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It’s genuinely really pleasantly surprising to me how there’s a large amount of ridership for the LRT despite it being only one line and only visible in select parts of the city, and Edmonton being a city of just a million people. Average daily ridership is a tenth of the city’s population which is quite cool.
I know the UofA has around 80-100k people on its campus most days (pre pandemic), so im assuming that's a core driver. As a student, 70% of my friends took it daily and most others took busses. I'm intrigued to see if a similar effect happens once macewan is better connected directly west.
Oh definitely! I was just a student last year and I remember, both via seeing it for myself and the City's data, that the University (and Health Sciences) station were absolutely packed constantly to the point where I had to wait 3-4 trains just to avoid the inevitable packed rush from downtown. If I remember, University Station had the most average daily boardings at around 15,000.
Of any kind provincially? That is a bit of a stretch. I'd argue Greyhound was decent when it was supported fully and operating regularly. As others have pointed out, outside of the Calgary/Edmonton corridor, there isn't demand for intercity provincial rail from a population perspective. I would like to see rail one day between Calgary and Edmonton, but I think it will have to be done by private enterprise and I don't know if I see anyone jumping on that given the glut of large business development that currently exists in Alberta. This type of project was a missed opportunity 15-20 years ago.We've never had anything remotely similar to an effective regional transit service of ANY kind rail or bus before so there's no real precedent. However given Edmonton and Calgary's HEARTY use of their LRT systems I suspect that it would be well used if built. Then again we live in a land of toxic negativists who are still delusionally clinging to the idea of Big Oil making a comeback in any original form... OKAY THEN...
To say the least. Especially when even talk of rail is verboden, you know the spectrum has shifted to a very narrow far-right focus... Typical... SMH...
The discussion on hyperloop was pretty good when it came up and rail has been discussed before. It is definitely not forbidden. It comes up in the public realm as well. No need to paint the issue as something that is completely partisan and sow dividing political statements. I think there is good representation here and the conversations are civil. It would be good to not create a false dichotomy/dilemma and allow us all to continue to have rational conversations without political editorialization (largely found on another now defunct site).
My point goes beyond the petty politics of online forums so don't take it personally. If you did, sorry. That wasn't the intention however my point still stands....
