Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

dunno said:
It feels like they're basically rebuilding the line all over from scratch... has the construction time not more or less doubled now? I think construction started in 2016 or 2017.
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Could be worse. Construction of the first (all-underground) Metro in Quito also started in 2016. It was scheduled to be ready for opening in 2020, but the date was pushed back multiple times. The system was inaugurated in December 2022 and commercial operations began on May 2, 2023. Nine days later the system was shut down for "technical issues" and full operation isn't expected to resume until 2024.
 
WEM to UofA gondola? 🙂

However it’s done, I’d argue a west+south central connection is key after metro NW is completed.

Our west and SW parts of the city are the fastest growing and the UofA/whyte are still 2 of the largest draws for employment, education, and leisure in the city. The Valley line really doesn’t help a ton. The Wem/Bonnie doon BRT helps a bit, but isn’t great. We honestly need that 87ave bridge imo. Would be huge for bike connections too as the river creates huge detours/backtracking.

Fox drive & 114st are too big of bottlenecks. The HLB doesn’t get to both the UofA and Whyte directly enough.
 
JuliallThat said:
I really think we should also consider elevated rail for the Whyte corridor. Elevated rail adds a lot of visual interest, both from the ground and for the riders. Usually cheaper than underground too fwiw.
I'll take elevated all day over subways, subways are boring as hell! Drab boring dark tunnels, trains trying to pretend they don't even exist, nothing to look at but dark concrete walls.
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I actually do love elevated rail and have experienced it in numerous cities. With Whyte, though, it's one of the few areas with visually interesting historic structures and I think having an elevated rail track through the middle of the avenue would wreck a lot of that. It's the same reason I'd never want to see an elevated track down Queen Street or Rue St-Denis.

thommyjo said:
WEM to UofA gondola? 🙂

However it’s done, I’d argue a west+south central connection is key after metro NW is completed.

Our west and SW parts of the city are the fastest growing and the UofA/whyte are still 2 of the largest draws for employment, education, and leisure in the city. The Valley line really doesn’t help a ton. The Wem/Bonnie doon BRT helps a bit, but isn’t great. We honestly need that 87ave bridge imo. Would be huge for bike connections too as the river creates huge detours/backtracking.

Fox drive & 114st are too big of bottlenecks. The HLB doesn’t get to both the UofA and Whyte directly enough.
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I totally agree (except for the gondola part 😅). I do believe having a bus bridge over Hawrelak is in the city plans. I'd be ok with BRT for this corridor if it could be deployed within 5 years, if it means in 20-25 it gets upgraded to light rail.
 
IIRC there were plans for a 87 Ave LRT bridge over the North Saskatchewan River, but Mayor Mandel killed that idea because the rich folks who live near the Laurier Heights neighborhood (including Daryl Katz) were against it.
 
Gronk! said:
IIRC there were plans for a 87 Ave LRT bridge over the North Saskatchewan River, but Mayor Mandel killed that idea because the rich folks who live near the Laurier Heights neighborhood (including Daryl Katz) were against it.
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Yes, there were a few different route ideas for WLRT. 87 Ave, Fox Drive/Whitemud, and the one we got. But there have been more recent plans for a bus bridge.
 
There is a really cool rendering of an LRT/pedestrian bridge going across the river at 87 Avenue, but it seems to be missing from my databank.
 
The_Cat said:
Looks like one of the trailers was loading up in
Bonnie Doon. Is TransEd nearly finished with cable installation?
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They did say that they would be finished by the end of summer, so this makes sense. It’d be nice if they gave us some sort of update, even if an opening date wasn’t announced.
 
dunno said:
Whyte Ave ideally should have an underground tube like the UofA/Downtown.
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I'm also a big proponent for transit on Whyte Ave, especially because having good transit options keeps people from driving impaired.

Now we do already have a streetcar going to Whyte with some limited infrastructure in place. Extend the high level tourist streetcar to brewery district? It's operated by the historical society, but I can see historic streetcars mixed with newer rolling stock servicing the area. The high level bridge taking additional weight would be a concern though.
 
J_gordo said:
They did say that they would be finished by the end of summer, so this makes sense. It’d be nice if they gave us some sort of update, even if an opening date wasn’t announced.
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The unknown is such a killer for sure. Less than a month left of summer.
 
dunno said:
Yes, there were a few different route ideas for WLRT. 87 Ave, Fox Drive/Whitemud, and the one we got. But there have been more recent plans for a bus bridge.
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Mandel wanted downtown to be the hub of the system. Rich people or not you could have easily run a train along whitemud - but a different decision was made to prioritize downtown. People forget how much Mandel really wanted to focus on downtown. He was responsible for the decision to route the Valley line through DT, the arena, moving the Museum downtown. Frankly, I miss this kind of dedicated focus on downtown. We really are missing out by not having a mayor who can drive a city-building agenda.
 
IanO said:
I'm still flabbergasted that an 'investigative reporter' has not taken this cluster and run with it.
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There's only one left, at CBC I think. Probably have their hands full with more serious issues than a delay to an LRT line, which nowadays unfortunately seems to happen in almost every major city that tries to build transit infrastructure.
 
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