Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
I think the exciting thing is that an LRT down Centre Street can really rejuvenate that area. Transit-Oriented Development will make that a great corridor for people to live in and around. Besides, it's flanked by neighbourhoods on both sides with higher population density. Chu's idea of Edmonton Trail is stupid because it goes completely out of the way from where most people are logically going to commute from.
Seriously though, I think they should just pony up the money if possible and make it one giant loop connected to Whitehorn via Country hills Boulevard, and pass through the airport as an official stop. But that's my pipe dream.
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It *can* be, but one look at 36th St NE, with the C Train running down the center of it, you realize that the train can also split the neighbourhood in two. A big set of tracks going down the center of the road, with the overhead wires, and a fence keeping people from crossing the road, could kill the neighbourhood just as quickly as a nice, off to the side station like the one in Sunnyside, can rejuvenate it. Add to the fact that fewer cars will be using a two lane road, reducing non-peak usership, and parking possibilities (always more difficult to have a parking lot entrance crossing a pair of tracks), and this could kill a thriving street. The only real way that Center Street will work well, is if the busiest parts of that street are a subway, which will increase costs substantially, reducing the liklihood this line will be built in a timely manner.
Edmonton Trail, however, while an up and coming street, is lined by very low-end crappy housing, that can't be easily retrofitted to a commercial street. That is a street that would be easy to buy property to build a proper side of the street train line with minimal reduction in lanes or traffic. This street could use a big pick-me-up in terms of retailers and businesses. And it really is only 2 blocks away from Center Street, with the biggest divide being closest to downtown - the area with the lowest transit using population. I can't figure out why everyone thinks Edmonton Trail is such a poor option, in my mind it is a clearly better one. Especially if the plan includes a Center Street tram in addition to a LRT people mover down Edmonton.
I REALLY hope the city planners at the city of Calgary have plans in place to mitigate these issues with a Center Street north alignment. They had better be on their A game, or they could theoretically muck everything in the area up.