Tonight’s speakers will be Lane Petrosenko from Edmonton, Alberta and Mark Walton of Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) and cover traction in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Lane's presentation covers the history of streetcars (and interurbans) in the Edmonton area, with focus on the overall history, roster, routes, and infrastructure of the Edmonton Radial Railway. He will also briefly touch on the Edmonton Radial Railway Society. Mark will cover the modern-day operations in Edmonton and Calgary with images he took at the ERA/Canadian Transit Heritage Foundation’s (CTHF) 2024 Convention. Edmonton and Calgary along with San Diego, pioneered the late 1970s/early 1980s North American revolution from trolley service to modern light rail.
Lane Petrosenko is an avid railfan and railway historian with special interests in light rail, railway infrastructure, and abandoned railways. He has been a member of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society since 2019, where he volunteers in many positions such as head of archives, chief inspector, motorman, and social media. Lane is one of our newest and youngest ERA members.
Mark Walton is a long-time resident of Ottawa, having worked for the federal Public Services and Procurement Canada for 42 years until retirement in 2024. Mark was Canadian News Editor for Transit News Canada magazine from1982-1990. Mark has traveled widely throughout Canada, visiting all of their systems with electrified public transit. Besides the 2024 CTHF/ERA Convention cited above, Mark has covered the last runs of Winnipeg trolleybuses (1970), first generation of new trains through Montreal's Mount Royal Tunnel (1995), the opening of Vancouver's Canada Line (2009), and Ottawa's Confederation Line (2019). Mark is a member of the Canadian Transit Heritage Foundation (CTHF), which co-sponsored ERA’s 2024 Convention in Edmonton and Calgary.
