Edmonton city council’s hopes to fast-track LRT expansion by 2016 could bring the service to St. Albert sooner than originally planned.
Earlier this week, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel said he wants officials to outline the way routes approved last month can be finished by 2016 in case Edmonton’s bid to host Expo 2017 is successful. Edmonton’s transit committee has asked for a report outlining funding options within 90 days.
Proposed routes include lines from downtown to the west end and Mill Woods, along with an extension to NAIT.
If the NAIT extension was fast-tracked, St. Albert Transit director Bob McDonald said it would mean some pretty significant changes to transportation planning here since a northwest route to St. Albert would be next up for consideration.
City officials have attended planning workshops for the northwest LRT line for quite some time and initially anticipated the LRT could reach St. Albert in about 20 years.
Now, it could be something that might have to be worked into the 10-year capital plan.
“Before, it was always just talk in the future,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse. “Now it’s probably getting close to where it’s going to have to start showing up in the 10-year capital plan.”
The city has already started planning for the arrival of the LRT station.
The transportation master plan includes the construction of a new transit centre park and ride near the intersection of Campbell Road and St. Albert Trail — the same location where the LRT line would end. The plan also identifies an LRT alignment down the centre of St. Albert Trail.
In fact, the city is in the midst of developing a concept plan for the transit centre park and ride and hopes to complete construction by 2012 to replace the Village Transit Exchange.
“We’d love to include LRT in the long-term plan. If there is any suggestion on how we could do that, we’ve love to be a part of it,” said McDonald, who noted the entire region would benefit from an LRT line. “It would be a great thing if we could make it happen.”
In December, Edmonton approved proposals to run low-floor LRT trains downtown from Lewis Estates along 87th Avenue, Stony Plain Road and 104th Avenue. An alignment from Mill Woods along 75th Street, 83rd Street and through Strathearn and Cloverdale was also approved.
The total cost of the proposed work is estimated at $3 billion.
Other future routes under consideration are extensions from Century Park to Ellerslie Road and Heritage Valley, from Clareview to Gorman and the rural northeast, east to Sherwood Park and a surface downtown loop.
