SLRT Opening - April 24th

[SpongeG]

why don't they just spin it and say they want people out of their cars?
thats what vancouver does they make driving in the city hell for drivers and say if you want it better get out of your car and use transit

[ue]

Originally Posted by lubicon

According to the City of Calgary, our DT workforce is around 145 000.

Both Edmonton and Calgary have LRT to their major universities, football facilities, hockey arena's etc. U of A is bigger than U of C, but we are connected to SAIT, NAIT is not (yet).

There's also MacEwan which should be getting LRT soon and really isn't that far currently from LRT. Presently, I'm sure the Calgary educational population is around the same as Edmonton's (which is supported with just the UofA directly), but once NAIT and MacEwan get hooked up in the next few years, that may be different. Per capita, I'm sure more of our riders are students, but for you guys it's probably more per capita (& raw) for business.

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

Edmonton LRT still needs a link to WEM, a major tourism and employment node.

Yes, this area being apart of the LRT network will be a huge boost to the LRT considering I'd assume there'd be a heck of a lot of tourist going between Downtown (some shopping, AGA, festivals, dining, Winspear, Citadel, Legislature Grounds, and maybe in the near-future the Warehouse District) and WEM (shopping, some dining, Waterpark, GalaxyLand).

[240glt]

^ I think you underestimate the tourist draw of WEM. I know so many people, especially from the BC interior, who make a holiday of driving to Jasper, then to WEM, then home. Many of those people either stay at the hotels either in the mall or adjascent, or what's even more popular is for them to bring their travel trailers or 5th 'wheels and camp in Japser, then camp at one of the many campgrounds west of the city and just go to WEM. Most of those people will never drive into the city but if there was an LRT connection (and the right marketing campaign was put in place) a lot of those people would take day trips into the city to visit the other attractions here.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

^ But there's the other visitors who are here for business (or pleasure), who will stay at the downtown high-end hotels (Hotel Mac, Westin, Sutton, etc) but will want to go check out WEM.

[ue]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^ I think you underestimate the tourist draw of WEM. I know so many people, especially from the BC interior, who make a holiday of driving to Jasper, then to WEM, then home. Many of those people either stay at the hotels either in the mall or adjascent, or what's even more popular is for them to bring their travel trailers or 5th 'wheels and camp in Japser, then camp at one of the many campgrounds west of the city and just go to WEM. Most of those people will never drive into the city but if there was an LRT connection (and the right marketing campaign was put in place) a lot of those people would take day trips into the city to visit the other attractions here.

How am I underestimating it? I said it would be a huge boost as there could easily be a huge amount of tourists going between the two biggest tourist spots in the city.

[240glt]

^^ Undoubtedly, but I'd say if we're talking purely tourist traffic, the volume of tourists staying in the outlying areas travelling in would far suppass the tourist traffic going out.

^I agree, I'm saying that WEM is already a huge draw, without any kind of direct connection to other parts of the city, which most of those travellers tend not to visit. But there is a huge draw to that mall, and I think if we're talking about tourist traffic on the LRT, a link to WEM would benefit the city far more than it would benefit WEM.

[ue]

^I agree. It would get more people to try out the downtown attractions and contribute to the vibrancy of that neighbourhood easy. The numbers (from wherever they originate) would take a HUGE boost to ridership #'s though.

[artvandelay]

Is a line to WEM already planned? I think it would be a good idea, all of our major malls except Market Mall are adjacent to a C-Train line, and it's nice to avoid the hassle of finding parking at Chinook.

Congrats on the new stations BTW, they look really nice!

[Xelebes]

A plan for a line to WEM and Millwoods was approved this year. Only a plan yet. They have the LRT to NAIT to get around to.

[espalorius]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^^ Undoubtedly, but I'd say if we're talking purely tourist traffic, the volume of tourists staying in the outlying areas travelling in would far suppass the tourist traffic going out.

^I agree, I'm saying that WEM is already a huge draw, without any kind of direct connection to other parts of the city, which most of those travellers tend not to visit. But there is a huge draw to that mall, and I think if we're talking about tourist traffic on the LRT, a link to WEM would benefit the city far more than it would benefit WEM.

i gotta disagree - i cant picture the type of people that drive to edm from hours and hours away to primarily spend $$$ at WEM, leaving their vehicles behind to take the train to downtown
i think their style of trip is more concerned about finding good deals & stocking up on shit. it seems more of a service type of trip, not too leisurely

obviously some would be attracted to the idea of going into the city, i just dont think it would make up a majority of these people - too me, theyre not tourists in the traditional sense

in terms of tourists, i feel lrt to WEM would primarily serve the tourists staying in the 2 wem hotels and the ones staying downtown (looking for a cheesy afternoon getaway)

[Coldrsx]

^concur.

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by espalorius

i gotta disagree - i cant picture the type of people that drive to edm from hours and hours away to primarily spend $$$ at WEM, leaving their vehicles behind to take the train to downtown
i think their style of trip is more concerned about finding good deals & stocking up on shit. it seems more of a service type of trip, not too leisurely

obviously some would be attracted to the idea of going into the city, i just dont think it would make up a majority of these people - too me, theyre not tourists in the traditional sense

in terms of tourists, i feel lrt to WEM would primarily serve the tourists staying in the 2 wem hotels and the ones staying downtown (looking for a cheesy afternoon getaway)

Yup.

When I used to work at a lighting store we would get people coming in from the territories, sask and northern bc buying stuff. It was always a pain in the ass loading up thier vehicles as they were packed full of all sorts of bulk items.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by espalorius

i gotta disagree - i cant picture the type of people that drive to edm from hours and hours away to primarily spend $$$ at WEM, leaving their vehicles behind to take the train to downtown
i think their style of trip is more concerned about finding good deals & stocking up on shit. it seems more of a service type of trip, not too leisurely

obviously some would be attracted to the idea of going into the city, i just dont think it would make up a majority of these people - too me, theyre not tourists in the traditional sense

in terms of tourists, i feel lrt to WEM would primarily serve the tourists staying in the 2 wem hotels and the ones staying downtown (looking for a cheesy afternoon getaway)

You're quite wrong, probably the result of the myopia that you and many others on this site suffer with regards to sections of the city that are not central or "urban"

WEM is a tourist destination, not a CO-OP. Many, Many people drag their families there on vacation, and many drive there as part of a Jasper holiday, as I said. Practically everyone has been to WEM, and most of the tourists that go there are not there specifically for shopping. Most of those people have everything they need for holidays at the mall and won't go anywhere else... the LRT could provide a lot of exposure to areas fo the rest of the city that tourists @ WEM don't go to now.

[Coldrsx]

"the LRT could provide a lot of exposure to areas fo the rest of the city that tourists @ WEM don't go to now."

sure... but from my experiences most people who stay downtown head to wem and those who arent downtown do not come downtown, LRT or not.

[240glt]

And a lot more people stay out side of downtown than they do in the centre of the city. And you can't say "LRT or not" because it's just "not" at this point.

All I am saying is that the LRT to WEM could bring a lot more tourists to other parts of the city than they go to now, because of the ease & convenience factors.

[Coldrsx]

^I would concur it would be very beneficial to have, but our downtown needs far more 'attraction(s)' to draw people.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

A plan for a line to WEM and Millwoods was approved this year. Only a plan yet. They have the LRT to NAIT to get around to.

this one also just needs the money to go right?

it would be awesome if NLRT and W/SELRT were worked on at the same time leaving an extremely large amount of LRT openings in a short period.

[240glt]

^ This is not about downtown. This is about LRT connections to outlying areas of the city, which will undoubtedly be beneficial to downtown, but to all other areas as well, and in the WLRT 's case will provide many options to tourists who now just stay at or around the mall.

[espalorius]

Originally Posted by 240glt

You're quite wrong, probably the result of the myopia that you and many others on this site suffer with regards to sections of the city that are not central or "urban"

WEM is a tourist destination, not a CO-OP. Many, Many people drag their families there on vacation, and many drive there as part of a Jasper holiday, as I said. Practically everyone has been to WEM, and most of the tourists that go there are not there specifically for shopping. Most of those people have everything they need for holidays at the mall and won't go anywhere else... the LRT could provide a lot of exposure to areas fo the rest of the city that tourists @ WEM don't go to now.

oh just to clear things up - i agree that WEM obviously draws a lot of tourists from far away places & that with an LRT connection it would expand a lot of those tourist's plans...

i just dont think that a family from grande prairie coming to do christmas shopping in edmonton in november would take a side trip anywhere outside WEM or SEC (lrt or not) - AND that's the type of family/trip i thought you were referring to in your original post

Yup.

When I used to work at a lighting store we would get people coming in from the territories, sask and northern bc buying stuff. It was always a pain in the ass loading up thier vehicles as they were packed full of all sorts of bulk items.

yeah, i meet tons of people from northernBC and AB coming down here - but they're almost always the type that wouldnt venture outside WEM (or the Native Casino haha) - definitely not the type that would enjoy a stroll down Jasper

okay - were all even steven

haha, did i just type even ste...

[espalorius]

oh yeah, coldrfx
i think it was earlier in this thread i asked about the #of dt workers, well according to the downtown plan (you posted in the main edm thread), it's 67000 (p342/355)
so I HOPE that during the main school terms, that increases by what, 10k-15k, cuz of MU (whoa, 1st time i came across this: i mean grant mac)