When Edmonton’s 2.3-kilometre south LRT extension opened last month, it marked the end of a long journey that began nearly 20 years ago. In the early 1980s, the City of Edmonton began planning to push light rail transit service south.

The planned corridor, along 114th Street, did not sit well with the residents of McKernan and Belgravia. They wanted their main road left alone, and the tracks routed underground. In August 2005, work began in the LRT extension from the Health Sciences Centre to a station at McKernan/Belgravia and South Campus. Some 45 homes were demolished to make room for the track right-of-way.

Eventually, the city backed away from plans to widen the corridor to six lanes. In an effort to appease the agitated residents, city council agreed to let them have a say in whether they wanted a community station in the neighbourhood.

More than 800 people cast ballots in the 2001 vote, and nearly 70 per cent supported a station at 76th Avenue. The station that opened last month is a barrier-free affair that offers exceptional security for travellers and fits cohesively with the surrounding houses.

Open sightlines allow passengers good visibility, emergency telephones mean help is only a call away, and closed-circuit cameras are monitored by security staff at all times.

A tunnel under 114th Street provides safe access for pedestrians, including students from nearby McKernan Elementary-Junior High.

The South Campus LRT and Transit Centre was to be situated in front of the Neil Crawford Centre on 113th Street. But the South Campus expansion announced by the University of Alberta in 2001 prompted a change in plans, and the tracks were moved 300 metres west, necessitating a 114-metre long tunnel under Belgravia Road.

The South Campus is envisioned to accommodate 12,000 students by 2030. The station can handle trains five cars long and provides passengers with heated glassed-in shelters. In all, 18 bus routes stop or end at the South campus station.

The extension is expected to boost daily LRT ridership to 65,000 from 50,000. Next April, the entire 7.8 kilometres of track from Health Sciences to Southgate and Century Park (23rd Avenue) will open, and this phase of LRT expansion will be completed.

Then, Edmonton Transit forecasts daily ridership will reach 100,000. The 7.5 kilometre addition is expected to cost $565 million, plus 26 new Siemens SD-160 light-rail vehicles worth $110 million.

Every time the city’s LRT network grows, I’m reminded of the history of the system, which stretches all the way back to 1962. That’s when the city contracted Canadian Bechtel Limited to look at transportation alternatives.

Rapid transit was one of the solutions their report offered. Lines were proposed reaching north to Northgate, west to Jasper Place and West Edmonton, south to Southgate, southeast into Bonnie Doon, northeast towards Belvedere and Clareview and even northwest to St. Albert.

The city’s transportation planners and Edmonton Transit wanted a solution that would attract riders, be cost effective and offer the least environmental impact. After transportation and transit officials visited Europe, light rail transit emerged as the favoured alternative.

In 1973, city officials were presented with a report that proposed an LRT line and encouraged them to approach the federal and provincial governments for support. When the city was awarded the 1978 Commonwealth Games, the favoured alignment – along the former Canadian National Railways right-of-way between downtown and Belvedere, quickly made all the more sense.

The line was officially opened, on budget and three months ahead of schedule, when then mayor Terry Cavanagh drove the first train out of Cromdale Station on April 22, 1978. Provincial funds paid for 70 per cent of the cost.

The line was extended to Clareview Station and opened in 1981, while work under Jasper Avenue was going full tilt. Bay and Corona stations opened in 1983.

There was a push to run the LRT across the upper deck of the High Level Bridge, but the city and the CPR, owners of the bridge, couldn't agree on a price. And so the city built Grandin Station, which opened in 1989.

Edmonton's LRT was poised to cross the North Saskatchewan River to the south side and, in August 1983, city council gave approval in principle to the next two phases of development to Government Centre and across the river to the University of Alberta.

The university insisted that the line be underground. To take the LRT across the river, a city constructed the Dudley B. Menzies bridge just upstream of the High Level Bridge. When the University Station opened on August 28th, 1992, ridership surged overnight. Passenger trips increased from 23,400 in 1990 to 36,000 in 2000.

Even though the LRT was obviously an efficient, convenient and environmentally friendly way of moving people around, the Ralph Klein Conservative government lost the appetite to fund further expansion. The system languished for the next eight years with precious little new funding.

Finally, in 2000, the federal government unveiled a new infrastructure funding plan to extend the LRT to the Health Sciences Station. Tunnelling through the 640-metre distance from University Station to reach the surface was labourious work, and the project took the better part of five years and ended up costing $100 million.

In 2005, city council voted to fast-track LRT construction south to Heritage Mall, using borrowed money paid off with gas tax revenue. The following year, the Health Sciences Station opened, the first new station in 14 years.

Now, work continues designing and purchasing land for the $800-million line from downtown to NAIT. Consideration is being given to possible lines from downtown west to Lewis Estates and southeast to Mill Woods, northeast from Clareview to Gorman and southwest from Century Park to Heritage Valley.

On June 2, the public will have a chance to have a say on the city-wide and regional LRT network plan. The public hearing starts at 9:30 am in the River Valley Room at City Hall. Public hearings on possible routes for the lines to the west and southeast are being planned for November.

For more information on the city’s LRT projects, visit www.edmonton.ca/transportation/ets/lrt-projects.aspx