Edmonton completes phase 1 extension on budget and 1 year ahead. Why can’t projects in USA do same?
Ecmonton’s web site
Edmonton Light Rail Transit — Map, Lines, Route, Hours, Tickets (metroeasy.com)
Expansion
Edmontonian here. I wouldn’t be so quick to praise our LRT system’s construction practices. The Metro Line (northwest line) ‘extension’ you speak of consists of a few hundred feet of track and NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) finally getting its permanent station, which had been ‘planned’ ever since this line was first opened in September 2015 (opening day was about a year and a half late).
You should also read about the years of signalling woes this line had after Edmonton Transit hired Thales to install a moving block system and integrate the new system with the both the old fixed block CTC on the original line and all the crossings on the new line. It failed miserably and the LRT signals became the laughing stock of the city. After several attempts to remedy the situation (including a period where the northwest line was operated at restricted speed without any signals) the city finally fired Thales and hired Alstom to install fixed block signals, just like the original line.
The Metro Line is eventually to be extended across CN’s Walker Yard, through northwest Edmonton and out to the neighboring city of St Albert, but this is still stuck in the planning stage (it’s been there for at least a decade) and does not have any funding committments yet.
They are building another mile or so of track north of the new NAIT station and a second ‘Blatchford north’ station, but this section won’t be operated until the area is developed further or the line is extended acoss the CN yard (again, no funding for this yet). The Blatchford area used to be the Edmonton City Centre Airport, it was closed in 2013 and is supposed to be getting redeveloped into a “sustainable planned community” (whatever that means), but this has stalled and a decade later most of the site still looks like an open airfield.
Meanwhile, the new Valley Line (southeast line) from downtown to the Mill Woods
A Nice Edmonton Story.
Decades ago went to Edmonton.
A Friend there told me they were building a New Transit System and he had
an old friend for me to see.
He Was Right.
https://fvhrs.org/history-961/
First found it here, Sixty Years Ago.
Much has changed.
Thank You!
P. S. In Edmonton the Foamers named it
" The 2001 Space Oddity. "
The original San Diego “Trolley” line was constructed on time and within budget. A few things helped, the SD&AE track was there (upgrading cost was known), the cars were the same ones being bought by Edmonton (no development costs) and the people organizing had a focus on keeping costs under control. It also helped that there was no federal money involved, so less red tape.
IIRC, Utah has had fairly good record in keeping projects on time and under budget.