Edmonton Public Transit

[Mikemike]

I'm sure health sciences will be extended with Edmonton clinic construction. It's going to get elevators to a direct pedway too. It would be silly not to extend it, it's the last station that will serve both lines, so whether W or S gets expanded to 5 car first, health sciences will need to be done.

Since SLRT is all 4-car for now, and if NLRT is 4 car as you say, then I'd guess that WLRT will be all 5 car, allowing NE to interline with W with 5 car trains.

[S_B_Russell]

Vision for LRT to Fort Sask, St. Albert, Beaumont
Susan Ruttan , edmontonjournal.com
Published: 1:21 pm
EDMONTON - City council had a vision today of an LRT system that will go to St. Albert, the international airport, Fort Saskatchwan and Beaumont. The vision came in a private briefing session by Bob Boutilier, the city's new transportation manager, who has made light-rail transit a top priority since he arrived last summer.
Boutilier told reporters after the meeting that he'd like to see preliminary work start on the LRT line to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology campus before the end of the year.
"If we could do something to start part of it, that would be extremely important," he said. "Then we have to look for funding for the rest of the project."
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The NAIT line will eventually go to St. Albert, he said. It will run underground north from the Churchill LRT station, coming above ground at 105th Avenue, then go west to MacEwan College, north to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, and terminate at a transit station at the north end of Kingsway Garden Mall.
Detailed route alignment and cost estimates for the NAIT line will go to council for approval later this month, he said. With that will be descriptions of proposed routes to extend the LRT south from Century Park across Anthony Henday Drive, and north from the Clareview station to the Gorman industrial area.
"The report will basically be explaining, this is where we want to go, can we get permission to start acquiring the property."
Boutilier said a proposed LRT route to the west end will come in April. There are several possible routes out to West Edmonton Mall, he said, and certain technical issues - such as crossing the North Saskatchewan River - have to be resolved.
[email protected]


© E

[TimB09]

Good to see they are going to be looking at the WLRT as well.
Cold will be happy about this news.

[Coldrsx]

im happy anytime i see actual movement on LRT expansion plans or visions for this city will truly benefit from this in 2yrs and 20 yrs.

[rapid_business]

awesome. Plans for WLRT! We might be lucky enough to have both WLRT and NLRT going at the same time.

[MalcolmTucker]

Is NLRT going to interline with part of the existing line? Or will it have its own independent station(s) in downtown?

[Coldrsx]

^interline

[Mikemike]

Where did Northgate/EauxClaires go?

While More LRT is always a good thing, there not much good about his map.

Announcements on NaitLRT and WLRT on the other hand, are very good things.

[Shodan]

Vision for LRT to Fort Sask, St. Albert, Beaumont
Proposed regional LRT map



Courtesy Global Edmonton
Jan.11/08

[fortroad]

^ I don't see the LRT going to Northgate at all by that map. Since Kingsway is west of 97th and the way the arrow points I see the LRT having its last edmonton station on 137 and St. Albert trail. Not cool at all.

[IKAN104]

I'm dissapointed about the lack of a north central route also. But I'm extremely happy to see that this guy has a grand vision for the future. The map shows LRT to Port Alberta, Stony Plain and Beaumont.

I'm also happy to see the Millwoods LRT seems to be a new line from downtown as opposed to a spoke off Century Park.

[CanadianCentaur]

LRT lines will knit region together
Fort Saskatchewan, international airport would be linked by transit system
Susan Ruttan, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:31 am

City council got a vision Friday of an LRT system that will go to St. Albert, the international airport, Fort Saskatchewan and Beaumont.

The vision came in a private briefing session from Bob Boutilier, the city's new transportation manager, who has made light-rail transit a top priority since he arrived last summer.

Boutilier told reporters after the meeting that he'd like to see preliminary work start on the LRT line to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology campus before the end of the year.

"If we could do something to start part of it, that would be extremely important," he said. "Then we have to look for funding for the rest of the project."

The NAIT line eventually will go to St. Albert, he said.

It will run underground north from the Churchill LRT station, coming above ground at 105th Avenue, then go west to MacEwan College, north to Royal Alexandra Hospital, and terminate at the north end of Kingsway Mall, across from NAIT.

Detailed route alignment and cost estimates for the NAIT line will go to council for approval later this month, he said.

With it will be a report on proposed LRT routes south from Century Park across Anthony Henday Drive, and north from the Clareview station to the Gorman industrial area.

"The report will basically be explaining, 'This is where we want to go, can we get permission to start acquiring the property?' " he said.

Boutilier said a proposed LRT route to the west end will come in April. There are several possible routes to West Edmonton Mall, he said, and certain technical issues -- such as crossing the North Saskatchewan River -- have to be resolved.

The west-end LRT route is rumoured to be either along 87th Avenue or along Fox Drive to the university area. The southeast route would go to Mill Woods and eventually to Beaumont.

Boutilier said a route into Sherwood Park is still uncertain.

Coun. Bryan Anderson said if the long-range LRT plan gets approval, 2008 could be a "watershed year" for Edmonton.

The plan will guide developers where and what they should build, he said, and will challenge the provincial government to help pay for an LRT network that will knit the region together.

Boutilier won't predict which line will get built after the NAIT one. Which goes ahead first is less important right now than getting an overall picture of the LRT system that will evolve in the coming decades, he said.

Also vital is getting municipalities around Edmonton involved in regional planning for the LRT system, he said, and convincing senior governments to fund it.

He said the route to St. Albert has some appeal because it's already built up, with lots of potential riders. But building the route northeast from Clareview would allow LRT stations to be integrated in the overall development of that new area, he added.

Boutilier recently scrapped city plans for a bus rapid transit system, a network of commuter buses, in favour of concentrating on LRT extension.

[email protected]

[Kevin_foster]

Good. I see plans. Now let's see construction!

[Coldrsx]

looks like we finally are on the....right track...

[MalcolmTucker]

So if the WLRT connects into the system at Fox Drive or 87th I guess the thought is it will be a line with the NLRT sharing the university and downtown stations?

Its interesting to compare the planning processes for LRT in Calgary and Edmonton. Calgary identified the need for a four spoke LRT system in the late 70s and started planning corridors, buying/setting aside right of way, planning communities around the future lines. Calgary is up to six spokes planned now. I wonder if back in the late 70s Edmonton had an LRT focused plan too, and in the mean time was abandoned in favour of BRT/no planning.

It will be interesting how the NIMBYs react in Edmonton to the WLRT compared to WLRT in Calgary. Since Calgary's alignment has been pretty much nailed down for 25 years, there hasn't seemed to be a huge negative reaction, even where it is going through 1950s era neighborhoods.

Very interesting. Someone should do a masters project on that, since the cities are usually acting on a similar pool of resources, to compare outcomes.

[itom 987]

It's nice to see solid leadership for a change, well done Bob Boutilier!

[feepa]

Originally Posted by kyle_olsen

So if the WLRT connects into the system at Fox Drive or 87th I guess the thought is it will be a line with the NLRT sharing the university and downtown stations?

Its interesting to compare the planning processes for LRT in Calgary and Edmonton. Calgary identified the need for a four spoke LRT system in the late 70s and started planning corridors, buying/setting aside right of way, planning communities around the future lines. Calgary is up to six spokes planned now. I wonder if back in the late 70s Edmonton had an LRT focused plan too, and in the mean time was abandoned in favour of BRT/no planning.

It will be interesting how the NIMBYs react in Edmonton to the WLRT compared to WLRT in Calgary. Since Calgary's alignment has been pretty much nailed down for 25 years, there hasn't seemed to be a huge negative reaction, even where it is going through 1950s era neighborhoods.

Very interesting. Someone should do a masters project on that, since the cities are usually acting on a similar pool of resources, to compare outcomes.

Edmonton has been planning a spoke system since the 60's. Plan plan plan. Never execute. Now, we are (hopefully) finally going to see some real execution. At least Edmonton had the balls to dig underground downtown at first. Now we don't have to go back and do this.

[rapid_business]

Originally Posted by feepa

At least Edmonton had the balls to dig underground downtown at first.

Don't try to antagonize. There is nothing but problems down that road. We don't need to build a shouting match here.

Both have there benifits. Mind you, I'd rather be at 225k passengers a day then have a couple stops underground.


Think constructive comments people.

[hilman]

I don't think he is trying to antagonize anyone, Feepa only meant that at least we won't have to go back and put it underground which would be a very expensive and tough thing to do. Once we add these new legs it will be a very nice LRT system with downtown being underground (where it should be). Calgary's does have a large rider ship and many more stations, but we will get there too. An above ground downtown LRT is not ideal and looks second rate if you ask me.

Regards

[feepa]

^ what he said, and LRT downtown would have never worked at ground level or ABOVE ground either, due to how short blocks are running east/west downtown. A five car station would have likely meant 2 street closures... Luckily, it works a bit better in Calgary, as their blocks east/west downtown are longer...