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Originally Posted by lrt's friend
You would never run it in true 'mixed' traffic but I know what you are saying. What should have happened is that you run the trains in an exclusive left lane and the buses in an exclusive right lane. The bus lane would only be exclusive during peak periods. Local traffic would use the remaining lanes. You would simply close the MacKenzie King bridge to regular traffic. It isn't used much anyways except for transit and you have two other bridges close by that are better used.
Now that we know that this will be the busiest LRT system in North America from day one, the original plan of having surface rail on Albert and Slater would have taken the pressure off a tunnel that is going beyond normal useage. There will be problems with the tunnel. It is inevitable. And how do we move people when there are problems? We won't. There is so little redundancy built into the plan that moving people will be next to impossible if a train breaks down on the LRT line. Don't kid yourself. It is going to happen.
As someone living in the south end, why should we be penalized with second class service and forced permanently to transfer either at Hurdman or Bayview? I know this is the way things appear to be going, but how will this make transit attractive particularly during off-peak hours? As it stands, neither route is a direct route towards downtown (look at a map) and both will require two transfers to reach a local neighbourhood. I can tell that this is not appealing in the least. Why would I use transit for my occasional trips downtown unless I expect problems finding parking? I won't. This plan will be too slow and too unreliable. Two transfers and then find out that you missed your local bus by 1 minute. No way. This is a prescription for permanently low ridership.
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That's why they would have needed the tunnel (or an elevated corridor) from day one, and run crossover movements when extensions east and west are built. If they had planned the north-south with the tunnel, that would have been a perfect proposal IMO, with easy extensions east and west (and southeast).
One of the big mistakes of the current proposal (and it is not too late to change it) is that there is no connectivity with the Southeast Transitway. The major problem mentioned was - no surprise - the NCC and their lands (which they don't have no plan for, and even if the alignment was skewed, the current BRT station becomes available). Another possibility is a two-level train station setup with the junction west of Hurdman in the end (with separate in-station platforms) or a V-shaped station.