Old Edmonton streetcar line found during Valley Line West LRT construction

Construction crews working on the Valley Line West LRT line have unearthed a piece of Edmonton's history.

Streetcar tracks that were built in 1913 were uncovered under Stony Plain Road near 142 Street.

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"Underneath the concrete on the other side of the road here, you can see evidence of the old track. You can see all the ends of the ties that were buried and basically preserved," Chris Ashdown of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

The society, named for the historic Edmonton Radial Railway, maintains streetcars in Fort Edmonton and across the High Level Bridge.

Ashdown says the area where the ties were found was the end of a streetcar line that ran all the way to 124 Street, down Jasper Avenue, and to east Edmonton.

"This was the terminus, 142 Street," Ashdown said. "There would have been a double track here, but there was no streetcar loop or a Y [track] where you would back up a streetcar and then put it back into forward positioning. So they used double ended street cars along this track."

Ashdown says the line closed after two decades due to low ridership.

A map of the streetcar line in Edmonton in 1930. (Source: Edmonton Radial Railway)

"It was abandoned in 1932 and replaced with a small diesel bus, and then later by trolleybus, which is what most people are familiar with, running along 102 Avenue."

"The rail would have been removed and then just paved over. And that's why we see today evidence of the track."

While most of the railroad ties have rotted, Ashdown says some of the findings were salvageable and were donated to the railway society.

Spikes from an old Edmonton streetcar line found during Valley Line West LRT construction. (Source: Edmonton Radial Railway)

"We did receive seven spikes from the contractors here. So these are the first railway spikes from the original streetcar line that we have in our collection. We probably put some on display at our streetcar museum."

It isn't lost on Ashdown that the line was uncovered during the construction of a new type of rail line.

Preserved railway ties can be seen under Stony Plain Road in Edmonton. The old streetcar line was uncovered during LRT construction in 2024. (Source: Edmonton Radial Railway)

"This was the least used of all the streetcar lines in Edmonton, and now is going to be the roadbed for a new light rail line."

"Technology from back in the day with electric streetcars has made a huge comeback across North America, including Edmonton. It's electric, non polluting, high capacity and once built is easy to maintain."

Ashdown estimates 100 light rail lines have been installed in North America in the last 20 years.

Upon completion, the Valley Line West LRT will run from Lewis Farms in the west end of Edmonton and connect with the Valley Line Southeast downtown, taking passengers all the way to Mill Woods Town Centre.

Part of the 124 Street streetcar line was uncovered in 2022 as part of road construction.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nav Sangha