cliffapotamus
Active Member
I'm betting it was bad forecasting done early on, and/or the left hand not talking to the right in terms of the LRT project team not being aware of the BNR team routing a bunch of new routes onto the LRT in larger volumes than the previous network would have. I can easily conceive of how an oversight like that would happen, given how the projects are being managed so separately from one another; but that doesn't make it any less frustrating that the (presumably very extensive) demand forecasting and trip planning done by the BNR team wasn't used to inform Valley Line decisions."Valley Line LRT requires additional $7.2 million over next three years to meet ridership demand"
Valley Line LRT requires additional $7.2 million over next three years to meet ridership demand
The city is calling for service to be ramped up to level eight when the 13-kilometre line from Downtown to Mill Woods opens later this year.edmontonjournal.com
This article doesn't have a lot of actual data or sources in it, and the journalist didn't post anything on twitter about this. a cursory google search brought up nothing current, just the EJ article and content from the line's approval in 2016. one thing to note from that content is that ridership is usally listed around 30-35k a day, whereas more current content lists 45-50k. I mean, it's all just press stuff, not technical content or official numbers, but it indicates how predictions have been... 'fluid' throughout the planning process.
I do think this line is gonna be surprisingly well-used; i know next to nothing about how to forecast ridership but the most recent numbers (from Daveography's Q and A post a couple months ago) of 45k people a day on opening day for just this leg sounds reasonable. Covid may change that for the first year or two, but as patterns and routines adjust i think this will be well-used.