Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbia
I get that people want a 46km line in phase one, but I do not think it is helpful to continuously wrongly imply the downtown is an end of line terminal.
I also do not understand the comment about expensive to operate. Given the number of car/train accidents on 7th, I'm pleased the line is completely separated through the core.
And yeah, I'm also waiting for when the line gets past 16th ave, for which construction I believe is hoped to start virtually seamlessly as phase one completes.
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In Calgary we have described and built our LRT as South leg, NW leg, NE leg, West leg, not because the LRT leg ends at downtown (they are connected) it's because downtown is the primary destination for riders. The Green line is a two leg system, a ridiculously short North leg and a truncated south leg. How many people do you think will ride the green line from 16th ave to Shepard or the other way around? Quarry Park is probably the only destination the would draw some ridership south of downtown and most of those riders will come from transfers off the other LRT legs, not from 16th ave.
Tunnels are expensive to operate. As I recall from reading an Edmonton summary the electrical expensive of running large ventilation systems was the biggest cost, add in lighting, sump pumps, fire systems, security, janitorial, etc and the operating costs are substantially more.
It would be nice if they could keep on building phase 2, but when has that happened in the past? Money for the next phase will be in short supply between now and 2026, so unless the city comes up with billions more dollars in 2023 there won't be a seemless continuation.