Tariff threat colours city's train-replacement options, transit watcher says
The City of Edmonton is set to replace 37 high-floor LRT vehicles by 2029 that run on the Capital and Metro lines, including some that have been in use since the system opened in 1978. One transit expert said, given the state of the world and the shortlist of options, there's now a clear best choice.
In February, the city provided its shortlist of three vendors to contract to replace the trains — Siemens Mobility Limited from Germany, the Hyundai Rotem Corporation from South Korea, and Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. from Spain.
Until United States President Donald Trump threatened Canada with tariffs, Reece Martin, a Toronto-based transit enthusiast who talks all things transit on his popular YouTube channel and as a writer, told Taproot that he might have suggested Siemens as the best option.
But because Siemens builds its LRT vehicles in the U.S., Hyundai, which builds its trains in Korea, is potentially best fit for the contract, he said.
"I don't want to give a company that's building stuff in America money today," Martin said. "Edmonton has just ordered some low-floor vehicles from Hyundai for the Valley Line, for the second phase, and Vancouver has some trains from Hyundai. They've been very reliable. They're basic, but high quality."
Regardless of which trains are chosen, the Capital and Metro lines are overdue for new vehicles. Edmonton Transit Service branch manager, Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, previously told Taproot that some parts are no longer manufactured for these trains. The transit service has resorted to asking Calgary for spare parts from its own high-floor trains and making its own from scratch.
The city expects to awards a contract worth up to $240 million for 37 replacement LRT vehicles by late 2025 and potentially add up to 16 more vehicles to meet needs for planned line extensions. The vehicles should arrive in 2028 and 2029. The trains being replaced are Siemens–Duewag U2 models, and some have been running since 1978. The 57 newer Siemens SD-160 trains will not be replaced.
Edmonton is somewhat unique in that it now has both high- and low-floor LRT in operation. In the past, the city has explained the appeal of low-floor LRT technology, including that it's quieter, its stations can be built closer together with less infrastructure, and can be more easily integrated into communities.
As low-floor LRT gains popularity here (and in Calgary, with the Green Line) Martin said he's heard some suggest high-floor LRT is obsolete. That's wrong, he said. He recently wrote a post that outlined the continued relevance of high-floor LRT, and uses Edmonton and Calgary as examples of where it works.
"It just doesn't make sense for (high floor) to go away," Martin said. "It would be like saying 'Tables are going away or chairs are going away.' It's a simpler technology, and there's already hundreds of stations around the world and pieces of infrastructure that are designed to use it."
