Starting on or about Monday, February 3 to Saturday, February 15, Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) train testing will be in progress on the new LRT tracks along 66 Street, between 34 Avenue and 51 Avenue. The train will move from the Gerry Wright Operations and Maintenance Facility (at 75 Street and 51 Avenue) and will return to the facility after each testing session. Testing will occur between 9 am and 3 pm each day.
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^ I hope I get a chance to take some pictures next week.
Here are a few of the approach to the Tawatina bridge crossing, slowly coming along.
Connors Lookout and Hill 2020-02-01 145.JPGConnors Lookout and Hill 2020-02-01 152.JPGConnors Lookout and Hill 2020-02-01 154.JPGConnors Lookout and Hill 2020-02-01 158.JPG
 
I realise that this is just them testing right now so can't really make any conclusions, but all the cars clearly overtaking the train on the right side of the frame is pretty disconcerting I guess.
 
According to this city document, the max speed for LRVs along 75 St/66 St is 55 km/h. So cars will be passing the train even when fully operational. All instances where the LRVs are next to traffic, they will have a speed limit below or the same as road traffic. Downtown is 30 km/h. Connors Rd is 55 km/h. Through Strathearn is 40 km/h and along 83/85 St is 50 km/h...
 
My biggest concern with the Valley line since forever has been the speed. I don't think you draw people to change to taking transit by promising them a slower commute. The Capital line with its average speed on par with the Toronto subway is actually faster than a car in many use cases. The Valley Line train can hope at best to be about the same as a commute by car during rush hour only and to be honest I have my doubts it'll even be capable of that.

I just have a lot of skepticism about our choice to essentially be moving to a more streetcar style system and increasingly away from the LRT's original pre-metro design. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks this either. The city's latest plans for the Metro line past NAIT seems like a return to speed focused design instead of the slow meanderingness of the Valley Line's design or even the Metro Line's design from Churchill to NAIT.

The "low-floor urban" marketing crap seems to me more like it was a way to get past the NIMBYs in places like Glenora than any actual meaningful attempt to have the city become more urban and transit oriented. People will only make the change to transit if it actually gets them somewhere in a reasonable amount of time and I don't think we're going to get that with this despite the $1.8 billion price tag.
 
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