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.
Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton
- Thread starter Daveography
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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.
Out of Towner
Active Member
I understood Cartmell's commentary differently. I don't think Cartmell wants to pull an Ed Leger and stop everything but instead prefers focusing funding and resources on fewer projects to reduce the adverse effect that extended completion dates have on businesses and people generally. In other words, finish what you've started before starting something else.
thommyjo
Senior Member
Isn’t the yellowhead project helping some of this?
The_Cat
Senior Member
To some extent. I think, though that the Metro LRT bridge will provide a connection similar to the LRT bridges downtown.
Barnaby
Senior Member
If the Metro line bridge is an estimated $1 billion, it's not worth it at all.
That money would be better spent on a 124th st VL spur (I've posted about the alignment on the expansion thread), and a Whyte Ave Metro Line/Capital Line/Valley Line spur that would also grade seperate at University Ave.
Why you would pay for expansion to a very low density area when Strathcona is high density and begging for good transit, is a mystery to me.
That money would be better spent on a 124th st VL spur (I've posted about the alignment on the expansion thread), and a Whyte Ave Metro Line/Capital Line/Valley Line spur that would also grade seperate at University Ave.
Why you would pay for expansion to a very low density area when Strathcona is high density and begging for good transit, is a mystery to me.
ntt1
Active Member
Recently being in Europe, I can't help but think that a tram-style integrated train for Whyte Ave would be the best, like the one in Gent, Belgium that runs right through the busiest parts of the city, including the city square:
