I think high rises will be downtown for the foreseeable future. There's zero reason to live in a smaller unit without the inherent amenities of Oliver and Downtown directly outside.

A bunch of Mercury Blocks, and Stationlands style developments are probably the future of Edmonton's TODs.
 
West Edmonton Mall Station, taken today.
PXL_20240622_184630367.MP.jpg
PXL_20240622_184635305.MP.jpg
 
^I'm not. The trains are too slow. Plain and simple. I did a contest, recently. Head to Ice District. I took the car and my wife took the train. I arrived 10 minutes quicker. The VL is nothing more but a bus on rails, with finite capacity and frequency.
 
superelevation said:
Surprised its so low though, less than half of what the Waterloo ION is doing after 5 years despite using trains which are ~3x as big

Performance measures

Ridership and on-time performance graphs for the past 12 months of service.
www.grt.ca www.grt.ca
Click to expand...
Honestly not as surprised tbh. It'll probably continue to grow at a decent pace over the next year or two. It's becoming a much nicer and comfortable journey than dealing with the 66 St traffic during rush hour, from my experiences.

It doesn't help that it also opened on November too lol. Ridership will probably double by September than what it is right now.
 
whattheheck said:
^I'm not. The trains are too slow. Plain and simple. I did a contest, recently. Head to Ice District. I took the car and my wife took the train. I arrived 10 minutes quicker. The VL is nothing more but a bus on rails, with finite capacity and frequency.
Click to expand...
If speed is the only criterion, then you are right.
 
The Valley Line LRT isn't for everybody. Carpooling downtown might be less expensive. LRT isn't the greatest if you have errands.

During rush hour, LRT or transit is very effective. Parking is also expensive.
 
I live in Bonnie Doon, and have gone through a couple of stages with the Valley Line.

At first I loved having it so close to my house, and was really excited for a quick way to get Downtown right on my doorstep. It's part of why I chose to move to Bonnie Doon in the first place.

Then I started thinking about the cost compared to driving, plus the fact that it's slower than driving - especially when you factor in walk time on either end. It just didn't make sense to me to use it and I stopped for a while.

A couple of months ago, though, I gave it another try on my way to an Oilers game and it's just so much more pleasant than driving. I haven't driven to get Downtown since - it's just my default way to get Downtown now. I don't think I'll ever go back to driving to get Downtown.

All this to say, while the Valley Line might not be the fastest or cheapest way to get Downtown, it's often the most pleasant, and that's worth something. Would I change some things about it? For sure! But I think it's still a big value-add in it's current form, especially if you live in a neighbourhood that's already close to Downtown.
 
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