The new Century Park light rail transit station, one of Edmonton's two new LRT stations. (Courtesy of the City of Edmonton)

Hundreds of commuters packed the platforms at Edmonton's two new light rail transit stations on Saturday as the city's LRT expansion officially opened to the public.

The two new stations, Southgate and Century Park, mean Edmontonians can now travel into downtown from the south end of town in just over 20 minutes.

"These two new LRT stations will go a long way to improve the quality of life for Edmontonians and visitors, and give them easy access to places like the University of Alberta, hospitals and downtown offices," Premier Ed Stelmach said at the opening.

"The ability to quickly and efficiently move people around is a hallmark of a modern city and is the way of the future."

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel was one of the first passengers on board.

"This is a very exciting day for Edmontonians," he said.

"Opening this line helps us maximize our ability to move our citizens effectively while minimizing our environmental impact. The new stations make the connection between the communities of the north and south and are an important step towards connecting our entire city with an integrated transit system."

Mandel said the new stretch of track is only the beginning as the city plans to extend the LRT even further.

"It doesn't do us much good to build it piecemeal," he said.

"You just can't get any momentum, you can't get ridership, so the real key to this is finding a way to do it in large chunks, and the large chunk would be from the southeast, to the west and to the north."

The total budget for the expansion was $690 million.

Officials estimate further expansion of the LRT will cost around $1 billion.

Mandel said the city will need money from the provincial and federal governments to make that happen.