BRT debate can’t hurt, but LRT is a done deal
City council has voted unanimously to dig into the cost of building bus rapid transit (BRT) to West Edmonton Mall and beyond, and to see how it compares to the cost of light rail transit (LRT).
But that doesn’t mean council is going to reverse direction and build BRT to the west end. Not a chance.
Mayor Don Iveson and a majority of councillors have made it abundantly clear they’re going with LRT to the west end, and based on deputy city manager Adam Laughlin’s new BRT cost estimates, it’s hard to quibble.
Advocates for years estimated a BRT line would only be 20 to 50 per cent of the capital cost of a new LRT line. On a $1.4-billion project — the initial estimate for the western leg of the Valley Line LRT to the mall — such savings would be massive.
Recently, Coun. Tim Cartmell thought the capital costs of BRT might be 60 per cent of LRT, but at a recent executive committee meeting, Laughlin estimated BRT would cost just 20 per cent less than LRT to build, and would cost 20 per cent more to run each year.
That 20-per-cent figure isn’t final — that’s what the current study will take a much more detailed look at — but if there aren’t huge capital savings to be had, there’s no reason to go with BRT to the west end, not with the other advantages that LRT presents.
The main LRT advantage is it will spur infill development that BRT will not, Jeffrey HansenCarlson, of Canadian Transit Oriented Development Institute, told council.
If you’re just building a system to get folks from point A to point B quickly, then BRT can be the right solution, Hansen-Carlson said, but the idea of mass rapid transit should also be to spur $1 of private investment in Transit Oriented Development (TOD) for every $1 of public investment.
At least three major mixed-use commercial/residential developments are already planned or being built along the southern leg of the Valley Line (one in Mill Woods, one in Bonnie Doon and the third in west Glenora) that will amount to $1 billion in investment, Hansen-Carlson said.
BRT is less permanent than LRT, so developers aren’t willing to make that kind of bet on building beside a BRT line, HansenCarlson said.
“The BRT will just move people. The development will not happen.”
Blue-chip investors such as pension funds are now getting behind TOD, Hansen-Carlson said: “Their boards have said TOD is the future of cities and that is the direction we’re going. So too much focus on BRT in place of what we’re talking about here (a new LRT line), I think it just delays the inevitable and we’re going to miss opportunities.”
Cartmell, who put forward the motion to dig into BRT costs, accepts the business argument that more development will happen on an LRT line, but he wants to know the exact costs of BRT to ascertain just what kind of premium the public is paying for that development.
Numerous councillors supported Cartmell’s motion because they want proper due diligence, but at the same time, made it clear they’re sticking with LRT.
Iveson said knowing all the costs will put to rest the west BRT versus west LRT debate. The information will also be useful on future transit decisions.
“I believe there’s a time and place for bus. And there’s a time and place for rail. And there’s a time and a place for something in between,” Iveson said.
People in Edmonton want LRT, they just want it to be built right, Iveson said, with proper grade separations so that the trains don’t block major intersections.
“We need to be resolute and steadfast that we are not just going to build this train line, but as soon as we can muster the resources, we’re going to go south, we’re going to go northwest, we’re going to go northeast, and we’re going to build out the network plan,” he said.
A moment later, Iveson added: “Some of it we might have to do with bus because there won’t be enough resources to lay tracks in every direction right away.”
The end result of Cartmell’s push here is we’re going to have a much better idea of how much BRT will cost as opposed to LRT. That’s vital information, even if it’s evident council will be going with LRT to the west end.