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Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed
The question still remains - what is the best solution for long term needs? Long term, the option they were going with was needed.
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But there are also short to mid-term considerations too.
With Stage 1 reduced in area so much, there's no longer any understanding of how spending more money there affects the more distant areas. How does spending $2B more in the DT affect the timeline for service to reach 64th Av and Panorama Hills, two key stations for the North? Don't forget, the major business case for the Green Line to go directly to trains was that bus capacity growth was limited on Centre Street N.
Building the DT Green Line to have high capacity for 50+ years in the future means that the transit riders on Centre Street N have to suffer with overcrowded buses for several more decades. That needs to be acknowledged in the cost-benefit analysis.
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Sure some surface system on 12th before it goes underground to get under CPKC could work. It would save some money, with some downsides. (level crossing on McLeod, reduced traffic capacity on main roads in the beltline). The city studied all of these options, and made the best decision.
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Made the best decision based on known costs and challenges in 2015-2017, but with a very thin margin for error. In this CBC article from 2016, Pete Demong makes a very relevant observation:
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"The underground option is, more than likely and from everything I've read, the best option," he said.
"But just because it's the best option, if we can't afford it, when we look at the entire line or at least a good portion of line in its entirety, what's the point of making something, if you can't make it a usable option?"
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...iple-1.3791357
The margin has already been exceed, since the northern portion of the tunnel has already been downgraded to a bridge and at-grade track to the 16th Av Station.
May be in such a situation, where there is no easy answer and not everyone will be happy whatever is decided, instead of leaving it to engineers, technocrats or councillors, leave it to the voters in a plebiscite. Let them choose to build the best possible DT core at the cost of reach, build the cheapest possible line, build a good DT core to the SE, or build a good DT core to the NC.