I'm also guessing the orange crosswalks will be part of the road construction on the Valley Line West. I don't object to their construction, unless the city starts them around October.
 
Core samples on one site and piles for second traction transformer
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8:15am today, Churchill. Wednesday (peak office day). Not a soul standing cause maybe half the seats were full.

Ridership levels feel pretty concerning…

Has anyone heard how they’re being received by the city/council?
 
I'm fairly new to this community still, and not nearly as well-versed in these things as others, but I would like to point out that it seems a little unfair to judge the whole line by one train's occupancy levels at one moment, which also takes place during the last hour of peak times, when things are supposed to be winding down as peak time comes to an end.

At that time of the morning there are trains coming every five minutes, and have been coming every five minutes for over two hours. You're going to need a lot of people stuffing those trains to make every train look well occupied considering an entire rural Alberta village such as Rosemary (population ~400) could all fit on one two-car train and still have room to carry another 150 people.

I think patience is what's needed with the Valley Line, as the destinations it serves improve, and efforts to improve transit perception are made (which I agree, are way over blown), the riders will come.
 
Yeah, I've taken the Valley Line a few times out of necessity at around afternoon peak hours in the middle of the week (this train is a literal god send for the SE and Millwoods), and the 5 min frequency really does zoom people pretty fast.

Plus right now, Valley Line ridership is a remarkably good barometer of downtown's vibrancy. The more downtown recovers and grows, getting more events, jobs and retail options especially (I've seen several people head to the City Centre Winners all the way from Millwoods which is interesting), (and the school year starts again for post-secondary students in the fall), the more visible we'll see ridership on both peak/non peak hours, and that'll probably be the case until VLW opens in 2027-2028.

That's actually kinda cool to see.
 
I usually park at Stadium Station and ride my bike in. Funny as a Vancouverite of 22 years I prefer not to ride my bicycle in the rain, yet have no problem with riding when it's -15 out. I decided to drive to Strathearn today and take Valley Line in. 8:10am, rear of a two car train set, I'd say almost 2/3rds of the seats were taken and there were a few standees like myself. Mostly office, retail, and student looking mix of people. The 5 minute frequencies are amazing, missed one train and I was in Skytrain mode, "another one will come shortly." By the time I was finished a Duolingo session, we were almost out of the tunnel towards Quarters. I have confidence more people who live and/or work in the SE will find a way to integrate Valley Line into their commutes.
 
thommyjo said:
8:15am today, Churchill. Wednesday (peak office day). Not a soul standing cause maybe half the seats were full.

Ridership levels feel pretty concerning…

Has anyone heard how they’re being received by the city/council?
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IDK why you say ridership is concerning. Are you aware that Edmonton was on of, if not the first, major North American city to achieve its pre pandemic ridership numbers.

Be more worried about our inadequate service levels as we still remain, something like 100,000 operational hours below our set standards.
 
Yeggy said:
IDK why you say ridership is concerning. Are you aware that Edmonton was on of, if not the first, major North American city to achieve its pre pandemic ridership numbers.

Be more worried about our inadequate service levels as we still remain, something like 100,000 operational hours below our set standards.
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ridership recovered for LRT or Bus? iirc, lrt is way below, bus is back.

I rode the tramline twice yesterday, around 11:00 and again around 16:00, both about 3/4 full.

Only real LRT problems was 4 bylaw at churchill chasing off 1 yelling male, while 2 were taking statements from a female witness. Major beef was ETS taking an entire 3 car LRT train out of service for a broken outside window, couldn't it have been dropped off at say south campus trail track?
 
Habibfazil said:
ridership recovered for LRT or Bus? iirc, lrt is way below, bus is back.

I rode the tramline twice yesterday, around 11:00 and again around 16:00, both about 3/4 full.

Only real LRT problems was 4 bylaw at churchill chasing off 1 yelling male, while 2 were taking statements from a female witness. Major beef was ETS taking an entire 3 car LRT train out of service for a broken outside window, couldn't it have been dropped off at say south campus trail track?
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I think a transit system is a transit system… Breaking it into parts, especially when one part of it didn't exist pre pandemic isnt fair nor possible.

The fact remains ETS was the first major North American system to reach pre pandemic numbers. Break it apart however you wish, the fact remains.

Edit. my apologies as the city statements do highlight bus traffic specifically.
 
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Yeggy said:
IDK why you say ridership is concerning. Are you aware that Edmonton was on of, if not the first, major North American city to achieve its pre pandemic ridership numbers.

Be more worried about our inadequate service levels as we still remain, something like 100,000 operational hours below our set standards.
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This has actually been highlighted to have been falsely claimed by the city and didn’t include LRT anyways, just busses.

And that’s partially because of how bad our office employment is downtown. Our transit use is driven heavily by students and low income users (who don’t have alternatives). So of course those recover better than more corporate riders in other cities that have WFH options and also more agency to change transportation modes due to safety concerns in many cities lately.

It’s great it recovered. But apples to oranges vs cities with entirely different pre pandemic ridership make up vs us.
 
Droxen said:
I'm fairly new to this community still, and not nearly as well-versed in these things as others, but I would like to point out that it seems a little unfair to judge the whole line by one train's occupancy levels at one moment, which also takes place during the last hour of peak times, when things are supposed to be winding down as peak time comes to an end.

At that time of the morning there are trains coming every five minutes, and have been coming every five minutes for over two hours. You're going to need a lot of people stuffing those trains to make every train look well occupied considering an entire rural Alberta village such as Rosemary (population ~400) could all fit on one two-car train and still have room to carry another 150 people.

I think patience is what's needed with the Valley Line, as the destinations it serves improve, and efforts to improve transit perception are made (which I agree, are way over blown), the riders will come.
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s momentary. But the judgement also comes from the data released showing around 5000 daily riders currently when they estimated 30,000. That discrepancy is concerning. We aren’t talking 20k when they guessed 30k. We are talking 17% of projected.

All other Canadian cities with trains would see basically every train full at 8:15am on a Wednesday.

Yes we need patience, AND we should be asking why estimates and reality are so far apart.
 
Knowing what we know today about transit ridership trends and say we were debating on the final Valley Line alignment, would we have run it through downtown or through the university, perhaps with a stub into downtown?
 
dkazzed said:
Knowing what we know today about transit ridership trends and say we were debating on the final Valley Line alignment, would we have run it through downtown or through the university, perhaps with a stub into downtown?
Click to expand...

Since the alignment stops at MacEwan & Norquest, I would suggest that this was taken into account.
 
The Valley Line has only been operating for a few months now, so I feel it is too hasty to be sounding the alarm based on falling short of estimates that may have been pre COVID.

It is probably true that a lot of current transit riders are seniors, students or low income. Of course, we do not have a huge financial centre downtown unlike some other cities, so there may not be as many office commuters. However, I don't think that diminishes the need for transit or for the ability of various people to get around.

I do feel over time and as traveling to downtown recovers more, it will get more use and we will be better able to judge how successful it is.
 
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