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LRT Expansion Planning

Council voted 8-5 in favor of expanding LRT to Ellerslie first. They said that that project could start in 2021, but that the metro line extension to Castle Downs wouldn't be able to start construction until 2023. My question is, doing the south extension first, when will the new start date for the metro line be? What is stopping us from still starting that extension in 2023 (other than funding lol)? Considering the south extension going first, when is the new start date for the metro expansion? I didn't watch the whole council meeting so not sure if this was covered.
 
I'm sorry but, why is the Metro Line "to Castle Downs" always being mentioned? Last I checked the phase 2 expansion goes all the way to Campbell Road, but I dunno, am I missing something?
 
Platinum107 said:
I'm sorry but, why is the Metro Line "to Castle Downs" always being mentioned? Last I checked the phase 2 expansion goes all the way to Campbell Road, but I dunno, am I missing something?
Click to expand...
It seems that they are intending to do both the Metro Line expansion and South Capital Line expansion in phases. So Capital line S would first extend 2 station to Ellerslie and the park and ride, and then subsequent phases would push further South. For Metro Line, first they are doing the Blatchford Expansion (Under Construction) and then the plan after that is to expand 4 stations North to Castle Downs. Further expansions would be to Campbell Road.

I suspect this is due to the refinement they have made on the projects, and a better understanding of capacity for LRVs and required new LRVs for certain legs of each expansion. For example, the new storage facility being built under the blatchford metro line expansion may add the needed storage capacity to extend to Castle Downs, but other facilities may be needed to extend further. Just a guess.

I do really like that they are approaching these extensions in multiple phases, rather than building an entire line at once such as with Valley Line SE and Valley Line W.
 
Oh okay thanks. I though that the point of the South and North Extensions both having an OMF planned was just so in both cases the additional facility would be built, and the other one scrapped. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure 3 full-sized OMF's would be way to much for the full build-out of the system haha. I could be wrong though ?‍♂️
 
Hey guys, as a weekend project for myself I used My Maps to map out my personal vision for Edmonton's LRT network. It was surprisingly fun and I think it's useful to get my ideas down on paper and not only rant on the forum :p I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look, there's a bunch of info within the lines and circles that I think you guys will find cool, and I'll be adding a few more things here and there. Thanks!

www.google.com

Edmonton's Grand LRT: Past, Present, Future and Imaginary! - Google My Maps

Hey! Come and check out the Edmonton's Grand Heavy/Commuter Rail network here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1urxVGZPJCuwMsM4Jvd0UedNz7Sk38Xz1&usp=sharing Come one and all and take a peak at my plan for the future of the Edmonton LRT! In here you'll find lines that exist, are under...
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Platinum107 said:
Hey guys, as a weekend project for myself I used My Maps to map out my personal vision for Edmonton's LRT network. It was surprisingly fun and I think it's useful to get my ideas down on paper and not only rant on the forum :p I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look, there's a bunch of info within the lines and circles that I think you guys will find cool, and I'll be adding a few more things here and there. Thanks!

www.google.com

Edmonton's Grand LRT: Past, Present, Future and Imaginary! - Google My Maps

Hey! Come and check out the Edmonton's Grand Heavy/Commuter Rail network here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1urxVGZPJCuwMsM4Jvd0UedNz7Sk38Xz1&usp=sharing Come one and all and take a peak at my plan for the future of the Edmonton LRT! In here you'll find lines that exist, are under...
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
Awesome job man!
One thing I wanted to ask, tho: why not bring that orange line all the way down to 156st and then to Campbell Road station, since you're already envisioning such a bright future?
 
Thanks for the feedback! You see, I'm still tryna stick with a little bit of practicality when it comes to the placement of lines on the map, and I just don't believe that an LRT fully servicing and running through a conventional industrial area makes realistic sense. Hell, transit in general has a hard run in these areas, as it's hard to get a mass of people at a station or stop when everything is sooo spread out and built for cars and semi trucks. It's simply to the detriment of public transit users who work in these areas, and I fully believe that the entire concept of an industrial park has to be rethought in order to make transit a good and efficient option for workers. Maybe the northeast Energy and Technology Park could be an experiment for industries built around public transit instead of the other way around, huh? 🤔🤔🤔

But I probably will extend the Jasper Line Farther west, but that'd be even farther into the future than the already fake line lol.
 
Next project: Come up with an ETS livery for the SD-200 trains once they finally arrive 😉
 
Platinum107 said:
Thanks for the feedback! You see, I'm still tryna stick with a little bit of practicality when it comes to the placement of lines on the map, and I just don't believe that an LRT fully servicing and running through a conventional industrial area makes realistic sense. Hell, transit in general has a hard run in these areas, as it's hard to get a mass of people at a station or stop when everything is sooo spread out and built for cars and semi trucks. It's simply to the detriment of public transit users who work in these areas, and I fully believe that the entire concept of an industrial park has to be rethought in order to make transit a good and efficient option for workers. Maybe the northeast Energy and Technology Park could be an experiment for industries built around public transit instead of the other way around, huh? 🤔🤔🤔

But I probably will extend the Jasper Line Farther west, but that'd be even farther into the future than the already fake line lol.
Click to expand...
My take on it is that, as much as we want downtown to be a hub, we also don't want potential riders picking their cars because they need to go all the way to downtown so they can change lines. We don't want people that are, lets say, in Westmount, close to the TWoS, going all the way to downtown so they can go to work in the NW industrial area, for example.
From my experience living in cities with a much more extensive rail transit system, it's one of the things that cripple ridership and having a line that cross, at some point, all of the other major lines usually proves itself to be a boost for ridership and for viability of the whole system. I've seen it save an entire metro line, as a matter of fact.
Of course, of the most part it's all just a big exercise and we'd need the city proper and the metro to hit population milestones much higher that the current 2million plan that the CoE has right now, I'd say 3 million and 4-5 million for the city and metro, respectively would be somewhat close to being enough to make all of this viable, either this or a huge economic shift towards something that can provide sustained growth for decades without the boom-and-bust cycle of the oil industry.
 
Great project @Platinum107! I really like your personal vision for Edmonton's LRT network, fun to envision what it could be, and what is practical, such as investing in the Highlevel Bridge retrofit. I'd like to see the Festival Line happen sooner than later, and yah, the ERRS running 365 days a year in an expanded complimentary line in conjunction with ETS. Fun. Same with the Gondola. Nicely done!
 
An effective focus would include all forms of transit (i.e. how do you get from your residence to any destination point conveniently, work related or not). Sometimes we can become so enamored with one form of transit -- one solution -- that we assume that it will fill all of the City's needs. Other possibilities include River transit, ERRS, Gondola, Automated buses that are on-call for door-to-major-transit, and customized stand-alone solutions (e.g. funicular). We should be looking for multiple interconnected systems that augment LRT; not LRT stand-alone.
 
I like what you've illustrated although I think a new approach to Edmonton's LRT needs to be looked at. Our current hub and spoke vision has its issues. The further out you are the further the journey to an adjacent spoke.

Also the goal of the LRT should always attempt to reach major destination points efficiently. The fact that WEM is serviced by only on route from one dirrection is a flawed premise in my opinion. As it stands right now and even when valley line west is operational, it will probably be quicker from millwoods to bus to southgate, train to south campus and bus to wem, instead of taking valley line from end to end essentially.
 
I think the LRT will be great for the central part of the city (Bonnie Doon, Strathcona, University, Oliver, Downtown and other nearby communities). However, the geography of the river and Whitemud Creek presents some challenges. If you live in West Edmonton, it's an advantage to have a car to commute to University or Downtown. Same thing with Riverbend and Terwillegar.
 
@archited You're right, that's why this is just my vision for the LRT :) I could add in over time some BRT ideas (like ring loops connecting LRT lines together, etc.), commuter rail ideas and other stuff, but at the moment the map just shows LRT and nothing else.

@ChazYEG I agree with you, and I believe that in the current scope of the next few decades the city can build some loop BRT lines connecting the LRT lines crosstown. But yeah, a loop LRT isn't even in the scope of 2 million people imo.
 
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