Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

I got suggested a video about this on Youtube and it ended up being way too deep of a dive, but the Valley Line has an equivalent of sorts with Helsinki Light Rail 15 (Jokeri). It opened last year (ahead of schedule unlike ours lol)

It's interesting to see similar distances and a similar commute time. Jokeri has 34 stations, and is 25 km in length. (Ours is 28 stations and 27 km at full build) and from one of the videos, it seems it takes an hour to go from one end of the line to the other. It really does show that the Valley Line, for ill or for good, is essentially a European tramway at its core.


 
I think part of the rationale for this line was to encourage development along the way, some of which has happened or is already happening and more is proposed.

I realize it is not designed only as a commuter line. I don't know how it compares to driving downtown time wise for commuters, but when you factor in looking for and paying for parking it probably comes out ahead.
 
The Valley Line is probably slightly slower than routes like 401 (Sherwood Park) and 500X (The Meadows). The Valley Line, though, saves at least 10 minutes off the old bus routes to Mill Woods.

The greatest benefit is that a rider on LRT can reach most major destinations in an hour or less.
 
Looking north at 156st and 100ave. I’m assuming they’ll try to have the whole east side of 156st that’s dug up finished and repaved before winter?
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I've recently had a chance to use the Valley line as part of my work commute while my car is in the shop. Although I've ridden it before this is the first time as part of a commute, I live near Stadium and work down near the Whitemud.
I've been reasonably impressed. I think my biggest annoyance is there not being a station between Davies and Millbourne, because the trip to/from Davies is the most pain in the butt part of the journey.

So given that, I've been bringing my bike onto the train so I can bike to and from the train, and especially with the new MUP along 75st it's been pretty seamless. I can get door to door in 35-40m which is pretty good considering my normal driving commute is normally 20-25m.
 
The_Cat said:
The Valley Line is probably slightly slower than routes like 401 (Sherwood Park) and 500X (The Meadows). The Valley Line, though, saves at least 10 minutes off the old bus routes to Mill Woods.

The greatest benefit is that a rider on LRT can reach most major destinations in an hour or less.
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Yeah, I spent years on overcrowded ETS buses that got bogged down in traffic between downtown and Mill Woods. My experiences riding the Valley Line so far have been enough to overcome my residual seething hatred of the idea of ever going to Mill Woods. The closest station to my then place of work is admittedly a bit shit (Millbourne-Woodvale), but then that's because of the neighbourhoods and not so much the station. Even with the whole area being about as walkable as an old minefield, it still would've a great improvement over that commute. It's not just time savings, but a much better ride experience.
 
dkazzed said:
That's... awful...

Heritage Valley just started construction at a cost of $300m/km including the recent cost increase and an OMF. Metro Line is a similar length and it could double to $600m/km and still be $2.7 billion.

Is it the tunnel? If it's going to cost them several billion to tunnel, just tunnel the much busier blue and red lines and keep the green line at grade.
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While it does indeed suck to bore tunnels in Edmonton on account of our geology, it only calls for a short segment, and it would surprise me if this couldn't be done cut and cover. Drivers will complain, but it would make that underground segment much cheaper and quicker to build. Phase 1 of this extension seems to contain some big ticket items that are not just building track that are going to skew your price per km figure, like a new Operations and Maintenance facility, and new LRV's.
 
IanO said:
That little stretch on the north side there from 146-149 has SO much potential.
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Sadly, too much potential might be our downfall haha. There’s gotta be 50+ years of development potential along this line! Just the major intersections of 124/SPR, 142/SPR, 149/SPR, 156/SPR, 159/87, 170/87 could probably accommodate 20,000 residents. Not to mention all the east of 124th street development, SPR between intersections. And 156st.

Good thing we’re building thousands of apartment units next to farmers fields still though 🫠
 
Offworld said:
That market segment completely confounds me. Who are these being built to serve? What's the target market? I'm an apartment dweller and those fringe properties would never be on my list of potentials.
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I suppose there's people who don't want or aren't in a position to buy houses but work jobs out by the Henday or even out of town. Alternately, there's people who want/need apartments but can't find them within their price range where they actually want to be due to previous zoning limitations preventing densification of inner suburbia.
 
Offworld said:
That market segment completely confounds me. Who are these being built to serve? What's the target market? I'm an apartment dweller and those fringe properties would never be on my list of potentials.
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Edmonton's employment is fairly decentralized and there is a lot of employers in proximity to the Henday or in adjacent industrial areas like Nisku, Acheson, or Strathcona County. It can make quite a bit of sense for those people. Or people who may work from home for a few days during the week and living in these areas can be more affordable than being somewhere more central.
 
Look at apartment options that are 2bdrms under 2k.

You have 1) crappy old stuff in mature areas, 2) high rise type stuff with the challenges of more urban forms (price, parking, unit sizes, ease of driving to/from for visitors or self, poor proximity to schools), or 3) newer/nicer and more affordable apartments in new suburbs (or griesbach/Century park/stadium).

There’s little supply in “mature, but non urban” areas that’s not older/sketchier (see SPR, callingwood). That’s the missing gap here. Plus, for an extra 15min drive, the options are way better outside the henday.

I actually wonder if our density targets in new suburbs has backfired. If we had kept most new suburbs to be townhomes or lower, it’d lead to more apartments centrally I think. If we mandated density over 3 stories had to be within 1km of a transit station (major bus station or train stop), would that have helped us?
 
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