Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

IanO said:
Any mention of an opening date as of yet? It's mid-March 23' for god's sake.
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I have moved on to the phase of celebrating each month extra delayed is saving taxpayers a payment to Transed. But based on what they are saying with these full line demonstration tests can't be more than a month or two until it opens can it?
 
The_Cat said:
Two-car train test:
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I find it odd how there is no protective element between the cars, a lot of systems worry about people stepping between them to cross or whatnot and getting injured.

See Sydney below:
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thommyjo said:
Pretty wild how massive this machine is in person. WEM area

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It appears that launching gantry was previous used on Route2020 in Dubai, which is funny
 
So it seems like TransEd might have their poop in a group now? Seeing a lot more simulated service the last few days. Along with that simulated service is massive traffic delays at the crossings. On Sunday the line for WB traffic on 82 Ave was almost halfway back to 75 street. This morning I went to the office and I have been cutting over to 83 street on 82 Ave and then going down Connors - we watched 3 trains cross the intersection before we got a green. I was stuck behind a 4 that had to stop at that little strip mall so I couldn't sneak by and turn right to NB 83 street. Might be worth watching to see how bad they get delayed. I think TransEd could alleviate the backlog for the cross traffic if the first green after the train crosses favors the cross traffic - they seem to be favoring left turns right now which doesn't make much sense to me.

Coming home we were backed up a ways on Connors Road as well - Some of that is the crazy they created by eliminating the traffic circle. There was probably 25 cars on 85 Street trying to get onto Connors to go EB 90 Ave, which then screws up people trying to go SB 83 Street from Connors. There is just too much going on in such a small area there.

Time to do some route adjustments for the drive to work I guess.

I did see 1013 in the stop at Bonnie Doon which left before I did. I beat it to 36A Ave, but not by much as it was in the stop at 38 Ave when I went by. It will be interesting to see what they are using for simulated dwell times at the stations while they are testing.

Also to add to my wall of text - saw two trains displaying "Out of Service" today vs the using "Testing Mode". 1013 had a paper taped to each door as well but I couldn't read what it said.
 
Glenco said:
I remember the most asked question during their feedback the city got when planning this line was “why no grade separation on Whyte Avenue?“
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Same reason why there wasn't any separation for the Metro Line at Kingsway/111 Avenue & Princess Elizabeth/106 Street - costs. Should've paid more for less headaches later on.
 
Glenco said:
I remember the most asked question during their feedback the city got when planning this line was “why no grade separation on Whyte Avenue?“
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Thing is, realistically, to have grade separation on Whyte, it would have made sense, then, to have grade separation pretty much all the way from Holyrood to Wagner, which would've likely cost significantly more, considering the sloping angles on both sides of the elevated guideways.

I don't really know how well it would have panned with the people living along 83 St, especially south of Whyte
 
Avenuer said:
Same reason why there wasn't any separation for the Metro Line at Kingsway/111 Avenue & Princess Elizabeth/106 Street - costs. Should've paid more for less headaches later on.
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... and south of the University too. It is a trade off, I suppose - pay a lot more and risk having the LRT delayed even longer because of the additional costs or go ahead with it as is.

Fortunately, I don't travel in any of these areas often or at busy times, so it is not a problem for me, but it could be painful for people who regularly use these routes.
 
kcantor said:
which tells me the design and implementation is what's wrong because this is the sort of thing that should be intuitive, not the sort of thing that has to be learned...

and then there's the centre/through lane stop light going eastbound at 125th street where you're supposed to stop for a red light while the curb lane has a green light and oncoming west bound traffic also has a green light...
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It’s not intuitive because this section of track initially called for elevated rail and that idea was scrapped because, and I’m paraphrasing here, “elevated track has a tendency of dividing communities and isn’t inviting”. They also said traffic would only experience minor interruptions with the use of “creative signalling”.

It’s kind of frustrating how we can’t build things in this country anymore without being bogged down by red tape, inefficient and bloated partnerships, inexperience, and greed.
 
Stevey_G said:
It’s not intuitive because this section of track initially called for elevated rail and that idea was scrapped because, and I’m paraphrasing here, “elevated track has a tendency of dividing communities and isn’t inviting”. They also said traffic would only experience minor interruptions with the use of “creative signalling”.

It’s kind of frustrating how we can’t build things in this country anymore without being bogged down by red tape, inefficient and bloated partnerships, inexperience, and greed.
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That seems like an after the fact justification. This was probably a funding issue more than anything else.
 
I think one challenge with the LRT is how to build it through residential neighboourhoods. If people have complaints about cellphone towers, could you imagine an overhead LRT line in Avonmore or Strathearn?

Looking at the LRT expansion, I'm glad to see them building underground at 137 Avenue and 23 Avenue, and over 170 Street.
 
The_Cat said:
I think one challenge with the LRT is how to build it through residential neighboourhoods. If people have complaints about cellphone towers, could you imagine an overhead LRT line in Avonmore or Strathearn?

Looking at the LRT expansion, I'm glad to see them building underground at 137 Avenue and 23 Avenue, and over 170 Street.
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Yeah, the quick dips underground seem to be a solid move.

Obviously the 15min delays isn’t the long term plan. Just part of signal challenges they’re trying to sort.

Ironic that people hate 15min delays in cars, but then we make a lot of our transit 15min headways or longer. These trains will help tens of thousands of people now have faster, more reliable transit. So if a few thousand, maybe tens of thousands? (Idk the volume of all those intersections) drivers see their commutes increase by 5 minutes, isn’t that a good trade off? Greatest good for greatest amount of people + efficiency/sustainability of transit + socioeconomic lens, etc.

Drivers love to think they’re the only people that matter. Let’s talk instead about the delays cars are causing to the new train by not giving it signal priority… I bet that adds 10+ minutes to the trip for train users.

We have city docs that show the pyramid of priority for transportation modes, with cars at the bottom. Yet everything we do is still spending billions to accommodate cars not getting 5min delays (overpasses, slip lanes, left turn lanes + signal priority, lane twinnings, transit adjustments, etc). Definitely lots of good reasons for grade separations and all of that still, but we always talk about this stuff through the lens of helping the drivers.
 
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