Edmonton Transit Service Belvedere LRT Station

Belvedere Station is the original terminus station of Edmonton's original LRT line. The station opened with the rest of the NE LRT line on April 23, 1978. The area surrounding Belvedere didn't seem too complete however! From pictures from the time, the new Belvedere Transit Centre wasn't completed yet, so there was a temporary multi-platform gravel bus terminal south of 129 Ave, and East of the LRT tracks. Initially, 129 Ave doesn't even appear complete, and there is only crossbucks, no grade crossing signals at all, requiring a flagperson to protect the crossing the trains.
The station itself was also quite simple. It was a single track, featuring a street level entrance. The platform was only 3 cars long, and initially wasn't even built the full width for a future second track. A metal wall protected the side where a second track would eventually go. Shelter facilities on the platform consisted of standard bus shelters, as well as seemingly some custom shelters for that station. At the time, with only a single crossover immediately south of 129 Ave, Belvedere couldn't really make use of the track if it was there.
Fortunately, the station would see some upgrades pretty early on, necessitated certainly by the extension to Clareview which would require the second track. The platform was expanded to it's full width, the wall removed, and the bus shelters replaced with a custom shelter structure.
Belvedere had originally been built as a temporary station, intended to be replaced by something permanent in the future. That future came in 1997 when the existing station was demolished and the new station built.
To facilitate this, a temporary station was built to the West, between the Southbound ETS track, and CN's Vegreville Subdivision mainline. This temporary station utilized the shelter structure from the Belvedere platform, relocated to ground level, as a shelter and ticketing area, while a wooden platform was built to access the trains. Because of this construction, the LRT was single tracked which necessiated a reduction in frequency. To compensate, ETS began running 4 car trains in service for the first time. This was made possible by the temporary Belvedere being built as a 4 car platform.

During 1997-1998 the

Original Station
Edmonton Transit 1032 northbound at the original Belvedere. September 1987	Original "Flying E" signage.
Temporary Station/ New Station Construction
The original entrance was used by the construction crews during the building of the new station. 1998	Construction on the new station. 1998	New pedestrian overpass spanning CN And ETS tracks. 1998	Construction on the new platform and station.	Temporary platform, seen from the walkway behind it. 1998
Temporary platfrom. The red markers are berthing markers for trains.	A train crossing over back to the Northbound track, as seen from the temporary platform. 1998	The new platform nearing completion. 1998	The new platform nearing completion. 1998	New catenary installed. 1998
Station building nearing completion. 1998	The new platform is now open, and the temporary platform is being dismantled so that this side of the station can be finished. 1998	Ramp up to the former temporary platform. 1998	Dismantling the temporary platform. 1998
Current Station
Belvedere Entrance from south of 129 Ave 2003	Belvedere entrances seen from the Park'n Ride lot west of the tracks. 2003	Belvedere platform looking northeast. 2004	Original fare collection equipment before the introduction of the Cubic equipment.	Looking north, as a SD160 on testing enters the station. January 26, 2009
Looking towards Clareview Station. January 27, 2009	Looking towards Clareview Station. September 7, 2010	Work being performed on the directional signage. Likely being replaced with the LED VMS equipment. June 26, 2013	New VMS signs, complete with the early programming that included graphics of a train. December 15, 2014	Looking towards Clareview with the sun just starting to raise. September 10, 2015
Early morning sun as a train arrives at Belvedere. July 22, 2016