Quote:
Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut
(Post 8532391)
The Province does have an option to buy back all its assets from CN once the sixty years are up, and every sixty years after that... so, rail to Squamish by 2063?
In case nobody else says it, Gordon Campbell can go hump a cactus.
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There's no passing Rails on the Squamish ROW, especially in West Van, though. Not to mention, the corridor is used to supplement the congested 2nd Narrows Bridge and the North Shore ports, so you can't conceivably reserve all its capacity for passenger rail (like you can with the Fraser Valley SRY interurban).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kisai
(Post 8532381)
They probably can not sell the tracks in any legal way. A lease >150 years is effectively "long enough that nobody will be alive will remember it."
Likewise, it probably puts some conditions on the lease, like not tearing the rails up so they can build condos.
It's actually kinda sad how you can see where rail used to run around the lower mainland because of the shape the buildings are along side the previous ROW's, and they were either replaced with pavement, or buildings were allowed to encroach onto them.
Had anyone had the foresight to see that commuter rail might be viable, they would never have torn up all the rail lines. Now it would be too-expensive to re-lay tracks and they may as well go straight to grade-separated rail options.
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That's not true- most of the rough corridors remain, at least of the mainline interurban:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9-Y1yNUNX...52811%2529.gif
Central Park Line: Even though it was converted to the Expo, sections are wide enough that rail can (and did) run on the corridor beside the Expo (though very infrequently).
CN lists it as an SRY-owned rail line for some reason, though the rails have mostly been ripped up at this point:
http://cnebusiness.geomapguide.ca/
As CN shows, the ROW is preserved up to Central Park, and actually has sufficient space up to Joyce St, before the interurban goes into a trench (and loses its ROW).
Though I doubt it'd ever be used even if it was preserved unless it was put into a trench (to avoid conflicts with pedestrians around the Expo).
Burnaby Lake: Not preserved, paved over by the Trans-Canada. Not a big loss though, since it follows pretty much exactly the route of the AMTRAK/CN mainline (it would be worse to use, as it skips Brentwood and Production Way-University.
Marpole-Marine Dr: Preserved as a rail line, though not well used.
Arbutus -Steveston:Preserved on Arbutus- there USED to be a rail connection to the ROW in Steveston (not the original one shown here, closer to the water), but Richmond paved it over. :hell:
However, from JN Burnett to Steveston, the ROW has been preserved, so thankfully, we can still line commuter rail on Sea Island to get to Steveston (However, the only possible Richmond Station is Bridgeport, which SHOULD have been built with Spanish solution in mind.:hell:)
Fraser Valley: Kept as a Freight ROW railway with passenger rail ROW.
The thing is, this was probably not much worse than what could have happened (except the Richmond-Steveston Line, Brodie you cheap-ass).
I'd like to point out that the interurbans generally turned into streetcars once they entered Downtown. Most of the rail lines in Downtown have NOT been well-preserved. Granted, you'd need to grade-separate here anyways to avoid congestion (as is being done with the Burrard Inlet Spur, and was the original purpose of the Dunsmuir Tunnel).
Most of the destroyed Railway ROWs were either downtown (Yaletown yards), were horrible to use (GNR Murrayville), or redundant.
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