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???
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.CanadianCentaur said:^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.
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.big W said: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.
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.LooselogInThePeg said: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.