Nearly three years after it was originally supposed to open for Edmonton passengers, the long-delayed Valley Line Southeast LRT line finally has a firm date to open, the city announced Tuesday.
In a news release, the city said the line will officially open for passenger service on Saturday, Nov. 4. The line will begin running at 5:15 a.m. at the Mill Woods stop and at the 102nd Street stop downtown.
“I know many Edmontonians have been looking forward to opening day for the better part of two decades,” Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said in a statement. “Valley Line Southeast will offer an affordable and climate-friendly choice to move around our city for decades to come.
“I’m looking forward to riding the new line and seeing this project cross the finish line.”
The line had been scheduled to open in December 2020 but has faced multiple delays, including cracks in piers that support the elevated portion of the track and the need for signalling cables to be replaced.
The Valley Line has been and is being built through a public-private partnership and TransEd is the private industry consortium contracted to build and operate the southeast leg.
The 13-kilometre southeast leg of the Valley Line is part of the first stage of construction and connects Mill Woods to the downtown core. The southeast leg includes 11 stops.
In a statement on Tuesday, TransEd said the southeast leg “has been independently certified by professional engineers, a safety auditor and an independent — professionally qualified — certifier.”
“This has been a long journey, with challenges and detours, but we’re confident in the system we’ve built,” said TransEd Partners CEO Ronald Joncas. “Our focus has always been, and will continue to be, delivering a safe, reliable system to Edmontonians.
“We’re excited to welcome passengers onboard these brand new trains.”
TransEd is responsible for any costs incurred because of delays and is only entitled to be paid 50 per cent of the total construction contract value prior to the line opening.
When the line opens, TransEd will receive a payment equal to 16.7 per cent of the construction value.
Last month, Sohi said city manager Andre Corbould had committed to completing a comprehensive review of large infrastructure projects like the Valley Line and that he was hopeful to have a report ready by the end of the year.
“There will be a lot of thinking about it,” Sohi said Tuesday. “We will talk about that when that report comes to us.
“But today is a good day. It’s a good day for Edmontonians.”
Coun. Tim Cartmell spoke about the line’s opening date being announced on Tuesday as well.
“Perhaps more muted celebration than there would have been had it been operating even close to the original timeline,” he acknowledged. “That has passed us by. There’s not a lot we can do about that. We have it. We need to use it.
“It’s been tested. It’s safe. t’s been overtested because of the delays that we’ve seen so I would encourage people to take the positives. The positives are: just in time for winter, we’ve got a new LRT line running.”
— with files from Global News’ Kendra Slugoski