yeggator said:
Honestly, if push comes to shove (quite literally, when we talk about capacity), I think we’ll have to bite the bullet and close some of the lesser used cross-streets in downtown to extend the platforms so they can accommodate 3-car trains (that would make the Valley Line Trains 120 meters long, surpassing the 5-car Capital Line Line trains in capacity due to having fewer cabs).
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Careful assuming capacity. A SD160 has a seated capacity of 60, so 5 cars is 300 seated. The Flexity I think I counted 74 today, so 222 seated for a 3 car train, and I just can't see standing passengers packing into a low floor LRV like they can with U2's and SD160's on the Capital Line.
 
Caught the first train out of Mill Woods at 510. Not sure why TransEd and everyone else said trains left from both ends at 515 because that was incorrect, so, technically the trains leaving Mill Woods was the first in service.
Nice ride, no complaints. Not like that Journal article made it out to be.
Arc readers not working so free rides I guess. A lot of doors to the platform shelters weren't working either.
 
YEG imagineer said:
Where are all the pics and videos from the 515 early risers?
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Rode the train downtown with my daughter today to visit the museum.

Honestly, it was great!

Super cool to be riding a modern, electric train(tram) through the city. Biggest thing to happen to public transit in Edmonton in my lifetime. Lots of people out riding for fun. Lots of people going to the Oilers game. Very positive energy.

My young daughter loved it too. Repeatedly calling out “I love you train!” (It was her first time riding a train.)

We can certainly compare the line to systems that are faster, higher capacity, and more frequent, but this line is great for the city! (Bring on the five minute frequency though!)

The opening of the Valley Line West Extension will be huge and substantially increase the value of the line as a whole.

Excited to see what riding the line will be like in 10 years time. There is a ton of potential for development along the line. Hoping to see those empty lots disappear!

Anyways, there’s my take. I encourage anyone to go check it out for themselves! (I’m looking forward to checking out the line south of Avonmore station!)
 
I’m gonna put in my thoughts now that I’ve been on hour 3 of being on this line lol

This line is transformational, I think Andre Courbold used those words but I genuinely have to agree. Davies feels like a Skytrain stop. The large windows on the cars? Freaking amazing, it makes sight seeing so much more nicer than any other system I’ve been on in my life. Muttart is going to be an extremely popular stop.

Downtown, as a combination of the increased ridership today along with other events felt quite alive on a Saturday, and I feel like that’s something that’ll contribute to revitalizing the core.

I think the biggest thing for me is that this rectifies a weird quirk of Edmonton and its development into the southeast of the city. The demographics of the core and Millwoods are quite different and this line (in my opinion) bridges a significant connection gap. Sure buses between both areas have existed before, but I think we all know that trains just seem to have a stronger attraction factor for ridership. It really opens up downtown to people from Millwoods, and as someone who grew up in Millwoods for years, it’s genuinely really nice to see it.

Plus after all the delays and bad news about Edmonton in the last few years, having this happen today feels great. Genuine good vibes all around.

We’ve grown a lot as a city with the Valley Line opening today.
 
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