Valley Line LRT/ Valley Line West | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton

I’d say how mass transit integrates itself around other infrastructure is vital to whether or not it will be more or less safe.

I question if it is more safe around the Bonnie Doon area. Considering the preliminary planning stages called for elevated sections in this area. But, at least they saved some money.
Critics have pointed out that the Bonnie Doon section is a mess--the line not only crosses a busy avenue at-grade but does so while simultaneously moving from the centre of the road to the west side. This is just asking for trouble.

The hilariously sad thing was that elected officials in 2017 were given the option of elevating the Bonnie Doon segment, but a council committee voted to shelve the proposal and proceed with the original alignment--one of the reasons given (aside from saving money) was that elevating that segment would have meant several months' delay to the opening of the line.

How many years late is the Valley Line SE now?
 
No matter what happens, I'm completely sure that transportation along the alignment is going to be far safer than prior to the LRT.

The Sun and Ed Journal types will find outlandish ways to call every conflict a safety issue, all while ignoring car deaths and injuries in this city.
The Postmedia papers cover plenty of major car accidents--they aren't going to report on every fender-bender.

The reason that the Valley Line is under such scrutiny is because it is an expensive project that the public was repeatedly told is "superior" to existing forms of transportation on its corridor. It is supposed to be a better alternative to both buses and car travel. When there seems to be evidence that this will not be the case, despite all the money spent, of course the media is going to be all over it.
 
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At least TransEd got a couple of things right. First, building a flyover at Argyll Road and the CPR tracks, which will save 10 minutes travel time. Second, building a bridge across the North Saskatchewan with a minimum of interference to Cloverdale and Connors Road.
 
Seeing as though it’s not the CEO speaking, I don’t think it’s going to be an opening date. Most likely that they completed the repairs and are submitting the paperwork.
 
The CTV article linked above has a live stream, and it just started.

They just announced that the cable replacement is complete and linewide testing has resumed. They are continuing to finalize the documents needed for the independent certifier. Trains will mimic regular service for the next few weeks. An opening date will be announced in the next few weeks, but they anticipate that it'll open this fall. The city will choose the actual date of service commencement, but "all parties" anticipate fall opening. Independent certification involves "thousands and thousands" of documents from the design team, quality team, operations, etc being handed over, as well as monitoring the tests themselves.

The independent certification is completed by three organizations who work together and separately, in addition to the city and TransEd. The auditors could keep doing the "desktop" side of things, and now want to see regular service mimicked for a few weeks. "There's thousands of pieces of paper, now there's less than a hundred" - watching regular service mimicked for a few weeks is really all that's left.

The CEO will be the one standing with the city to announce the opening date. They're confident that things are different this time because the cables were the only issue to pop up when they started mimicking their service.

On another note, I saw two westbound trains and one eastbound train pass by in the span of less than 10 minutes during that livestream.
 
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Here's the TransEd news release

Valley Line Southeast LRT – Update – Performance Demonstration Testing and Service Commencement

TransEd, the company responsible for the design, build, operations and maintenance of the Edmonton Valley Line Southeast LRT, is pleased to provide an update on the project.

As previously announced, testing identified cables that needed to be replaced to improve long-term system reliability. Today, we are pleased to announce cable replacement is complete, and line-wide train testing has resumed. “Replacement of the cables over the past nine weeks ensures the system will operate safely and reliably over the next 30 years,” says Dallas Lindskoog, TransEd spokesperson.

Concurrent with this upgrade, TransEd has continued to finalize and submit the required documentation for review by the independent certifiers who need to sign off on the system before the line can open for passenger service. In the next few weeks, trains will operate along the entire 13km, mimicking regular passenger service to demonstrate to the certifiers and the City that the Valley Line Southeast LRT is ready to open. We continue to work closely with the City, and more information about the opening date this fall will be provided as final testing and independent certification nears completion.
 

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