Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

mBertan said:
Former mayor’s perspective:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1836903332277014741
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Not a bad deflection of any responsibility by Nenshi, but to begin with, does the CP mainline still need to be hauling freight through the middle of downtown Calgary? Doesn't Nenshi admit that the stumbling block to a cheaper surface line is the CP mainline? Using some of CP's right of way for the green line pretty much ensures that freight trains are going to be rumbling through downtown Calgary for years to come. If Nenshi is the smartest guy in every room then why didn't he work with with CP on a plan to move their mainline to an industrial area of the city and then there wouldn't be the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions tunneling underground. Kill two birds with one stone. Move the mainline out of downtown and save money on a surface line. Unfortunately that comes back to bite Nenshi because under his watch a pile of money was spent on an underpass beneath the CP main line on 4th street. So it all comes back to not having a clear plan forward from the very beginning.
 
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Out of Towner said:
Not a bad deflection of any responsibility by Nenshi, but to begin with, does the CP mainline still need to be hauling freight through the middle of downtown Calgary? Doesn't Nenshi admit that the stumbling block to a cheaper surface line is the CP mainline? Using some of CP's right of way for the green line pretty much ensures that freight trains are going to be rumbling through downtown Calgary for years to come. If Nenshi is the smartest guy in every room then why didn't he work with with CP on a plan to move their mainline to an industrial area of the city and then there wouldn't be the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions tunneling underground. Kill two birds with one stone. Move the mainline out of downtown and save money on a surface line. Unfortunately that comes back to bite Nenshi because under his watch a pile of money was spent on an underpass beneath the CP main line on 4th street. So it all comes back to not having a clear plan forward from the very beginning.
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Oh 100% deflection for sure, and a convenient way to slag the UCP while he was at it.

The bus way would have b een done, but the added costs in labour and busses would be brutal. Rerouting the CPR (the yards too?), nice theory, but they are tough to deal with, and it wouldn't be cheap...
 
IMG_7834.jpeg


Temporary supports being erected for the west section of the guideway.
Side note, this is a valley line west thread, not a green line / political thread. Where are the mods ?
 
I'm not up on the historical background on how CN's mainline was relocated but it has to be regarded as a huge success for the city and for CN. 104 is now an important urban corridor and with space becoming a growing issue at the port of Vancouver, CN has the opportunity to unload more containers in its yard rather than having freight loaded and trucked from Vancouver.
 
Out of Towner said:
I'm not up on the historical background on how CN's mainline was relocated but it has to be regarded as a huge success for the city and for CN. 104 is now an important urban corridor and with space becoming a growing issue at the port of Vancouver, CN has the opportunity to unload more containers in its yard rather than having freight loaded and trucked from Vancouver.
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also a missed golden opportunity to run lrt or a brt down 97th, across the yards across the high level on one branch down the former CPR, another branch further west and one more out to st albert all with a terminal at the old CN Tower station...
 
Out of Towner said:
Not a bad deflection of any responsibility by Nenshi, but to begin with, does the CP mainline still need to be hauling freight through the middle of downtown Calgary? Doesn't Nenshi admit that the stumbling block to a cheaper surface line is the CP mainline? Using some of CP's right of way for the green line pretty much ensures that freight trains are going to be rumbling through downtown Calgary for years to come. If Nenshi is the smartest guy in every room then why didn't he work with with CP on a plan to move their mainline to an industrial area of the city and then there wouldn't be the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions tunneling underground. Kill two birds with one stone. Move the mainline out of downtown and save money on a surface line. Unfortunately that comes back to bite Nenshi because under his watch a pile of money was spent on an underpass beneath the CP main line on 4th street. So it all comes back to not having a clear plan forward from the very beginning.
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Okay, but where would you move the freight rail alignment? The Bow Valley is the only way out of Calgary that climbs at a small enough grade for freight trains. And once you’ve gone just east of Crowchild where it crosses the river, how would you re-route it without ploughing through the inner city?
 
Out of Towner said:
I'm not up on the historical background on how CN's mainline was relocated but it has to be regarded as a huge success for the city and for CN. 104 is now an important urban corridor and with space becoming a growing issue at the port of Vancouver, CN has the opportunity to unload more containers in its yard rather than having freight loaded and trucked from Vancouver.
Click to expand...
I don't think I would call it a mainline. I meant to respond to another posting where someone called the CN line into Downtown Edmonton something like a "heavy freight line". It wasn't. As much as I would LOVE to learn more about the history of the actual operations into and out of City Yard, my impression was that by the 1960's it was there to interchange with CP and serve local industries. Of course, over the years all of that industry retracted and so did the need for City Yard. It certainly wasn't being used to build 50+ car trains that would run across the county like Walker does, and just became redundant. This is unlike in other cities where governments would work with the railways to relocate railway yards out of the center of the city. Saskatoon comes to mind.
While I'm not sure how the railways developed in other cities, Edmonton was lucky enough to have both the GTP and Canadian Northern come through, with the Canadian Northern coming into Edmonton and building their yard Downtown, while the GTP stayed further north and built their yard in Calder, but they built a line into Downtown Edmonton because of course they didn't want to not have access to middle of the City like CNor and CP had. GTP and CNor having financial difficulties would be taken over by the Federal Government and become Canadian National. And that was how we ended up with space for the LRT in between the originally competing GTP and CNor tracks, and also how we ended up with CN having the two yards which meant Edmonton didn't really need to convince CN to move out of Downtown.
 
yeggator said:
Okay, but where would you move the freight rail alignment? The Bow Valley is the only way out of Calgary that climbs at a small enough grade for freight trains. And once you’ve gone just east of Crowchild where it crosses the river, how would you re-route it without ploughing through the inner city?
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Habibfazil said:
also a missed golden opportunity to run lrt or a brt down 97th, across the yards across the high level on one branch down the former CPR, another branch further west and one more out to st albert all with a terminal at the old CN Tower station...
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The CPR corridor used to be part of the official plan, but the current alignment was deemed as a better fit.
Screenshot_20240920_220104_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_220117_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_214725_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_214800_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_215027_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_214931_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_215115_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_215001_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_214946_Drive.pngScreenshot_20240920_215132_Drive.png
Sources, from the ERRS Archive:


Changes in Direction for LRT Planning in Edmonton, 1985.pdf

drive.google.com drive.google.com

South Edmonton LRT Plan Review, 1982.pdf

drive.google.com drive.google.com
 
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