CANADA: The first of the 46 seven-section light rail vehicles that Hyundai Rotem is supplying for the Valley Line West project has arrived in Edmonton.
The city announced on August 6 that there were 16 vehicles at various stages of manufacturing at Hyundai Rotem’s Changwon plant in South Korea.
The low-floor light rail vehicles were ordered at the end of 2021 and will complement the current fleet of 26 Alstom-built vehicles used on the existing section of the Calley Line. Deliveries to Edmonton are scheduled to continue into 2027.
The LRVs will be put into service on Edmonton’s 14 km, C$2·6bn Valley Line West project. This is the second phase of a 27 km cross-city route. The Hyundai Rotem cars are expected to operate over both sections of the line linking Mill Woods and Lewis Farms. The Valley Line Southeast section of the route opened in November 2023.
The first vehicle underwent extensive testing before being shipped in two sections. Upon arrival in Edmonton, it will undergo final assembly, with testing and commissioning on the Valley Line Southeast tracks to follow.
The LRV was shipped from Changwon on July 1 and arrived at the port of Tacoma in the USA on July 20. From there it was transported by truck to the Gerry Wright Operations & Maintenance Facility in southeast Edmonton.
‘This LRV is a part of where we’re headed as a city. As Edmonton grows towards 2 million people, Valley Line West will change how we move, how we build, and how we connect with one another’, said Brian Latte, Director for the Valley Line West project at Edmonton municipality.
