Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
A tunnel to the edge of the river wouldn't be necessary, if there was a real plan to run trains into downtown Edmonton I would expect that a track would run on the surface either on the old ROW (via High Level Bridge) or a totally new ROW and new bridge, right into downtown Edmonton.
Then again, Edmonton is so big now that Whyte Avenue is considered a relatively central location for most. It might be enough to terminate the line right at 82nd Ave even if that is not quite the downtown to downtown ideal.
Running to the existing VIA station is not worth the hassle. The downtown station closed in 1997 and was replaced by a small facility in the north central part of town which is still a good hike from downtown. There is no real advantage to going there as opposed to 82nd Ave... I'd wager that most would consider it worse. And going to the existing VIA station means taking a long, circuitous route around the city which would add a significant amount of time to the trip.
The point here is that the routes in Edmonton are a headache in all of this. Calgary at least has a line and room for a potential station right in the heart of the city. In Edmonton there are no tracks downtown so you'd be compromising no matter what... either building an extremely costly new line into downtown, or putting a station somewhere outside of downtown.
|
My concern would be that the 2 lines would not be connected. Maybe Whyte Ave is the terminus normally, with 1 train meeting the Canadian when it goes to the current station.