March 25, 2024 Update:
The City of Edmonton sought public feedback on three seating options for future LRT trains for the Capital and Metro lines from March 7 - March 19, 2014.
The results of these public engagement opportunities will help inform ETS about the optimal seating layout for the new LRT trains. The results will be analyzed by the project team and published in a publicly available What We Heard report in Spring 2024.
LRT Train Procurement
Proactive fleet renewal helps ensure long-term service reliability. In addition, the LRT line expansion projects approved by City Council will require significant growth in the LRT fleet in the coming years.
The City is initiating a procurement order for up to 53 LRT trains. Approximately 37 will replace existing LRT trains that have been in operation for more than 40 years, and currently serve the Capital and Metro Lines. An additional 16 LRT trains will be procured to accommodate service growth. The seating layout of the new trains will be determined in late 2024 when the trains are ordered. It is expected the new LRT trains will start arriving and entering service in the next four-five years.
Accessibility Features
Each of the new LRT trains will have these enhanced accessibility features:
Priority seating
- 10% of seats will be priority
- Clearly labelled
- Moveable armrests
- No seat pedestals, so much more room under the seat
- Dedicated wheelchair spaces
Door functionality will be different
- Doors illuminate when released and opened
- Each door plays an audio tone to help riders locate it, similar to the Valley Line Southeast
On board announcements
- Volume automatically adjusts to ambient noise
Passenger alarms
- Passengers do not need to move more than five metres to activate an alarm
- Alarms located in every wheelchair area
- Touch strips will have a different texture and contrasting colour from the surrounding area
Three Seating Options
Each of the three layout options being considered by ETS has been used by LRT trains in other major cities. The seating layout that ETS ultimately selects would be the same for all future LRT trains.
The guiding principles that will be used to select the best LRT seating layout are:
- accessibility
- capacity
- comfort
- safety
Option 1 - Current Seating Layout
The current seating layout on the Capital and Metro LRT trains incorporates two different layouts:
- Seating in the front and back of the LRT train is arranged face-to-face (crosswise from the walls);
- Seating in the middle of the LRT train that runs along the walls (longitudinal seating).
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|
|
Option 2 - All Seating Along the Wall
All seating would run along the side walls of the LRT train (longitudinal seating throughout the LRT train).
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|
|
Option 3 - Hybrid seating layout
This option includes two types of seating layouts:
- Seating in the front and back of each train is arranged facing the centre of the LRT train (crosswise from the walls);
- Seating in the middle of the LRT train that runs along the walls (longitudinal seating).
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|
|