Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

thommyjo said:
The classic “stick to one thing” is such a strawman tbh. That’s not intelligent. Imagine telling apple to just do iPhones and not macs, iOS, App Store, AirPods, Apple Music, etc.

Translink is the best example of a modern transit agency imo. They’re city builders. Not just bus operators. They’re thinking holistically about Development, housing, biking, retail, land use, etc.

Great organizations use integrated solutions. Transit can’t be good without great land use policy, especially with our current state of affairs in Edmonton. TOD is key to ridership growth here because many of our suburbs are permanently stuck being inefficient for transit and will likely never see transit use peak 10-15%. But our LRT lines, if well planned for TOD, could see 100k plus residents living above stations in the next few decades. That’s a huge win and takes more than “stick to one thing” thinking…
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Hmm, I'd be impressed if the busses ran on schedule and in a timely fashion.
Having doubts on their other capabilities considering all the transportation project issues and the development of the stadium (a long, long time), belvedere, clareview (finally, took a while but good), and Blatchford (last i heard was 49 families, have they breached 50 yet?)
 
IanO said:
PLUS it is the true missing link for Edmonton given that WEM is out there.
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As opposed to the Broadway line in Vancouver, the airport connection in Montreal, and getting a bunch of inner Toronto areas finally hooked up to rail transit? Like, VLW is very important don't get me wrong, but to say it's more important than other projects going on across Canada is a bit much IMO.
 
dunno said:
As opposed to the Broadway line in Vancouver, the airport connection in Montreal, and getting a bunch of inner Toronto areas finally hooked up to rail transit? Like, VLW is very important don't get me wrong, but to say it's more important than other projects going on across Canada is a bit much IMO.
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I don’t think he was saying that.
 
Each of the LRT expansions in Edmonton have been significant, given the introduction of LRT to new parts of town. There is mass transit construction in major cities across Canada. Edmonton did well to plan the Valley Line LRT last decade, especially with the rising construction costs. Much of the construction in Southern Ontario includes the Go Train, along with LRT/Subway construction in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton and Kitchener/Waterloo. Whether they're expansions or upgrades, both are good investments.
 
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dunno said:
As opposed to the Broadway line in Vancouver, the airport connection in Montreal, and getting a bunch of inner Toronto areas finally hooked up to rail transit? Like, VLW is very important don't get me wrong, but to say it's more important than other projects going on across Canada is a bit much IMO.
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Yeah, Ian didn't say that at all. He was talking Edmonton-specific I'm pretty sure.
 
Bingo.

I follow Toronto and Vancouver projects fairly closely as well, but am not comparing them at all in this case.
 
YPn_oQ2P


www.renewcanada.net

Bridge girder installation represents key milestone for Valley Line West LRT project - ReNew Canada

The City of Edmonton announced that Marigold Infrastructure crews began work overnight on January 18 to install bridge girders (large beams used to support the bridge deck) for the new Anthony Henday Drive LRT Bridge at 87 Avenue. In total, 10 girders will be installed overnight from Thursday...
www.renewcanada.net www.renewcanada.net
 
Man, Marigold seems to be making such a better job than TransEd, at least up to this point, that it makes me wonder how much earlier we would've had the VLSE running if they had been in charge of construction of the whole line.
I was driving down the alignment of the line west of 142 st the other day and man, especially the elevated section is taking shape SO QUICKLY! I will not be shocked if we start seeing the elevated stations taking shape by springtime.
 
Glenco said:
Judging by the cost per kilometre of track for other LRT projects around the country Valley Line West is pretty good value for money.
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It does, but before we pat ourselves on the back too much, it seems to me there are at least two other important factors. First, our LRT expansion happened/was planned before some others and costs have gone up since then.

Second, our lines are mostly going through less built up, not as dense areas than in some older and larger cities, so less need for tunnels and elevated tracks, etc...
 
^What one has to do and wha one chooses to do are two different things. Ottawa is building a substantial amount of the line extension in the middle of a highway median and yet at the same time they want to build metro style stations for their low floor LRT. They want to make it a commuter system which will have little appeal of peak hours. Not good value for money. The town down south has decided to tunnel their low floor urban vehicle into a commuter system at enormous cost. In my humble opinion Edmonton has chosen the right tool for the job which makes it good value for the outlay no accident.
 
ChazYEG said:
Man, Marigold seems to be making such a better job than TransEd, at least up to this point, that it makes me wonder how much earlier we would've had the VLSE running if they had been in charge of construction of the whole line.
I was driving down the alignment of the line west of 142 st the other day and man, especially the elevated section is taking shape SO QUICKLY! I will not be shocked if we start seeing the elevated stations taking shape by springtime.
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Probably because half of Marigold’s workforce and project team have a convenient 5-6 years of previous local LRT construction experience… lol
 
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