Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings....umentId=131775
Read through the assessment report. I still dont think they made the correct decision at the time with the information in the report. The North LRT south BRT is better yet in the ranking they hammer it. It was 1 billion cheaper at the time and because of the limited tunnel and bridge scope (bridge ran down center st).
One egregious example of a plain to see error is in the Cost section for A2 they say the north segment will cost 8 million per year and the south section will cost 28 million per year opex. (A2 is 16th to Shepard B1 is North BRT / South BRT). Then for B1 the operation costs for North BRT is 56 million. Based on the alignments those costs should be in the same ballpark. It appears they didn’t include the costs for the existing North BRT system in the considerations.
This is a report written to justify a selection it is not a dispassionate evaluation.
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The only thing to me from that evaluation that would make the NCLRT/SELRT unpalatable is how would the NC terminus in downtown actually fit on centre street by 7th Ave? The proposed two car length stations I feel wouldn't be able to fit the N/S blocks along that area. Closing off an entire major E-W road there is a deal-breaker. I'm okay with the green line being on ground crossing MacLeod in the Beltline since it doesn't close the road, but closing 6th Ave at Centre? Nah. So they would have to tunnel/elevate still.
But I agree with your assessment that it felt these studies were done with a thumb firmly on the scale to justify the full tunnel of downtown. The other study posted in here by accord from 2016 (
https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings....ocumentId=8291) was comparing the downtown alignment options was heavily biased against the elevated option, although it actually ranked comparatively close to the hybrid option (at grade Beltline, tunnel 2nd Street, bridge over Prince's Island, at grade on Centre for 9th Ave station, underground 16th ave) and the bridge & tunnel option (still mostly same as hybrid, but centre street is fully tunneled to 16th ave), it never got any overall star rankings for any of the categories.
The only criticism for that option that I was seeing was "elevated is aesthetically unappealing", "blocks out the sky." But costs rankins, train service, and deliverability were favorable for it. If they made those weighted more, and "community wellbeing" items weighted less, it likely would've been the best or second best option of the bunch.
The city really, really wanted their tunnel. Now they may get nothing at all. But hey, at least 2 Street will see the blue skies. It's what the city is know for after all.