Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

[EdwardEdm]

I'm not up on the historical background on how CN's mainline was relocated but it has to be regarded as a huge success for the city and for CN. 104 is now an important urban corridor and with space becoming a growing issue at the port of Vancouver, CN has the opportunity to unload more containers in its yard rather than having freight loaded and trucked from Vancouver.

I don't think I would call it a mainline. I meant to respond to another posting where someone called the CN line into Downtown Edmonton something like a "heavy freight line". It wasn't. As much as I would LOVE to learn more about the history of the actual operations into and out of City Yard, my impression was that by the 1960's it was there to interchange with CP and serve local industries. Of course, over the years all of that industry retracted and so did the need for City Yard. It certainly wasn't being used to build 50+ car trains that would run across the county like Walker does, and just became redundant. This is unlike in other cities where governments would work with the railways to relocate railway yards out of the center of the city. Saskatoon comes to mind.
While I'm not sure how the railways developed in other cities, Edmonton was lucky enough to have both the GTP and Canadian Northern come through, with the Canadian Northern coming into Edmonton and building their yard Downtown, while the GTP stayed further north and built their yard in Calder, but they built a line into Downtown Edmonton because of course they didn't want to not have access to middle of the City like CNor and CP had. GTP and CNor having financial difficulties would be taken over by the Federal Government and become Canadian National. And that was how we ended up with space for the LRT in between the originally competing GTP and CNor tracks, and also how we ended up with CN having the two yards which meant Edmonton didn't really need to convince CN to move out of Downtown.

 

[thommyjo]

Looking north on 156st on 95ave. Last section up to SPR still needing eastside curbs. Should start west side soon and have traffic down the middle.

 

[Out of Towner]

Okay, but where would you move the freight rail alignment? The Bow Valley is the only way out of Calgary that climbs at a small enough grade for freight trains. And once you’ve gone just east of Crowchild where it crosses the river, how would you re-route it without ploughing through the inner city?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-cp-rail-downtown-debate-richard-white-crossroads-1.3765380#:~:text=Calgary%C2%B7Analysis-,Possible%20futures%20for%20the%20CP%20Rail%20line%20in%20downtown%20Calgary,-Dig%20it%20up

 

[CplKlinger]

also a missed golden opportunity to run lrt or a brt down 97th, across the yards across the high level on one branch down the former CPR, another branch further west and one more out to st albert all with a terminal at the old CN Tower station...

The CPR corridor used to be part of the official plan, but the current alignment was deemed as a better fit.

Sources, from the ERRS Archive:

Changes in Direction for LRT Planning in Edmonton, 1985.pdf

drive.google.com

South Edmonton LRT Plan Review, 1982.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[Glenco]

Stuck at Misericordia

 

[The_Cat]

I hope that the Gantry crane can get unstuck.

 

[J_gordo]

I’m not sure if stuck is the right word, it’s moved since I saw it Thursday…

 

[TAS]

Sidewalk poured at Brewery District.

 

[Kosy123]

Honestly excited for the landscaping when this all comes together. The landscaping for the SE portion is actually quite pretty, and when looking at footage of the ION LRT in Waterloo and the Crosstown Eglinton, ours genuinely surpasses them in terms of aesthetics in my opinion. For all its faults, the Valley Line IS pretty.

 

[The_Cat]

Hopefully the westbound portion of 104 Avenue will be paved by October.

 

[Didama]

CP ain’t moving from downtown Calgary. That’s a non-starter, I can guarantee you. Nenshi is just being realistic there. Railways are very powerful in Canada and there is very little anyone can do to force them to do things they don’t want to. Personally I think that’s crazy and wrong, but it is what it is.

 

[fromyeg]

Address: 7814 - 83 STREET NW
Planner Description: The City has received a rezoning and District Plan amendment application from Situate. The current zone is the Parks and Services Zone (PS) and the proposed zone is the Mixed Use Zone (MU h23.0 f3.0) which would allow: -Medium scale mixed use development. -A maximum height of 23.0 metres (approximately 6 storeys). -A maximum floor area ratio of 3.0. A proposed amendment to the Southeast District Plan is required to facilitate the proposed rezoning.
Status: In Review

Potentially more TOD coming along the Valley Line.

This would be right by Avonmore Station.

 

[mcr]

Sidewalk poured at Brewery District.

View attachment 598053

Now if we could only force the Brewery District to open up entrances to shops on the sidewalk instead of just the parking lot once this is done...

 

[Out of Towner]

CP ain’t moving from downtown Calgary. That’s a non-starter, I can guarantee you. Nenshi is just being realistic there. Railways are very powerful in Canada and there is very little anyone can do to force them to do things they don’t want to. Personally I think that’s crazy and wrong, but it is what it i

 

[Out of Towner]

Nenshi is being "realistic" for Calgary. The green line has morphed from a bus corridor into a regional hub that ties in lines from the Calgary airport, Cochrane, Stoney Nakoda, Canmore, Banff, Red Deer and Edmonton at a Grand Central Station in downtown Calgary. It makes good economic sense for Calgary to want that arrangement because everything would flow through Calgary. Has anyone seen Nenshi backing a regional rail line from Edmonton to Jasper?