Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius
I am kind of surprised that an elevated track, eg) Vancouver, wouldn’t be less intrusive and cheaper than tearing up Centre St.
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Building an elevated track would still require tearing up Centre Street and losing a couple of lanes of traffic for the support pillars. Also, the pillars are so close together that you can't really use the space between them for anything meaningful.
At ground level, the support structures for the tracks are ugly and any efforts to make them less-ugly is costly and would just be adding lipstick to a pig. Everything also casts significant shadows.
Elevated stations would require elevators and maybe escalators to the platforms, which would need to be protected from the elements and are expensive to buy, install, and maintain. You also need safety measures to prevent people from falling or jumping off the platform. Ground level stations are basically a really big bus stop. With the low-floor trains, the platform isn't much higher than a sidewalk.