Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

They were testing two trains leaving the Millwoods station at the same time today.
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The_Cat said:
LRT train testing in Mill Woods:
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This just reminds me of how incredibly slow these trains are going to be running in some areas... 😕
I really do hope these trains in the end will be worth the billions despite ending up going slower than a bus on some stretches of road.

I worry people are expecting an experience similar to the Capital line that runs at about the same speed as the Toronto subway and will be discouraged from supporting further LRT expansion and investment if this new line underperforms in their view.
 
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Aaron_Lloyd said:
This just reminds me of how incredibly slow these trains are going to be running in some areas... 😕
I really do hope these trains in the end will be worth the billions despite ending up going slower than a bus on some stretches of road.

I worry people are expecting an experience similar to the Capital and Metro lines that run at about the same speed as the Toronto subway and will be discouraged from supporting further LRT expansion and invest ment if this new line underperforms in their view.
Click to expand...
On the other hand, I heard from someone who owns a house along the Valley Line that he was very pleased with how well it integrates with the surrounding neighbourhood (Avonmore). Hopefully peoples' perception of the speed is balanced out by how it fits as a part of their neighbourhoods, rather than being something separate that cuts their communities in half.
 
Aaron_Lloyd said:
This just reminds me of how incredibly slow these trains are going to be running in some areas... 😕
I really do hope these trains in the end will be worth the billions despite ending up going slower than a bus on some stretches of road.

I worry people are expecting an experience similar to the Capital and Metro lines that run at about the same speed as the Toronto subway and will be discouraged from supporting further LRT expansion and invest ment if this new line underperforms in their view.
Click to expand...
I am one of the "some people" and think if we do another complete line it should be on elevated tracks or underground tracks (yes the fricken big dig) with heated stations. Do it right, do it once and do it for the next 100 years or don't do it at all. The Valley line is nothing more than a street car but somewhat faster in some parts of the line. It is not a metro or subway or designed for mass transit. I do not know if the track needs to upgraded for higher speed trains, but do know infrastructure will need to be added if the line is upgraded to accommodate faster and more frequent trains to get through intersections. I think they added too many stops to pander to communities along the route.
 
CplKlinger said:
On the other hand, I heard from someone who owns a house along the Valley Line that he was very pleased with how well it integrates with the surrounding neighbourhood (Avonmore). Hopefully peoples' perception of the speed is balanced out by how it fits as a part of their neighbourhoods, rather than being something separate that cuts their communities in half.
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I'm sure that aspect is appreciated, but the same could be said of increased electric bus service and would cost a fraction of the LRT.

Ultimately we'll have to see how the ridership numbers play out, but I really worry this could sour a lot of people on the concept of LRT as a whole.
 
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Aaron_Lloyd said:
I'm sure that aspect is appreciated, but the same could be said of increased electric bus service and would cost a fraction of the LRT.

Ultimately we'll have to see how the ridership numbers play out, but I really worry this could sour a lot of people on the concept of LRT as a whole.
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They said it should take as much time as driving a car to downtown from millwoods, so not that slow tbh.
 
It'll take 30 minutes they say, with some variability caused by the fact that the train stops at some traffic lights. A drive from Mill Woods Town Centre to City Centre mall is 23 min without much traffic to about 35 min with traffic, factor in the fact that you actually have to get to the station itself and during off-peak potentially wait as much as 10 min for a train to even leave the use case for the line is already looking kind of unfavourable in my view. Especially when the existing buses on this route make the trip in 34 min and for much less than $1.8b could have simply had their frequency increased.

Or ideally for some more money we could have just built a transit line that would actually outcompete a car in much more use cases (as the capital line already does).
 
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Aaron_Lloyd said:
It'll take 30 minutes they say, with some variability caused by the fact that the train stops at some traffic lights. A drive from Mill Woods Town Centre to City Centre mall is 23 min without much traffic to about 35 min with traffic, factor in the fact that you actually have to get to the station itself and during off-peak potentially wait as much as 10 min for a train to even leave the use case for the line is already looking kind of unfavourable in my view. Especially when the existing buses on this route make the trip in 34 min and for much less than $1.8b could have simply had their frequency increased.

Or ideally for some more money we could have just built a transit line that would actually outcompete a car in much more use cases (as the capital line already does).
Click to expand...

It actually takes closer to 50 mins from millwoods to downtown by bus in the morning. You as well have to walk to the bus station.

Parking in downtown costs $300 a month on average. Not everyone can afford it. That's why our laughable LRT network is the busiest in North America.

We can cry out it as much as we want, but when this city approaches 2 mil and everyone will be stuck in a car on the way to downtown for 2 hours or more everyday (that's what it was from Terwillegar to downtown pre-pandemic).
 
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