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Ward Anirniq Councillor Erin Rutherford says the City\u2019s plan for LRT extension is not feasible, calls for alternatives (Trystan Shaw, CityNews)<\/p>\nThe Blatchford gate in north central Edmonton has been quiet and unused for over two years, but when it becomes operational, this might be the last stop for the metro line extension.<\/p>\n
As the city administration looks for options to connect communities in the city\u2019s northwest, one councillor saying the current plan is unrealistic.<\/p>\n
Ward Anirniq Councillor Erin Rutherford says the City\u2019s plan to connect seven stations, including one in Saint Albert, would require more funding from all levels of government, especially, for things like building a bridge to cross the CN rail yard.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe cost of major capital projects and inflation, when what has already been the biggest section of that extension going from Blatchford to Lauderdale, is bigger than half the cost of the entire line to extend,\u201d Rutherford said.<\/p>\n
Emily Stremel, chair, Edmonton Transit Riders, says not having the LRT extension to the north side would be \u201cheartbreaking because a lot of people have been expecting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ward Anirniq Councillor Erin Rutherford says the City\u2019s plan for LRT extension is not feasible, calls for alternatives (Trystan Shaw, CityNews)<\/p>\n
Stremel said she understands Rutherford\u2019s concerns and would support alternative options like a rapid bus corridor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThis is using like road infrastructure and buses, but it can absolutely provide the frequency and reliability that trains do, as long as it has a dedicated lane where it\u2019s not getting stuck in traffic,\u201d Stremel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the things that can absolutely provide a fantastic level of service to the north side, and we absolutely want to see that move forward,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Rutherford says she still wants to have LRT stations on the north side of the city but says she doesn\u2019t want to let her residents wait for another two to threes decades for a proper mass transit adding that planned a rapid bus route should still help and connect to the future stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blatchford gate in north central Edmonton has been quiet and unused for over two years, but when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-641962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}