trevorhayden
Active Member
We need road diets, never ever widening! That will k*ll this city!
Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
TAS
Senior Member
The current federal government did announce $3B in annual public transportation funding starting in 2026-27.
Kosy123
Active Member
A slowdown in construction wouldn't be the end of the world if we weren't facing massive population growth tbh.
TAS
Senior Member
When you have as many roads as we do and a tough climate compounding the issue, I would say get use to the fatigue. The sooner we invest and build out and prioritize alternatives to single vehicle use, the better.
David A
Senior Member
If the Federal government does change next year, it would not be a surprise if some of the funding for transit changes, so the slow down may happen eventually regardless.
While the increased Federal funding over the last few years has been a good thing in many ways I wonder if it has set off a flurry of activity across the country and there was not enough construction capacity for it, resulting in increases in cost.
TAS
Senior Member
Added 100,000 people in two years and 65,000 cars.
northlands
Senior Member
Yep my thoughts also. Makes me really glad the City pushed hard to get so many major projects through the past few years to help accommodate the population boom.
BASE
Active Member
Much as I think a break would be nice I just don’t see it happening with another few years of yellowhead & west valley line to go I imagine something like the high level bridge will have to be done for safety reasons and who knows what else. I agree metro line might be something that waits longer than initially anticipated.
Tropical
Active Member
I quite literally deleted my response when I saw someone put it better than I possibly could.
Tropical
Active Member
I'm very torn on this project.
From an equity lens, a bridge to the north absolutely wins. From the perspective of dollars for impact on movement, I would much rather see this spent connecting West Edmonton to Bonnie Doon and Downtown to the airport (both via Old Strathcona).
Perhaps BRT is truly the best measure that compromises on all of these priorities.
Platinum107
Senior Member
Personally, I believe Metro Line NW needs to happen sooner rather than later.
NW is the only sector of the city without an LRT line either operating or under construction and has already been put on the backburner once. It getting pushed back another time for no reason other than a change of priorities is just shitty, and leaves people living there without equitable access to reliable public transit while south Edmonton gets LRT past the Henday. Sure, construction sites aren't fun and bad coordination on the city's part is annoying, but the last thing I'd want is for us to lack projects. That's how we regress to the 90's and Ralph Klein Era.
NW is the only sector of the city without an LRT line either operating or under construction and has already been put on the backburner once. It getting pushed back another time for no reason other than a change of priorities is just shitty, and leaves people living there without equitable access to reliable public transit while south Edmonton gets LRT past the Henday. Sure, construction sites aren't fun and bad coordination on the city's part is annoying, but the last thing I'd want is for us to lack projects. That's how we regress to the 90's and Ralph Klein Era.
Out of Towner
Active Member
Tropical
Active Member
Yes - from an equity lens I absolutely agree. My concern is ridership and development of the density that we so sorely need.
That said, if the city chooses to continue with it as the priority I am certainly not against it.
thommyjo
Senior Member
87ave WEM to Whyte might do more for our city than NW LRT in the next decade. BRT likely captures a good chunk of ridership for NW, not sure how much more of a bump LRT gives.
Vs 87ave really opens up a significant connection for our 3 major employment nodes of WEM, UofA, DT. It’ll ease traffic congestion massively for fox drive, 114st, 149st, 107ave, and groat road.
It’ll connect our main tourism hub (WEM), to the Main Street and local businesses of whyte. It’ll strengthen connections to 2 hospitals. TOD/infill in these nodes is going to grow a lot.
NW is badly needed, but I’d be fascinated by an analysis of ROIs. That line also acts more as a commuter route. Where a 87ave one covers a greater variety of destinations, which might drive ridership better vs a more purely suburb to DT line.
North side also doesn’t face the same number of bottlenecks the south/west do with the river. So as the population grows, the north end won’t get overly congested. Whereas fox drive will only get way worse.
Vs 87ave really opens up a significant connection for our 3 major employment nodes of WEM, UofA, DT. It’ll ease traffic congestion massively for fox drive, 114st, 149st, 107ave, and groat road.
It’ll connect our main tourism hub (WEM), to the Main Street and local businesses of whyte. It’ll strengthen connections to 2 hospitals. TOD/infill in these nodes is going to grow a lot.
NW is badly needed, but I’d be fascinated by an analysis of ROIs. That line also acts more as a commuter route. Where a 87ave one covers a greater variety of destinations, which might drive ridership better vs a more purely suburb to DT line.
North side also doesn’t face the same number of bottlenecks the south/west do with the river. So as the population grows, the north end won’t get overly congested. Whereas fox drive will only get way worse.
The_Cat
Senior Member
The challenges facing the Northwest sector of Edmonton include two rail yards (Calder/Walker) and Dunvegan) and two access roads (97 Street and 127 Street) to points south. There are no bike paths south because of the tracks.