Mayor wants three new LRT lines
Hopes project can be built within five years
Susan Ruttan, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 2:01 am
EDMONTON - Mayor Stephen Mandel wants to see light-rail transit expansion completed along three routes within the next three to five years.
"I see no reason why it can't be," Mandel said Thursday. "I'd also like to see construction started on a line to Mill Woods, with a plan in place to deliver LRT to the west end, once they decide on a route."
A NEW CITY REPORT OUTLINES PROPOSED ROUTES FOR THE THREE LINES. THEY ARE:
- The south LRT from the Century Park station, due to open in 2010, along 111th Street to Anthony Henday Drive, then west along Henday to 127th Street. There will be a station and 1,000-car park-and-ride near that intersection, then the LRT will continue south for two more stops.
Coun. Bryan Anderson, chairman of council's transportation and public works committee, said there are plans for a south MacEwan campus and a hospital along 127th Street, where the LRT will run.
- The northeast line from the Clareview station along the CN Rail right-of-way to a station and park-and-ride at 153rd Avenue.
- The NAIT line from Churchill station to 105th Avenue, then west to Mac-Ewan campus, north to the Royal Alexandra Hospital and up to NAIT.
Council will be asked to approve these routes at its meeting Jan. 30.
Though the routes have no funding yet from senior governments, Anderson thinks both the Alberta and federal governments may be ready to put new money into rapid transit.
"This expanded LRT plan must capture the attention of the province," he said. "There must be investment."
The British Columbia government this week pledged $10.3 billion to fund four new rapid transit lines in Vancouver.
Mandel won't guess what building the three extensions will cost. He said council plans to discuss taking on more debt, and the new LRT plans will be part of that discussion.
He said he's prepared to close some roads, if necessary, in order to allow LRT lines to be built.
A separate city report says that Kingsway Garden Mall objects to the city's plan to put its NAIT transit centre on the northern corner of the mall grounds. The site was to serve both as an LRT station and a bus centre.
One alternative, the report states, would be to put the LRT station on 106th Street north of Princess Elizabeth Avenue, rather than on mall property. If that happens, the current bus centre at the south end of the mall would stay where it is.
NAIT officials favour building an underground LRT station in the middle of its campus.
Anderson said questions remain about where the LRT line will go north of NAIT, or whether the City Centre Airport will remain an airport. Until those are answered, it may be hard to pick a permanent site for the NAIT station.
The first stage of the NAIT line will be to build an LRT tunnel under 101st Street at 105th Avenue, a tunnel that will pass under the site of a new Epcor building planned for 101st Street.
The city report says building the LRT tunnel at the same time as the Epcor building will be cheaper than waiting until afterward. Cost of the LRT tunnel is estimated at up to $80 million.
The NAIT line will eventually go to St. Albert, the northeast line eventually to Fort Saskatchewan, and the south line eventually to the airport.
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