Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

Took a trip this morning down to Mill Woods on VLSE. Overall a pleasant experience. Ride was pretty smooth, but the train seems to wobble a bit more on the Tawatina Bridge (wind?). I really don't like the seats though, they made my lower back sore. The views coming down the hill to Muttart are quite nice. The amount of parking at Davies Station is a little ridiculous. I doubt we will see it more than 2/3rds full most of the time
 
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The_Cat said:
I wonder how many people were downtown for the first time in ages today.
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It was my first time actually seeing Rice Howard Way when I parked there to take the train (although it hasn't been too long ago since I visited downtown in general). Opening day was also the first time I visited the revamped central library (got off at Churchill while taking my second ride of the day so I could turn around, and since the library was in my face right across the street, I figured I might as well check it out and pick up a book).
 
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One appeal about the LRT (Valley and Capital/Metro Lines) is that the orientation of the lines are largely east-west. The other approaches to downtown are largely north-south. It's also difficult to turn off 100 Street or 101 Street onto an east-west street. Add about 10 minutes finding parking, then walking to your destination.
 
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We were just in Nice last month and made extensive use of their tramway. The top station, Jean Medecin, was just three minutes' walk from our accommodation. The decision was made to run Line 2 underground through four stations in the city centre. The stations are not showpieces but nevertheless attractive.

This is what I wish the CoE would have done for Quarters station instead of running the line at street level and plunking the station awkwardly. An attractive underground station could have been built and the line could have surfaced west of 97 Street.
 
TravellingChris said:
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We were just in Nice last month and made extensive use of their tramway. The top station, Jean Medecin, was just three minutes' walk from our accommodation. The decision was made to run Line 2 underground through four stations in the city centre. The stations are not showpieces but nevertheless attractive.

This is what I wish the CoE would have done for Quarters station instead of running the line at street level and plunking the station awkwardly. An attractive underground station could have been built and the line could have surfaced west of 97 Street.
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Although those stations pictured are really nice, I want to provide a counter perspective.

I think the cramped implementation of the Quarters stop makes it my favourite on the Valley Line, yes even ahead of Davies (though I do like Davies). There's something uniquely urban about the Quarters stop that feels intimidate and old-world, having that one business's wall and windows right up against the platform is unique, and the sort of thing you very rarely see in modern transit systems, where we tend to take the freeway-building approach and buy everything that compromises the dream, instead for the Quarters we chose to fit the station within the space we had available. It's special, it has a unique vibe, and I think it's worth appreciating in its own right.

When (if? lol) the Quarters area every actually fills in, that cramped station will becoming special, beloved, and unique, of that I'm certain.
 
JuliallThat said:
Although those stations pictured are really nice, I want to provide a counter perspective.

I think the cramped implementation of the Quarters stop makes it my favourite on the Valley Line, yes even ahead of Davies (though I do like Davies). There's something uniquely urban about the Quarters stop that feels intimidate and old-world, having that one business's wall and windows right up against the platform is unique, and the sort of thing you very rarely see in modern transit systems, where we tend to take the freeway-building approach and buy everything that compromises the dream, instead for the Quarters we chose to fit the station within the space we had available. It's special, it has a unique vibe, and I think it's worth appreciating in its own right.

When (if? lol) the Quarters area every actually fills in, that cramped station will becoming special, beloved, and unique, of that I'm certain.
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Was just thinking the same thing, as Quarters fills in it will start looking less and less awkward and more and more urbanist. Here's hoping for Quarters / Chinatown to look like this from Singapore's Chinatown in 50 years time:
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But with a train station in the middle
 
JuliallThat said:
Although those stations pictured are really nice, I want to provide a counter perspective.

I think the cramped implementation of the Quarters stop makes it my favourite on the Valley Line, yes even ahead of Davies (though I do like Davies). There's something uniquely urban about the Quarters stop that feels intimidate and old-world, having that one business's wall and windows right up against the platform is unique, and the sort of thing you very rarely see in modern transit systems, where we tend to take the freeway-building approach and buy everything that compromises the dream, instead for the Quarters we chose to fit the station within the space we had available. It's special, it has a unique vibe, and I think it's worth appreciating in its own right.

When (if? lol) the Quarters area every actually fills in, that cramped station will becoming special, beloved, and unique, of that I'm certain.
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I wholeheartedly agree on this. The Quarters is actually my favourite stop on the line as well, and imo the one with the best potential. It feels different, and the fact that the train comes up and poof Chinatown (or what remains of it around this stop) appears.

Plus Double Greeting is literally right by the stop. That's such a big plus and I hope the oncoming foot traffic serves them well and inspires more Asian and Chinese restaurants to open around this area. Hell, it could allow that DoubleTree Hotel's CRU spaces a bit of a break.

Trew Facks mentioned on TikTok that a convenience store right by the Millwoods stop had increased traffic from the initial opening and was now considering adding food to their store as well. I think the fact that the Valley Line is mostly at grade and allows you to see businesses by it is a massive underrated aspect of the Valley Line.
 
Kosy123 said:
Trew Facks mentioned on TikTok that a convenience store right by the Millwoods stop had increased traffic from the initial opening and was now considering adding food to their store as well.
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That poor convenience store... It opened upwards of 2 years ago, obviously seeing the potential with the LRT stop. I felt bad for them everytime there was another delay to the opening of the Valley Line. And yes, you can see they had big plans of offering hot food and what not but so far I guess they haven't had the traffic.
 
EdwardEdm said:
That poor convenience store... It opened upwards of 2 years ago, obviously seeing the potential with the LRT stop. I felt bad for them everytime there was another delay to the opening of the Valley Line. And yes, you can see they had big plans of offering hot food and what not but so far I guess they haven't had the traffic.
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Well, I hope their decision is vindicated because the visible foot traffic in these areas is going to be a lottt
 
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