archited
Senior Member
And how long do you think it will take to get to and from this magical train from your starting point.
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- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
MacLac
Senior Member
San Jose? Didn’t get a chance to see the plane
occidentalcapital
Senior Member
Yup, we can have it all. Both airport rail and eventually an LRT connection.
occidentalcapital
Senior Member
Eastern Airlines charter 767-200
Has recently operated a few flights from YEG. Don't know what for.
Also Buffalo Airways' new 737 cargo aircraft is on its way to its Edmonton base.
Glenco
Senior Member
I don’t think there is a business case for a direct train connection from downtown to the airport. The cost could be prohibitive for a new dedicated line extending the Capital line would be the only viable option. not ideal at this point in time as there are other higher priorities. To reiterate I was only pointing out that there is no need for a high speed connection as the time saving would not justify the extra cost for the infrastructure and rolling stock.
Windermere
Active Member
Eastern brought firefighters
supplanter
Active Member
Ok well first of all the 80 is just the hypothetical top speed the current trains might be able to run at, I’m not sure if your calculations take into account the existing LRT from downtown to century park which at no point exceeds 70 km/h and likely has an average speed no higher than 50 km/h. In addition, from Gov Centre there’d be 10+ stations to call at before arriving at the airport. Heavy rail done properly might have 2 stations between downtown and yeg and would run on a track which is mostly straight, if not gradually curving allowing for consistent higher speeds. The time difference would be considerable. Technically the Piccadilly Line in London can go 100 km/h which isn’t much slower than the Heathrow express but there isn’t a single doubt about which one will get to the airport faster
Glenco
Senior Member
To reiterate I was only trying to illustrate the time difference between the different speeds and that investing in a high speed connection between downtown and the airport probably isn’t worth the extra cost in infrastructure and rolling. A dedicated train with a new bridge over the river and probably another tunnel through downtown would be prohibitively expensive even if there was a business case for it which I highly doubt. The best option if we were to build a connection is an extension of the capital line to serve south Edmonton and the new growth at the same time.
I take a bus from central McDougall to Corona station then to Century Park to catch the 747 where I have to wait 15 minutes for the bus to leave. Even so it only takes 65 minutes to get to the airport. The vast majority of the passengers either work at the airport or the mall or Costco. This is what is going to drive the passenger numbers in the future not some sexy direct high speed connection for the very few business travellers using YEG.
YVR‘s connection is not a high speed connection it is a milk run and very successful.
BrettB
Active Member
I'd be happy at this point with decently frequent bus service. Even doubling what's offered now would be a huge improvement
occidentalcapital
Senior Member
There are also something like 6 flights now arriving too late to make the last bus. And a bunch of flights leaving at 6am so the 4am century park departure is not early enough catch these flights. Operating hours need to be extended.
IanO
Superstar
Absolutely and especially for the morning rush. I find that more folks are willing to cab or find other options if they arrive later in the evening to just get to their destination.
BASE
Active Member
June 2023
Terminal
- Terminal Traffic: 613,387 passengers (YTD 3,281,902 passengers) 21.4% (YTD 48.9%)
- Domestic 540,367 passengers (YTD 2,622,877 passengers) 16.8% (YTD 37.6%)
- Transborder 51,726 passengers (YTD 379,657 passengers) 58.8% (YTD 124.4%)
- International 21,294 passengers (YTD 279,368 passengers) 109.9% (YTD 116.9%)
Fixed Base Operators (FBO)*
- 37,114 passengers (YTD 276,002 passengers) -7.1% (YTD 25.3%)
Total passengers (Terminal and FBO)
- 650,501 passengers (YTD 3,557,904 passengers) 19.3% (YTD 46.7%)
These numbers are looking great, although business travel demand has likely dropped off since 2019 the leisure demand should be compensating for that helped by the large amount of population growth seen in the region since 2019.
For comparison sake here is June 2019:
Terminal - 634,704
Domestic - 556,228
Transborder - 59,682
International - 18,794
FBO - 39,090
Total Passengers - 673,794
occidentalcapital
Senior Member
So we've now exceeded pre covid numbers for international flights, very close on domestic and transborder. Very nice
TAS
Senior Member
If I fly to Europe from Edmonton via Air Canada for example and there's a connection in Toronto, does that count as an international flight or only domestic?