Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazrim
Wow. What a persuasive, convincing argument. What's been successful? What evidence do you have that Calgary is successfully running 7th Ave without headway delays due to mechanical, weather, or people incidents? Have you even taken the train through downtown before?
How does that make any sense? Once you build the line, all the focus will be on expansion to the north. No one will want to spend money burying it afterwards at an even higher cost, and we'll stuck with the legacy of that short-sighted decision making. It's a poison pill decision that would probably impact the green line forever.
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The current plans ensure that the 7th Ave issues you list will persist for another half century.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazrim
That doesn't explain how a 3rd line will somehow fit on 7th Avenue without creating a litany of problems.
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It wouldn't for very long. That's why you build the 8th Ave subway ASAP.
8th Ave benefits:
- reduces red line from 4/5 DT stops to 3. much faster and more sensible for today's ridership patterns, particularly for the line with the highest through-ridership
- reduces all the conflicts you list making Calgary's busiest line even faster
- frees up 7th for most efficient use (maybe even frees up capacity to run busses again)
N-S tunnel benefits:
- connects the lines by giving you the privilege of spending even more money to build a bridge through your nicest DT park
- precludes running at-grade through the beltline even though this is really a separate choice to make the tunnel more expensive
underground stations have both pros/cons, but you're going underground one way or the other. A little drawback to moving the red line is that the free fare zone becomes less convenient, and line transfers aren't as easy from a mobility standpoint (which again will exist for either tunnel).
But running the SE on 7th is effectively dead (which is fine). But that doesn't mean you have to build a GL tunnel. You can still get the SE to the core of DT much cheaper than currently planned. Same for the North. it just makes it a little harder (but still not impossible) to connect them. Even though the current plan requires an expensive bridge and demolishing a bunch of condos in the midst of a housing crisis (you might have to expropriate a surface parking lot to make them connect, but even that isn't really necessary as the whole point of the LF trains is the tight turning radius!)