So whats the story of the SLRT? Vancouver built an entire 21km SkyTrain in the amount of time is has taken just to build one station? How the hell can it be taking so long and now with Alberta flush with money will it be speeded up???

Tunneling through an extremly sandy layer for a couple hundred meters takes far longer than building an elevated line.

The province has commeted 1 billion towards infrastructure in the capital region and with the near 50 million annually from the feds the next leg will be much faster. Last time I talked to one of my buddies who works for the city transportation department said they were putting the finishing touches on the line from the University to Century park. Everything is essentially done, they are just waiting for the officail anouncement on the funding from the province before they start construction.

Well, when is it FINALLY going to be dolne.
I hope this line turns out a bit better than the NE line. Compared to the CTrain, Edmonton's LRT has been a failure. I think the EdLRT carries 45,000/day while the CTrain 220,000/day. It is considered, by far, the most successful LRT system in N>A> Its a reall feather in their cap.

^yes and no....we have subsurface downtown....not to mention calgary is a downtown oriented city, edmonton has far more nodes of employment. But calgary's ctrain is awesome for its size....

the SLRT will make the Edmonton LRT quite decent...then all we need is WLRT

How much is the LRT now in kilometers, and what's the SLRT planned to be?

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good question.
Also what would be the next ext...millponds or wested?

^millponds!? :bash:

As has been said earlier, there's a lot of sand underneath the U of A grounds, so that's why it's taking so long to get the LRT line up to the surface.

I don't think it'll be very long before construction on SLRT can begin. Likely, it should get going about spring or summer of 2006. The Health Sciences Station by the U of A Hospital is supposed to open in January 2006.

After SLRT is finished getting extended to Century Park, I would think either WLRT (to WEM) or NLRT (NAIT/Kingsway) will go up next. Currently studies are underway for both lines.

To me WestEd makes more sence seeing the tunnel is already to Grandin, they should just extend the subway for one KM to Stoney Plain and then go at grade to WestEdMall. I bet the mall would help financially interms of building its own station as Metrotown did.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. There's no way you can go straight out from Grandin, because it's a north-south station. And to tunnel out from Corona under Jasper Ave would be far too exensive and disruptive. Not to mention too much expropriation along Stony Plain Road as well. I know they had problems in doing that along 114 St south of the U of A for SLRT. The construction of the underground LRT line downtown in the 1970s was quite disruptive, I believe.

Number two, just west of 124 St is a high-end neighbourhood, which means too many nimbys there. The same problem goes for running an LRT line from the U of A along 87 Ave to WEM - too many NIMBYs there, too. If the city tried going ahead, then costs would easily increase at least threefold due to litigation - there's a lot of people there who can afford lawyers. In short, it'd be a PR nightmare.

The best way to WEM may be to tunnel out north of Churchill, then snake a surface line along 107 Ave, then down 149 St, then along 100 Ave, down 163 St, then 87 Ave to WEM.

And NLRT to NAIT would no doubt be a bit cheaper because the city's already bought up more land for right of ways - and NAIT is closer to downtown.

And by "millponds", I think you meant Millwoods. I don't think LRT will go there for a long time at least, because there's too much development between downtown and Millwoods. Most likely, a BRT route may go there instead.

Actually the biggest reason why it took so long for the SLRT to move is because there is no funding from other levels of government for this project and the city would not borrow. Thus funding became the issue. Its hard for the City to fund a $620 million extension without other revenue streams. The extensions in Vancouver are with Federal and provincial dollars as well as the Ottawa line. Different ball game. The money from the province ($700 million or so) is not going into the LRT from what I understand. That money is earmarked for overpasses. However I would like to see some of it go to WLRT. The SLRT is being funded entirely with city money and will be complete by 2009. It must be noted that the City will have some breathing room now that the feds are giving money back to municipalities and the province is giving money for infrastructure.

^If none of the $700M is going to SLRT, then we had better pray that the 23 Ave interchange doesn't get left out! However, you said it's earmarked for overpasses, so I guess that won't be the case - hopefully.

Well, your new Alberta budget came down and thought there was more money for infastructure and municipalities.
Did Calgary/Edmonton get any extra money?

http://www.edmontonslrt.com/

Current Line - 12.3km
http://www.edmontonslrt.com/images/existingmap.jpg

SLRT addition ~ 5km im guessing

http://www.edmontonslrt.com/images/mapNew.jpg

I don't know of course, not being a denizen of Edmonton but I would think that at full build-out, there would be a line to St. Albert, one to Sherwood Park, one to West Ed., and one to Mill Woods. The next line, logically anyway, would seem to be in the North West through the industrial to St. Albert. It would certainly help to boost ridership since it would serve people going to and from work from Edmonton and St. Albert but as I say, I don't live there so I don't really know. I would think however, that unless Edmonton expands in a major way to the west (seems to be the slowest growing area of Edmonton judging by maps anyway) a line to WEM wouldn't really pay as well as another line to serve commuters as opposed to shoppers.

^Actually, the west end of Edmonton has been one of the fastest growing parts of Edmonton. And that's likely to next logical step in expanding Edmonton's LRT system after SLRT. Either that, or extending NLRT to NAIT/Kingsway Garden Mall.

St. Albert and Sherwood Park will be the last to be served by LRT because both of them just aren't large enough in population to warrant a high enough ridership.

^Actually, the west end of Edmonton has been one of the fastest growing parts of Edmonton. And that's likely to next logical step in expanding Edmonton's LRT system after SLRT. Either that, or extending NLRT to NAIT/Kingsway Garden Mall.

St. Albert and Sherwood Park will be the last to be served by LRT because both of them just aren't large enough in population to warrant a high enough ridership.
Yeah, I was gonna point out that I figured the lines to the satelite cities would be years down the road ... maybe once they reach about a hundred thousand or so each. But BRT seems feasible in the interim I would think.

Actually the biggest reason why it took so long for the SLRT to move is because there is no funding from other levels of government for this project and the city would not borrow. Thus funding became the issue. Its hard for the City to fund a $620 million extension without other revenue streams. The extensions in Vancouver are with Federal and provincial dollars as well as the Ottawa line. Different ball game. The money from the province ($700 million or so) is not going into the LRT from what I understand. That money is earmarked for overpasses. However I would like to see some of it go to WLRT. The SLRT is being funded entirely with city money and will be complete by 2009. It must be noted that the City will have some breathing room now that the feds are giving money back to municipalities and the province is giving money for infrastructure.

I think the point of this thread was why has construction taken so long, not why has it taken so long to get things going.

Yeah, I was gonna point out that I figured the lines to the satelite cities would be years down the road ... maybe once they reach about a hundred thousand or so each. But BRT seems feasible in the interim I would think.

Not to mention you have over 100,000 in each of Millwoods, Castledowns and the West End that actually pay taxes to the City of Edmonton that would be rather pissed off if we give LRT to St ALbert or Sherwood Park before they get it.

I'm actually a little bit doubtful that LRT would ever be built to Millwoods even with proper funding available. It's because I just don't see how the hell they're ever gonna get LRT tracks laid out without having to do expropriation on a really massive scale (and probably run into some serious NIMBYism as a result - the expropriation along 114 St for SLRT was not without its problems) from downtown to Mill woods via Strathearn and Bonnie Doon. For that route, I'd say build a BRT line instead of LRT.

But if you go along Whitemud from Southgate or from Century Park (formerly Heritage Mall, now about to be demolished) along 23 Ave then south onto 91 St then eastward into Lakewood/Millwoods Town Centre, then LRT into Millwoods may be more feasible. Quite a few studies were done on those routes, so it's hard not to imagine the city setting ROWs along the way there.

As I asked previously.........any new cash for SLRT with the new Alberta budget?

edmonton gets 650,000,000 in new infrastructure grants.....so im sure some will go to mass transit.

Wow!..........Must be nice.

Yes, the City is going to use the infrastructure money from the Province to fund the sLRT!!!

I'm actually a little bit doubtful that LRT would ever be built to Millwoods even with proper funding available. It's because I just don't see how the hell they're ever gonna get LRT tracks laid out without having to do expropriation on a really massive scale (and probably run into some serious NIMBYism as a result - the expropriation along 114 St for SLRT was not without its problems) from downtown to Mill woods via Strathearn and Bonnie Doon. For that route, I'd say build a BRT line instead of LRT.

But if you go along Whitemud from Southgate or from Century Park (formerly Heritage Mall, now about to be demolished) along 23 Ave then south onto 91 St then eastward into Lakewood/Millwoods Town Centre, then LRT into Millwoods may be more feasible. Quite a few studies were done on those routes, so it's hard not to imagine the city setting ROWs along the way there.An LRT ROW exists within the 23 Avenue right-of-way. So there will be minimal or no expropriation required for the LRT to Millwoods.

The City had already owned the homes along the west side of 114 Street, but they had to expropriate additional houses along the northside of Belgravia to accommodate the realigned LRT to the future South Campus.

check out this guy's page for some cool pics of the new tunnels.

http://www.etspe.ca/special/mar5-05/slrt.php

SLRT was announced today