Trains to and from Edmonton International Airport (YEG)

Edmonton International Airport is among the busiest airports in Canada, and is located to the south of the city, along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. It has the IATA code of YEG, and is served by a large number of prominent airline carriers. The airport also serves a catchment area of around 1.8 million people. It is well equipped with a variety of facilities, and there are ground transport options available. However, there is no Edmonton International Airport train station for passengers, as Vancouver Airport is the only airport in Canada with its own railway station. Although no airport train station, passengers can connect to the light rail system of the city, and from the Edmonton train station, long-distance trains to various destinations are available.

Passengers arriving at Edmonton International Airport will either enter the South or North Terminal, depending on the origin of their flight, and will find plenty of shops, restaurants, bank machines, restrooms and other facilities at their disposal. On the arrivals level, which is on the ground floor of the terminal buildings, passengers will find the Ground Transportation Office, a taxi rank and bus stops for the various buses which serve the airport. There is however, no airport train station. The buses which serve the airport include the EIA Express Route 747, the SkyShuttle, hotel shuttles and various resort shuttles, similar to the ones operated by Sundog Tours. The EIA Express Route 747 is the bus to catch for connections to the Edmonton Light Rail Transit System, as it travels to the Century Park Transit Centre. The bus is operated in partnership with ETS (Edmonton Transit System), and is a new service for the airport. A one way trip is $5.00, and monthly passes can be purchased for $100.00.

The LRT of Edmonton, or the city’s Light Rail Transit system, is used by over 90,000 people per day, and is a very useful way of travelling between many areas in the city. The route is referred to as 201, and begins at Clareview in the north eastern area of the city and ends at Century Park in the south, which is closer to the Edmonton International Airport. The railway track is about 21 kilometres in length, and passes through fifteen stations. Track 1 generally carries trains heading north to Clareview, and Track 2 is generally used for trains heading south. The LRT of Edmonton has been in existence since 1978, and Edmonton was also the first city in North America to begin construction of a light rail system when its population was under a million.

The stations of the LRT include Clareview with a park and ride area for over a thousand vehicles, Belvedere (park and ride with 780 spaces), Coliseum, Stadium (park and ride with 468 spaces), Churchill, Central, Bay/Enterprise Square, Corona, Grandin/Government Square, University, Health Sciences/Jubilee, McKernan/Belgravia, South Campus, Southgate and Century Park, also with a park and ride facility. The distance between each station is between a minute and five minutes. Many of the stations have public washroom facilities and bank machines able to provide $10 and $20 bills. In the future, the light rail system of Edmonton will also be expanded to include a number of new areas, for example, the Mill Woods Town Centre, the Jasper Place Transit Centre and West Edmonton Mall.

Passengers using the Edmonton trains will need to purchase a ticket from one of the fare vending machines at the stations. The ticket will then need to be validated at one of the bright orange ticket validating machines before boarding the train. Passengers will need to keep their validated ticket for the duration of their journey. At present, the cash fare for buses and trains in Edmonton is $3.00 for adults. Children under the age of five travel for free, provided that they are accompanied by a fare-paying adult. Passengers could also purchase books of transit tickets, day passes and monthly transit passes, should they be using the city’s transport services more often. It is often cheaper to buy tickets in larger quantities, or to buy monthly passes. Once a single ticket has been validated, it can be used for up to ninety minutes. The tickets are also valid on the city buses and the light rail vehicles. However, passengers travelling by bus to Century Park from Edmonton International Airport cannot use their ticket for transport on the trains or on further bus connections. Another transport ticket will need to be purchased for additional travel.

The main Edmonton Train Station is located at 12360-121 Street NW, just north of the Trans-Canada Highway, or the Yellowhead Trail Highway. It is also just north of the Edmonton Municipal Airport and Price Rupert, and south of Lauderdale, approximately eight to ten kilometres from the downtown bus terminal area. The station is equipped with car rental services, telephones and washrooms, and baggage carts are available. There is also a taxi rank at the station. The station is accessible to passengers in wheelchairs. VIA Rail Canada provides many train routes from all major cities in the country, including Edmonton. One of the longest is from Toronto to Vancouver. In addition to Edmonton Train Station, another train station nearby is the Jasper Train Station. A number of stations are then found in British Columbia, to the west of Alberta.

Further information regarding train travel in Canada can be found on VIA Rail Canada’s website, at http://www.viarail.ca. Information regarding the LRT of Edmonton can be found at http://www.edmonton.ca. Although there is no Edmonton International Airport train station, passengers will find plenty of public transport options in the city, and can travel by train to all areas of Canada from the city train stations.