Quote:
Originally Posted by fredinno
The earlier plans that officedweller showed also showed the Canada connecting to the Expo via a parallel track to the Dunsmuir Tunnel that would eventually reach the same depth and connect with it (using otherwise the same alignment, whi8ch has better catchment than shifting the tunnel eastwards.)
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Those aren't really 'plans', they're more 'possibilities'. They're from the Downtown Transportation Plan (adopted in 2002), and they were included because when the Plan was written (in 1999) that was all that existed to suggest how a Richmond/airport link might get built downtown. It was taken from the 1990 report for TransLink by N D Lea, that also considered routes down Cambie, and Arbutus. It also considered technology, Light Rail and SkyTrain.
It seems as if no conclusions on preferred routes were reached, (or the City wouldn't have shown all the alternatives). I think that was because it became apparent that funding wasn't going to be available, although as noted above, apparently 'Until June 1998 all levels of government were anticipating a conventional light rail system'.
The decision to build something in the early 2000s started a whole new exercise to examine both route choice and technology, but this time with some clear parameters about funding, opertation and route - and timing was critical too as it was intended to be operational before the Olympics.
At the time the Arbutus route actually 'served' more jobs and residents as they existed in 2001, because of picking up higher densities at Kerrisdale, Granville Island etc. But the Cambie route was more direct, didn't involve having to buy the right-of-way from CP (who had their own ideas about its value and development potential), and had a chance to 'shape' future development, passing sites like Oakridge Centre.