[SMayo]

Which one? Valley line to downtown, transferring to capital? A good 45 minute journey?

It might not be a quick trip, but good luck justifying to the average tax payers another transit project in the hundreds of millions of dollars between 2 destinations already connected in our expensive mass transit network.

 

[EdmTrekker]

"Here's my very quickly sketched out idea for a Gondola that would be a part of ETS. Summary of ideas:

• Major destinations served: 1) WEM, 2) Valley Zoo/Laurier Park, 3) Fort Edmonton, 4) UofA + Hospital, 5) Hawrelak, 6) 124th Street, 7) Whyte Ave, 8) Rossdale/Kinsmen/Walterdale/Bike Park, 9) Churchill/Library/CBD, 10) Ice District
• Mass Transit Integration (yellow dots): 1) WEM VLW & Bus Station, 2) VLW @ 124th, 3) University Capital+Metro+Bus Stations, 4) Churchill LRT Connector.
• Unserved/barely served by transit stops: Fort Ed, Zoo/Laurier, Hawrelak, Rossdale.
• 4 river crossings - substantially cheaper by gondola vs bridges
• Blue dots are stops without major transit integrations
• 12 stations overall
• 2 "spurs" to Fort ed & 124th (these are less needed, but could be future phases to serve our parks/festivals)
• 18km overall, say 35mil/km to build, that's 630million.
• Just the WEM to University connection alone feels like a massive win, likely shifting some drivers off groat/fox going to University from the West End.

Would love to hear people's thoughts! Horrible idea? Anything feasible?"

Blue dot in front of Rogers place on 104 Ave needs to removed as there is simply no place for a gondola and better is a yellow dot behind Rogers Place at Ice District 2 and connection to the LRT Station. On event nights this will be a packed gondola route. Get The Oilers Group /Katz Development behind it and it will get traction.

 

[thommyjo]

It might not be a quick trip, but good luck justifying to the average tax payers another transit project in the hundreds of millions of dollars between 2 destinations already connected in our expensive mass transit network.

Saying WEM and university are connected just isn’t true though… by that logic we don’t need the high level or walterdale bridges because the groat road one exists…

There’s a way to make multiple transfers between different trains and buses, but they all still require a massive detour.

This is a river crossing. A MASSIVE time saver. Both for those using it, and for those not using it who benefit from thousands of commuters no longer being on fox drive/groat road, 149/142st, 114st, etc.

This is also the cheapest and least disruptive option vs a huge bridge through the valley, carrying cars, buses, trains, or whatever.

 

[thommyjo]

Blue dot in front of Rogers place on 104 Ave needs to removed as there is simply no place for a gondola and better is a yellow dot behind Rogers Place at Ice District 2 and connection to the LRT Station. On event nights this will be a packed gondola route. Get The Oilers Group /Katz Development behind it and it will get traction.

Yeah, good thoughts. I couldn’t decide if a Churchill terminus made sense or if getting it up close to rogers would be worth it. I figure because of the Churchill connection, being next to the metro station at rogers isn’t super critical, vs the station just being anywhere close to rogers. Arguably keeping in south of the arena helps it serve the CBD better?

 

[thommyjo]

 

[YEG imagineer]

Holy crap $500 million for a 2 km system with 3 stations. Ours was 3 km with 5 stations and less than 1/3 the cost.

 

[The_Cat]

In Los Angeles, I'm sure that 30,000+ cars for 80+ days per year would add to the congestion, even if there are neighbouring freeways. If less people park there, there could be other development.

 

[IanO]

 

[Tropical]

View attachment 656094

Without context, there isn't much I can learn here.

 

[Barnaby]

The lack of a good transit connection between Downtown and Whyte is such a problem that could have been solved by now. I'm incredibly disappointed by the loss of such a transformational transit project.

 

[trevorhayden]

Was a good idea. Bad execution.

 

[IanO]

Out of curiosity, how so?

 

[Barnaby]

Perfect execution. ETS would solve a lot of their transit problems from this area to DT if they built it.

Gondolas are great for the trip volumes this route would see.

 

[trevorhayden]

By execution, I mean the process to seek approval. They tried to force the City's hand to approve a major project without proper due diligence. Very unprofessional.

 

[IanO]

A LOT of due diligence was undertaken prior to speaking with Council and the ask was not approval, but rather approval to proceed with more. Sadly, it got derailed due to time and place.

I look forward to seeing this come back.