While the much-beleaguered Valley Line has taken a lion’s share of attention around Edmonton’s LRT of late, crews have been quietly working on another extension — to the city’s northwest.

This one will incorporate Edmonton’s sustainable community also under construction at the old site of the municipal airport — Blatchford.

The 1.6-kilometre addition to the Metro Line is coming in at a cost of $290 million. Construction on extending the line from NAIT to Blatchford started in summer 2020.

“It looks like an LRT now,” said Bruce Ferguson, the City of Edmonton’s branch manager of LRT expansion.

“Fundamentally most of the infrastructure is there, the track is there, the stations are well underway. They’re actually just installing solar PV (photo-voltaic) panels on the stations this week.”

The Metro Line northwest expansion is set to happen in three phases.

• Phase 1 – NAIT to Blatchford (Under Construction)
• Phase 2 – Blatchford to Castle Downs (funded for land acquisition)
• Phase 3 – Castle Downs to Campbell Road

While eventually the Metro Line is will run to Campbell Road near St. Albert, the Phase 1 extension will add two stops: another one at NAIT and a second stop inside Blatchford.

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