Quote:
Originally Posted by Temporary_User
Could you explain the 8th Ave subway a bit? This is the first I've heard about it.
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I'll just copy/paste an old post that covers this, as well as the route the future SE line will use downtown.
Underground LRT History
When the LRT was first planned in the early to mid 70s, having it run under 8th Avenue downtown was plan A, and the surface transit mall along 7th Avenue was plan B. When costs started to escalate in the later planning stages, 7th Avenue was chosen, but not before some facilities under City Hall (specifically, the shell of an underground station) had been constructed when the new City Hall was constructed.
In the years since, it was planned that eventually at least one of the LRT lines would have to move under 8th Avenue as 7th Avenue approached capacity. Every new building along 8th Avenue has had to take this into account, and every time there has been utility work in the area, they have moved as many utilities as possible to make way for the eventual 8th Avenue Subway. For example, there is a space in the lower levels of the Banker's Hall complex that is currently being used as an auditorium but is actually a placeholder for the tunnel and/or station.
Underground LRT Future
Fast forward to now. The 7th Avenue transit mall is at capacity and political will and public sentiment has been growing to finally build the 8th Avenue Subway. 2007 mayoral candidate Sandy Jenkins had it in his platform, and others mused about it. A budget was approved after the 2007 election for a preliminary engineering study that will recommend routes, station locations, alignment, platform lengths, construction methods and staging, timeframe, costing, etc.
Also being dealt with will be the SELRT downtown alignment, which will be in its own separate subway. This study is just getting underway now (as far as I understand anyway) and is supposed to be completed next year sometime.
Planning done to date points toward the 201 line (south and northwest legs) using the 8th Avenue Subway with 3 or 4 stations. The SE LRT will enter downtown from the east on 10th Avenue, go underground somewhere east of MacLeod Trail, travel under 10th Avenue to 2nd Street West, turn north, continue underground all the way to Eau Claire. Stations tentatively at 1st Street West, 7th/8th Ave., and Eau Claire.
The 202 line (northeast and west legs) would continue to use the existing 7th Ave. The recommendations in the study may change some of these elements but will probably resemble most of it. After that, it would need approval, to be made a priority, and the biggest hurdle, funding.
This also explains why the current work on 7th Avenue (replacing old stations) does not mean that underground LRT has been abandoned. The two projects are independent of each other.