chrisvazquez7
Active Member
LRT to the airport is a good idea in the long-term, but makes little sense right now. Light rail is generally more expensive per km to build. A heavy rail line can share infrastructure with CPKC which would save money. Also, having a third line to the city’s south between the Capital and Valley Lines could relieve pressure on the other two.I fear false hopes are being raised.
The most feasible way to get rail transit between the Edmonton airport and the city core is by expanding LRT. Constructing an entirely new rail line and musing about new entry points into downtown will be massively more expensive and intrusive than simply extending the future Capital Line south from its Stage 2 endpoint. That being said, extending the Capital Line South to the airport cannot come at the expense of other areas of the city. Castle Downs has already been screwed over by having the Capital Line extended to Heritage Valley first before they receive the Metro Line. Imagine if the LRT is extended into Leduc County before Castle Downs gets any trains.
Secondly, it's true that other Canadian cities do have airport rail links to downtown. However, YYZ, YUL and YVR all have airports that are both major international hubs and which have much higher passenger counts than Edmonton's. Vancouver's in particular was able to kill multiple birds with one stone: the airport link is a spur off the line into Richmond which means the Canada Line doubles as a commuter route into one of the largest cities in the Lower Mainland. By contrast rail transit further south from 41 Avenue SW to the Edmonton airport would only serve the airport. And yes, Ottawa is getting LRT to its airport but again the Trillium Line was being extended anyway to serve the south portion of the city and an airport spur was fairly easy to add.
The metro area would benefit far more from getting the Metro Line into Castle Downs and then into St. Albert.
To me, I wouldn't see this as an airport link like seen in other larger cities. I would like to see a commuter line that connects to the airport, but also to Nisku, Leduc, maybe even Wetaskiwin. It would also serve the workplaces along Gateway Boulevard.