Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassic Lab
The downtown portion would not be at grade on any NC LRT routing. Even a Nose Creek route interlined with the 202 downtown would, at some point, require grade separation downtown. If the Greenline were to remain a BRT forrever we'd need a bus tunnel downtown. A bus lane on 5 Ave would be a short term solution.
The last NC transit study, from the mid 2000s or so, forecast a need for LRT in Nose Creek in the 20 year timeframe because bus capacity would be maxed. If any thing, ridership has grown faster than the estimate.
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I have no issue with a bus tunnel. There are minor issues you would have to work out, but otherwise no different than an LRT tunnel.
The study you mention, I believe (not certain) refers to bus capacity in normal traffic lanes. The problem I see is that regardless of what vehicle is used, by building it at grade they are sacrificing one for the other, and I don't believe that trains offer a significant capacity difference than a constant stream of articulated buses on dedicated lanes. The benefit being that they can be re-routed in the case of an accident or branch off to service a larger area. Additionally, its easier to have a dedicated bus to a given community during rush hour to maximize efficiency.
Have a look at this
presentation from RouteAhead's website. At grade is what they are mostly considering as they are too concerned about the cost of tunneling (due to difficult geology). While there would be mostly underground downtown, it wouldn't necessarily happen until reaching 7th ave SW. Nose Creek is out, and so is the idea of merging in on the NE line to enter downtown.
Let me be clear, I'd absolutely prefer a tunneled LRT DT to ~20th Ave North, as it would be a clear addition to capacity of movement to downtown, but an LRT running on Centre at grade doesn't make much sense.