EDMONTON, Alberta — Edmonton’s Valley Line Southeast light rail project is set to open today (Saturday, Nov. 4), almost three years behind schedule, the CBC reports.
The first trains on the 12-station, 13-kilometer (8-mile) line are scheduled to depart from the 102nd Street station downtown and the southern endpoint of Mill Woods at 5:15 a.m. Trains will run at 10-minute intervals until 9:30 p.m., then at 15-minute intervals until the end of service at 1 a.m. On Sundays, service will be at 15-minute intervals. Plans are to eventually operate at 5-minute intervals during peak periods.
The C$1.8 billion project is a public-private partnership between the city of Edmonton and TransEd Partners, a consortium which has designed and built the line and has a contract to operate it for 30 years. Consortium members include engineering and construction firm Bechtel; construction company EllisDon; Alstom, which now owns Bombardier, which has built the line’s 26 light rail vehicles; and Fengate Capital Management. It is expected to carry 30,000 riders per day.
The line was originally projected to open in December 2020, but delays mounted from issues including problems with a major bridge; COVID-19-related delays in LRV testing; cracks in concrete piers on elevated sections of the line; and faulty signal cable.
The new line will join an Edmonton light rail system that already includes the 21-kilometer (13-mile) Capital Line and the 8-kilometer (5-mile) Metro Line. A 16-station, 14-kilometer extension of the Valley Line is planned for 2028.
