the same Arc card, bank card or phone each time, 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 |
| Cash on a bus, or 90-minute Arc ticket | $3.75 | Exact cash on buses; Arc tickets from the fare vending machines at every LRT station (cash, debit or credit) |
| 24-hour Arc ticket | $10.50 | Unlimited rides for 24 hours from the first tap; sold at LRT station vending machines |
| Route 747 airport bus | $6.00 | One way to Edmonton International Airport; its own fare, no transfer included |
| Transfer | Free | Keep riding for 90 minutes on the same fare (bus ↔ LRT) |
| Cap | Amount | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Daily cap | $10.50 | Tap the same card all day; you are never charged past this. It works like a day pass |
| Adult monthly cap | $102.00 | A month of rides once your taps reach this total |
| Youth monthly cap | $66.00 | Ages 18 and under, with the youth concession on your Arc account |
| Senior monthly cap | $36.00 | Ages 65+, with the senior concession on your Arc account |
| 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, with the same daily and monthly fare caps. You need one for concession or subsidised fares (youth, senior, Ride Transit). The card costs $6 from the fare vending machines at LRT stations, online or at the Edmonton Service Centre; reload it at myarc.ca, on the Arc app, by phone, at a vending machine, the Service Centre or an Arc vendor.
Cash or an Arc ticket
$3.75 in exact change to the driver on a bus — or, at any LRT station, buy an Arc ticket from the fare vending machine with cash, debit or credit: 90 minutes for $3.75 or 24 hours for $10.50. Tap the ticket on and off like a card. A single ticket is the most expensive way to ride, so keep it for when you have no card to tap.
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 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. Capping works on a contactless bank card or phone as well as on an Arc card, as long as you tap the same card every time (a physical card and the same card in a phone wallet count as two different cards). The youth and senior caps need the concession added to an Arc account at myarc.ca.
Visiting for a few days? The LRT station vending machines sell a 24-hour Arc ticket at $10.50 and prepaid passes — a 3-day at $24.00 or a 5-day at $30.00, valid on ETS buses and the LRT but not on the Route 747 airport bus — 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 (18 and under) | $66.00 | Ages 18 and under, with the youth concession added to an Arc account (proof of age may be requested). Post-secondary students at participating schools get a U-Pass instead |
| 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, or buying a 90-minute Arc ticket from the vending machine at any LRT station, costs $3.75.
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 were last checked against edmonton.ca/ets in October 2026.
No. Tap a contactless bank card, your phone, or an Arc card on the validator when you enter the platform, and tap again when you leave — nothing to buy and no zone to choose. If you forget to tap off you can be charged a “missing tap fare”. The LRT runs on proof-of-payment, so keep the card or ticket you tapped 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 group fare, and every rider over 12 needs their own form of payment — their own Arc card, bank card or ticket. A family can link several Arc cards to one Arc account and load them all from it; each card keeps its own fare cap.
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.