Quote:
Originally Posted by RicoLance21
When we have an underground line for the South/NW leg, I don't think it is wise to also increase the frequency. There may be more elbow room downtown, but not so outside of downtown, even with only one line. The current five-minute frequency is already putting a considerable strain on traffic flow at crossings of major roads like Heritage Dr. To double the capacity of this line, good luck waiting at the crossing--more grade separations are required. By then, I don't think there is a lot of infrastructure change left to classify the line as heavy rail--other than electrical/signal upgrades.
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Ah, I think we might have been talking past each other a little here. Heavy rail is in transit planning circles a term for a specific type of technology; third rail power, heavy vehicles, long trains, and so on versus the ligher, overhead-powered vehicles in light rail. Grade separation is more what it seems like you're thinking about; heavy rail systems are 100% grade separated, while light rail may or may not be; the C-train is light rail, and this doesn't change once it goes northwest past 16th Ave NW. So heavy rail is a completely different technology, which I think is where the confusion came from.
And the grade separations I think will come in time; the plans for both Heritage/Macleod and 25th/Macleod involve grade separating the LRT. We don't need twice as many trains on the S-NW LRT right away; in 30 years we may, but by that point I think it'll be even more grade separated.