Edmonton city councillor calls Metro Line LRT extension ‘a pipe dream,’ asks for new options

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While talk of an LRT line spanning across northwest Edmonton dates back to the 1970s, one city councillor thinks the project is no longer viable.

Coun. Erin Rutherford says a proposed extension of the Metro Line that would stretch past the Blatchford neighbourhood to Castle Downs — and eventually to the city of St. Albert — has become prohibitively expensive and she wants city staff to look at other options. 

“I would rather have those conversations sooner and look at contingency plans and other ways to make sure that the residents who I represent are served by mass transit in the near future, rather than waiting on a pipe dream,” she told CBC News.

Rutherford represents Ward Anirniq, through which the extension would run.

She tabled a motion Tuesday that asks city administration to prepare a memo for other transit options for the area. The motion passed unanimously and Rutherford said she hopes it kicks off a discussion leading up to fall deliberations for the city’s next four-year budget. 

Rutherford said she’s come to believe cumulative impacts have made the project unworkable. These include the skyrocketing cost of getting across the Yellowhead Highway and CN rail yard, to provincial priorities signalling an extension to the airport would take precedence. 

Coun. Erin Rutherford says the CN Rail Walker Yard is one of the busiest in Canada. The cost of building an LRT over or under it would be prohibitively expensive, she says. (CBC News)

The cost of the Yellowhead crossing alone, Rutherford estimates, could be as much as the rest of the line entirely. 

The city isn’t planning to do any more LRT capital projects in the next 10 years, but has been acquiring land along the planned northwest Edmonton route. Rutherford wants to explore if that should continue.

The expansion had been deprioritized in 2020 in favour of the south-side Capital Line expansion to Ellerslie Road, but was next on the list.

Rutherford said she’s open to all alternatives when it comes to expanding public transit in northwest Edmonton, whether that’s bus rapid transit (BRT) or a redesign of the LRT line that would be less expensive.

“But the reality is, in my opinion, we are not going to see the Metro Line as currently proposed in the near future.”

The Metro Line is planned to eventually go out to Campbell Road in St. Albert. (City of Edmonton)

Rutherford said she’d like to one day see an LRT line in each quadrant of the city, especially to give her ward equitable service. 

She acknowledged a risk of the city shifting gears now is that the extension ends up on ice forever. 

That’s the fear for nearby residents like Lynnette Thompson. 

Thompson, who is the president of the Castle Downs Recreation Society, said LRT expansion was a selling point for many moving into the neighbourhood. 

“I think they’d be frustrated. I think they’d be disappointed. I know I am,” she said, noting the proposed line would be a short walk from her house.

Thompson said she’s not convinced bus rapid transit would be able to match what an LRT line can offer and noted Edmonton’s north side is growing.

“For 15 years we’ve been excited about the whole thing, then looking forward to it, and then it gets pushed back and pushed back,” she said.

“We get left out again and again and again. We have to fight for our own stuff up here.”

A rendering from a city transit plan shows a rendering of a potential bridge over the CN Rail Walker Yard. (City of Edmonton)

Emily Stremel, the chair of the advocacy group Edmonton Transit Riders, said she believes the move to explore other options is warranted.

“BRT is just a lot faster and cheaper to build. So I think getting that on the ground now would be fantastic,” Stremel said, noting that current transit service in the area can be slow and meandering. 

She said she understands the disappointment the community might feel if council shifts gears.

“People really like trains, whether that’s just an emotional reason. They think it’s cooler and sexier than buses,” Stremel said.

“Buses can provide service that is on the same level as LRT if they’re given the infrastructure to do so.”