The City of Edmonton announced Thursday its recommendations for the west and southeast routes for the LRT expansion.

"Ultimately city council has the final decision, but we feel these individual routes offer the greatest long-term benefit to citizens right across the LRT network," said transportation general manager Bob Boutilier.

The city's transportation department has proposed the following route for Edmonton's west LRT corridor:

  • The route will go from Lewis Estates east along 87 Avenue, and then north on 156 Street.
  • It then connects to downtown via Stony Plain Road and 104 Avenue, providing a street-level connection to MacEwan College.

The plan would mean that lanes of traffic would be taken out to accommodate the train.

Currently along Stony Plain Road there's no room for extra tracks so the city's plan is to build them on the road, which will take out half of the road's four lanes.

"It provides an opportunity to transform Stony Plain Road into a transit spine, a transit corridor," said Adam Laughlin with the city's transportation department.

But the plan is now fueling concerns among motorists who commute down that stretch of road.

"It's already jam-packed at five o'clock so if they take out two lanes, I'm sure it'll create a really big bottle neck," said Claudette Hargreaves.

The city also has a proposed route for the southeast LRT corridor which includes:

  • The corridor travels north from Mill Woods Town Centre on 66 Street and continues north along 75 Street.
  • At Wagner Road the route would continue over (or under) the CP Rail line until 83 Street and then proceeds north along 83 & 85 Street to 95 Avenue.
  • At 95 Avenue, the route continues to Connors Road, crossing the North Saskatchewan River. This section of the route, heading east into downtown, would replace the Coverdale footbridge or would be built alongside.
  • Coming into downtown, the proposed route would connect to the much discussed Quarters development, leading to the Churchill LRT station and eventually connecting to Grant MacEwan College.

The city said about 20-30 homes in the area of 83 Street and 79 Avenue may have to be bulldozed to make way for the line.

Some residents in the area told CTV News that it is a good place to raise a family and would be devastated if they were forced out.

Also outlined in the proposed plan, it shows that there will be seven stations planned for the west LRT route, and six for southeast LRT.

The estimated travel time from Mill Woods to downtown will be 20-25 minutes. And from Lewis Estates to downtown the trip is also expected to be 20-25 minutes.

The recommended southeast and west LRT routes are expected to cost $900 million to $1.2 billion. The city has said no funding is currently in place to build either of the routes. City officials plan to look to the provincial and federal government for help with financing.

By 2040, the city expects that for each line there will an estimated 45,000 riders per day.

City council will review the recommendations at a public hearing on November 9th.

With files from Bill Fortier and Serena Mah