LRT planning needs bold vision
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, December 27, 2007
LRT planning must take a long-term view in order to reach not only Edmonton collector points, but also the entire region.
CREDIT: Bruce Edwards, The Journal, File
LRT planning must take a long-term view in order to reach not only Edmonton collector points, but also the entire region.
Re: "City Hall axes bus rapid transit: Concept in works since 2004 abandoned in favour of more LRT," The Journal, Dec. 13.
Thirty years after our community was the first in North America to build light rail transit, the city should be commended for scrapping the bus rapid transit plans to focus on LRT expansion.
Unfortunately, with an aging demographic, growth pressures, increasing concerns about our climate and looming fuel price shocks, even the current LRT "fast-tracking" looks grossly inadequate.
With BRT gone, and an update to the nine-year-old Transportation Master Plan in the works, as well as a 30-year growth strategy for the city headed our way, the high-speed transit plan needs to be drastically updated into a comprehensive, robust and aggressive LRT plan which addresses the challenges.
Little is known about the so-called Long-Term Comprehensive Public Transportation Strategy that the city is developing, but several things are clear.
First, the current method of studying potential LRT routes is insufficient. Each of the studies is separate and disconnected. With no plan for how the end system will look or operate, it's not good enough to place the potential impacts on area residents and vehicular traffic above the long-term interests of the city as a whole.
Second, the new LRT plan must integrate the Transportation Master Plan with our new Municipal Development Plan, which proposes three distinct scenarios. Two of them advocate a status quo of unlimited suburban sprawl for the next 30 years. The only MDP strategy that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable is the Compact Growth Scenario 2040. Not only is it the best option for the city over the long haul, but also it optimizes "smart growth" with transit-oriented developments such as Century Park.
Third, the new LRT plan must be a catalyst for regional co-operation and integration. While it may not make sense to extend LRT to St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan, Sherwood Park, Leduc, Devon, or Stony Plain immediately, planning corridors to get there eventually does. In the meantime, we can integrate our LRT and transit-oriented developments with regional air and rail nodes, further strengthening the region into Port Alberta.
Finally, if we want to design and build a system which encourages a modal shift, we need to re-analyze the costs and benefits of all potential route alignments for the system as a whole. Ideally, this means shifting at least one new line off the existing track, where timing and scheduling logistics could easily congest the tunnel downtown.
Currently, the north LRT alignment stops short of the Edmonton City Centre Airport. Why not close the ECCA and build a massive urban village supported by a northwest LRT extension to St. Albert?
A separate line could split and follow 97th Street north, after stopping at NAIT. South of Kingsway, the two lines could merge and follow an empty corridor to 109th Street and St. Joseph's before hitting Grant MacEwan and Grandin.
From there the new line naturally goes southeast via the High Level, Garneau, Whyte Avenue, and through Strathcona Junction, where the high-speed rail would terminate.
From there, existing rail corridors lead to Argyll and 91st Street south, before turning east to Lakewood and Mill Woods transit centre via 28th Avenue.
We would need to extend the south LRT to the International Airport in time to close the City Centre Airport, but this could be a great first step before building lines east, west, and southwest.
The next leg of the LRT system may not look like this exactly, but we've got to be far bolder in how we plan for it now.
To maximize efficiency, each leg must run as a distinct line from one end of the city to the other, while using existing rail or natural corridors wherever possible to reduce cost, and we need a new plan in 2008 to guide it all. Where there's a will -- and enough cash -- there's a way.
As the capital city of the richest province in the wealthiest of nations, what are we waiting for?
Jordan Schroder, member, Transit Riders Union of Edmonton
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
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