Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
On a broader level, since we're on SSP and most of us are interested in positive city building, on that metric there isn't any justification for pulling our VIA stations out of the downtowns of our cities. (Where they actually are downtown - in places like Ottawa and Kingston they aren't, and aren't likely to be relocated).
Perhaps there is a transportation engineering or whatever reason to move these stations out of the city core, but in terms of making/keeping our cities dynamic... naaaaaah.
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If the railway is grade-separated and isn't a barrier to city functioning, there's not much of a case.
However, a smaller city that's been bisected by railways and whose railways were a barrier to improving life in that city, I could see the case.
North Bay, Ontario is an instructive case. The city had two main rail lines cross it. When CN abandoned its line, the city ripped it out and repurposed the land. When CP reduced their operations, the city rehabbed the land it was gifted with and improved its connection to the waterfront. This has proven to be more beneficial.
North Bay Rail CN Removal