LRT to Mill Woods
On December 15, Council approved the recommended route for the LRT extension to Mill Woods. This is the result of a motion I made last year to expedite planning for the Mill Woods extension. After months of study City staff recommended a route, and Council granted approval after a lengthy public hearing.
The recommended route will start at Mill Woods Town Centre, travel north along 66 and 75 Street, and then travel north on 83 Street, along Connors Road, crossing the river into the east side of Downtown. It will connect with Churchill station. Existing traffic lanes will remain in place along most of the route.
City staff considered three other routes, but this one makes the most sense for many reasons:
- Mill Woods to Downtown is already one of the busiest transit corridors in the city, and this extension will improve service for existing riders while taking thousands more cars of the road. It will also free up most of the 200-plus buses that currently serve this corridor, so we can improve bus service elsewhere at no extra cost.
- This route will serve several high-traffic destinations between Mill Woods and Downtown, with potential stops near the Grey Nuns Hospital, W.P. Wagner High School, Bonnie Doon, Stathearn, Muttart, and the Quarters (east downtown).
- The City owns land at 75 Street and Whitemud Drive, and this is an excellent spot for a Park-and-Ride lot to serve riders who want to drive to the LRT.
- Re-development is already happening in Bonnie Doon, Strathearn, and the Quarters. LRT is a proven tool for promoting high quality re-development, and can revitalize these communities. The City’s new mature neighbourhood guidelines will ensure that re-development is sensitive to existing neighbourhoods.
- At a cost of between $900 million and $1.2 billion, this route is comparable to the other options.
- The route will be effective at its main purpose: getting cars off the road. Projected ridership is over 46,000 Edmontonians per day, or well over 12 million trips a year.
Now that Council has approved the route, we can get to work on more detailed planning and consultation. The next step is detailed engineering to determine the exact alignment of the route. In June 2009, Council approved an LRT Network Plan for the whole city, and identified extensions to the West and Southeast as key priorities.
Construction could start within five years, but not without help. The City can’t afford this kind of project without significant provincial and federal funding.
All three orders of government have made commitments to reduce carbon footprints, stimulate the economy, and improve the quality of life of Canadians. The LRT is a unique opportunity to achieve all three goals, and I will be urging my provincial and federal counterparts to continue to make a real investment.
Further reading
- LRT Network Information
City of Edmonton October 05 2009
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