EdwardEdm
Active Member
How is this an issue? Of course they are adding more bays. They are for the cars for the Valley Line West extension.
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
Barnaby
Active Member
I think it's time to start pressuring Council to add a 3rd line off the Valley West due to how long these things tend to take. 124th St up to 118th ave could use service, and the density along that street would add to ridership. I'm also not a fan of BRT down Whyte when trams exist.
The standard for Edmonton should be 4-5 expansion projects ongoing at all times.
The standard for Edmonton should be 4-5 expansion projects ongoing at all times.
dunno
Active Member
Whyte Ave ideally should have an underground tube like the UofA/Downtown.
Barnaby
Active Member
They'd have to cut/cover.
I'd prefer a connection to the Valley Line tram at grade though. Makes more sense for the main street vision. I'm not a fan of heavy vehicle traffic on Whyte at all. If transit exists in that corridor, you remove the need for more than 1 lane in either direction. A circulator from MacEwan to Bonnie Doon would be the way.
J_gordo
Active Member
You need to be realistic. They city has budget limits. Look at the LRT master plan; most of that won’t happen by 2040. Who knows when the Metro line phase 2 and 3 will get funding. Or phase 2 capital line. Sometimes we need to have realistic expectations.
dunno
Active Member
Whyte Ave could be the keystone of a crosstown route from WEM to Bonnie Doon. When I hear trams for Whyte I immediately think of the snail pace of the 501 Queen streetcar in Toronto. I do think there are useful places for streetcars, but running in traffic, stopping at lights, just makes it a more expensive bus. With how congested the area can be and the density, underground makes sense. If we could do it down Jasper Ave, I don't see why we can't down Whyte, aside from political will. Both avenues fit the criteria for it, though.
A lot of that depends on the status quo remaining. By the end of this decade, we should have
- Valley Line from Lewis Farms to MWTC
- Capital Line to Ellerslie
- Metro Line to Blatchford, with extension to Castle Downs potentially under construction
- 3 BRT lines
That's already a lot. For the 2030s, you could easily see...
- Metro Line to Village Tree
- Capital Line to Gorman/Manning or Horse Hills if development is out there as well as south to 41st Ave
- More BRT lines, potentially down 23rd Ave, Ellerslie Rd, and/or 137th Ave
- beginnings of a RER-type system utilizing the Gateway CPR corridor and the Grand Trunk corridor
- looking beyond the existing plans, such as upgrading Whyte to LRT, building a bridge across Hawrelak to a now 87 Ave LRT that connects to Bonnie Doon via UofA/Whyte
I don't think, regardless of if it does or does not make sense, LRT is happening down Whyte Ave for a while, unless something drastically changes. The City has been clear that building out the Metro Line while expanding the Capital Line are the priorities after the Valley Line's built. But doing all of the above in 17 years is quite impressive if you compare it to the last 17 years. At some point, as these radial lines to the suburbs get built up, it's probable that Edmonton will start trying to beef up the inner city rapid transit (something arguably it should already be doing, but alas) and I could easily see a Whyte-87 Ave LRT being our Broadway extension. The 2040s aren't that far away in the grand scheme of things. I don't see how that's unrealistic.
TravellingChris
Active Member
We have that right now:
- the Valley Line Southeast and the ongoing testing and tinkering with it
- the Valley Line West construction
- the Metro Line to Blatchford
- the Capital Line South Extension Phase 1
TravellingChris
Active Member
After the Valley Line Southeast opens (presumably sometime in the 2050s) and the Valley Line West, Capital Line to Ellerslie, and Metro Line to Blatchford Gate are operational, the priority has to be the Metro Line Phase 2. Castle Downs, like Mill Woods and West Edmonton, has been waiting decades for promised LRT. The Valley Line fulfills the promise for those two areas. Metro to Castle Downs HAS to be next.
dunno
Active Member
This is the most rapid transit ever constructed during the same time in Edmonton's history, if I'm not mistaken. It's quite impressive and although I doubt we'll have much more than 4-5 projects on the go at once, I hope we can keep pace because there's a lot of areas in the city that need better transport options.
IanO
Superstar
Is anyone else hearing rumblings about just this?
The_Cat
Senior Member
One bus connection that could be of interest is something like the 902 (NAIT-University), which crosses at Unity Square (116 Street).
This could be a connection to the Valley Line West, without directly going through downtown.
This could be a connection to the Valley Line West, without directly going through downtown.
dunno
Active Member
Yes, having more options for rapid transit rather than everything meeting in Churchill (which is useful for certain things) is good. Another one is basically upgrading the well-used 9 down 109th St, having it intersect with Whyte, Jasper, and 104 Ave/MacEwan, while avoiding doing what the Metro Line does, which is a giant U route.
JuliallThat
Active Member
I really think we should also consider elevated rail for the Whyte corridor. Elevated rail adds a lot of visual interest, both from the ground and for the riders. Usually cheaper than underground too fwiw.
I'll take elevated all day over subways, subways are boring as hell! Drab boring dark tunnels, trains trying to pretend they don't even exist, nothing to look at but dark concrete walls.
IanO
Superstar
Please no, not there. UG or trolleys with embedded rail.
TravellingChris
Active Member
I doubt Whyte Avenue is wide enough for a guideway. It would significantly alter the streetscape and traffic flow. This was the same reason why the Millennium Line was committed to underground running between VCC-Clark and Arbutus (there will be a short elevated section for transition)--Broadway was too narrow for the pylons.