Ignoring for a moment that that the SW cross town line and the SW BRT/LRT Lines are two different lines so technically this entire conversation is off topic I'll stay with the train of thought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassic Lab
It would be possible to reach Chinook by using elevated track through the parkland that remains north of Glenmore Trail from the GE5 project, the extreme southern portion of the Chinook Mall parcel (a station attached directly to the mall could probably convince them to play ball) and what google maps calls 65e Ave S with an elevated station over the south part of the Chinook station lands. That would allow the line to serve Rockyview Hospital, after veering slightly south west around 14 St, with a transfer station (also served by the 14 St Rapid Transit Line) somewhere just north of the main hospital building.
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I don't see this working the main hospital complex is just too far south and you have the holy cross ambulatory center in the way of a pedestrian link unless there is to be a rediculous deviation to service the hosital and if your going to do that you might as well just send that down 14th instead of going onto MRU and Westbrook.
I think that the cross town alignment using Heritage is far wiser in terms of overall benefits, yes Chinook center gets missed but you also pass through a more transit friendly corridor along Heritage rather than Glenmore for future extensions. After Chinook you have to deviate back down to Glenmore which is a pain in of itself and you wont have any obvious station locations until you get to the other side of the the river. Following Heritage you can have a Staions at Fairmont, Blackfoot (services all the development planned for the bluffs), Deerfoot meadows, then depending on the what you want the ultimate network to look like it can cross the river and either run down glenmore and connect with the SE corridor at either South Hill (far easier, and opens possiblity for further extension) or Quarry Park (employment node, but much harder to access & would be end point of the cross town)
Heritage in my opinion is prime corridor, it has just enough width if memory serves me correctly that an elevated line could run down it no problem and transit fueled density in the short term it will have the 303 and the 20 providing excellent frequency (though I guess technically you could end up with less frequncy when the 303 start up because it is duplicating the 20 upto MRU so depending on the headways frequency could hypothetically be reduced as equally so it could be increased should ridership stay constant.) Should frequency and other ridership baiting amenities come about because of investment for the 303 then it could lead to further densification along that corridor, should you then proceed to shift the rapid transit corridor up to Glenmore then you would be punishing all the built up density that had been built up. Thats the part of the logic as I see it for the majority of Riverbend being skipped in the 302 routing as they wouldn't put rail down 18th because cost just doesn't warrent it unless you were to tear the entire community down and rebuild it as all midrise apartments, so as to actually enourage development along the future rail corridor putting the BRT along 24th will help that (the deviation onto Quarry Park Blvd is temperary and once there are actually buildings built near the final station location will the 302 go to its permanent alignment, if my memory of the planning documents are correct)