Quote:
Originally Posted by psicodude
I agree with one of the posts a few pages prior. Make the developers cough up for a larger chunk of the initial costs of getting infrastructure to new neighbourhoods.
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Failing that, recover the money from the people who bought the homes at subsidized prices, but slowly and over time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by toonmaster
1. I dont agree with increasing the density in the beltline, Kensington & Eau Claire. I think the city needs to increase the density around the LRT hubs/stations that are out away from the core. Have a bunch of high density pockets throughout the city where residents can walk to the station in 10-15 minutes. Not low rise apartment buildings, but along the size of the London towers at Heritage, larger if possible and more then 2 or 3 towers at each station, 10-15 would be a more appropriate number.
2. The LRT needs to be upgraded. 4 car trains, and expansion of the platorms (the majority of the stations can already handle this expansion, there are a few platforms that can't). More lines are needed but more lines = more problems downtown = more delays
5. A downtown tunnel would be nice, but for the next 50 years it wont happen. Unless they are going to bury it in the bedrock that is 30-40 meters deep, the soil wont handle it. The deeper you go, the more expensive it gets. They also have to integrate it with the current system which has a standards at the slopes these trains can handle, so you cant bury it too deep. It is one heck of a problem to get this downtown tunnel to become a reality.
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The problems with point #1 are point #2 and point #3. If you're 15 minutes from Heritage station and work downtown, you're still about 45 minutes away from work. And you still have to ride the LRT which is insanely busy (cue the videos from Japan, but everyday I get on at Anderson and see people who can't get on the trains from Southland onwards). Furthermore, they're already maxing out the throughput capacity of the 7th avenue corridor downton, so as transit ridership increases it'll only get worse. In fact, I could rapidly see this becoming a major deterrent for people who are thinking about living in a community like London, as not only are the trains packed, but they're also slowed down because they have no buffer between trains to keep them moving independently of each other.
The only solutions are increasing the length of the cars (which can only be done up to four cars), seperating the two lines onto seperate roads (worst possible idea ever), elevating the C-train, or burying it.
Calgary's LRT ridership is
up 50% from 2001. Going to four cars would only increase capacity 33%, with no further room to expand. That's why we need a subway underground, and we need it as soon as possible.