North leg of LRT to be shut down over long weekend

A major leg of the LRT is being shut down this long weekend for repairs, and that's bad news for thousands of Edmontonians who were planning to hitch a ride to Sonic Boom, a major outdoor rock concert at Northlands.

As of 7pm friday night, this north leg of the line will be closed. From Churchill to Clareview, major upgrades will be performed throughout the long weekend.

"We needed a time frame where we could do some of the civil work on the LRT upgrades." Phil Therrien, LRT Operations Supervisor said Friday.

The payoff will be huge, as capacity will be increased, just in time for the university and college rush.

"We can't increase headways with trains, so we need to increase the size of the trains, and to do that we need more power." Therrien told Global News. "Without this upgrade we can't do that, so once we're finished we'll be able to run five car trains instead of four car trains."

The upgrades are part of federal infrastructure money needed to be spent prior to march next year, and this long weekend was the best time left to do it.

"If we didn't do it this long weekend, it would mean that we'd have to shut down the line for two weekends, which we'd want to avoid." said Therrien.

People attending events this weekend, like the Sonic Boom concert at Northlands, will have to adjust their travel plans accordingly.

"Obviously we would like to have the LRT running at full capacity." Dave Johnson, The Union Marketing Director said Friday. "However Edmonton Transit has assured us they will have ample bus service at the LRT stations to accommodate traffic coming in. They know it's a big event."

The north LRT leg will be back to normal Tuesday morning.