Edmonton: Expanding LRT to achieve the City Vision

Edmonton was a North American transit leader in the 1970’s when it was the first city to introduce modern light rail. The system has continued to expand but now, with new technologies and a recognized need for better integration of transportation and land use, a need for a new way of planning the city’s LRT expansion is essential.

The City of Edmonton has a strategic plan for the next 10 years called the ‘The Way Ahead’ that calls for a more compact, livable, sustainable city. This plan is supported by the transportation masterplan ‘The Way We Move’, which identified LRT expansion as a way of developing a more compact urban form that would see Edmonton build upwards and not outwards, and help meet the city’s land use, transportation and livability goals.

With a commitment from the city’s Mayor and Council to progress the plans quickly, Edmonton began the concurrent route planning for a number of extensions. In parallel, Steer Davies Gleave was retained to develop the overall LRT Expansion Plan and develop a system that would best meet the wider Vision objectives. The Expansion Plan was adopted by Council in June 2009 and now forms the context for the on-going route planning work.

The Expansion Plan advocates a compact, urban style network with six radial corridors within the city’s existing developed boundaries and identified the need for additional capacity through the downtown area.

In developing the overall LRT network plan, consideration was given to the style of LRT system. The existing high-floor LRT, with its two kilometre station spacing, is largely suburban in style, relying heavily on bus transfers and park and ride. This is contrasted by a more urban style, low-floor LRT system, which can provide greater connectivity to people and places, a better fit with the land use and TOD. In addition, it is less reliant on bus transfers and park and ride.

One of the early recommendations of Steer Davies Gleave’s work was to move the system style more towards an urban style LRT to support more compact urban communities and provide a closer fit with the City’s Vision.

Other recommendations of our work include:

• Adding stations to existing lines
• Stops planned in conjunction with TOD
• Improving local pedestrian, cycle and bus connectivity

We also identified that switching to low-floor vehicles for all new, future lines and the creation of two overlapping high and low-floor networks, each with three radial corridors would provide additional benefits. It would provide the additional downtown capacity required and stops could be smaller, better connected to people and places and fit within existing communities.

The development of this integrated wider network will better connect Edmonton’s people to the majority of its major employment, recreation, education and shopping destinations, significantly improving the ease of movement around the city, reducing the dependence on the private car and help to meet the city’s objectives.

As Edmonton progresses with its integrated approach to land use and transit planning, it will once again be a leader in North America, demonstrating how LRT can shape a sustainable 21st century city.