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Originally Posted by ahdede
Been lurking on the forums for years, somehow missed this thread. Glad to see this alignment brought up as I have also pondered on it in my own crayonings. I grew up and still live in Burnaby so I know the geography (and politics) of the city quite well.
Given that implementing BRT is the first phase of the line, I could see a dedicated bi-level transit bridge being built from Phibbs to N Boundary Rd and have BRT continue down to Hastings and Willingdon. Another route would be Boundary -> Lougheed -> Willingdon.
The second phase would see the rail portion built on the lower deck of the bridge, then tunnel down Boundary before emerging near Douglas/Boundary, The line would then go diagonally towards Gilmore station, continue diagonally through Still Creek towards Willingdon interchange, then along Willingdon to Metrotown and beyond. This alignment would also have it closer to potential OMC at the bus depot as you suggested.
7 stations: Phibbs, Boundary, Gilmore, BCIT, Grange, Metrotown, Central Park with expansion infill stations contingent on redevelopment at 1st Ave/Boundary, Still Creek (Brentwood South), and Moscrop/Deer Lake Pkwy
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I thought about Boundary too but I think there's at least four serious issues with that alignment.
1. The harbour crossing
It looks to me like a Boundary Road aligned crossing of Burrard Inlet would be fouled by the power lines, particularly on the north side of the harbour. This could be remedied by having the crossing further to the east, but at that point why swing back to Boundary? This is part of why I chose the Gilmore alignment and Ingleton crossing location. It's the narrowest part of the Second Narrows,and isn't fouled by anything else (besides the water mains but they shouldn't be an issue I think).
2. The tunnel
For crossing Burnaby/Vancouver Heights it's inevitable that there will be tunneling since the elevation gain between the North Shore and the Heights is just too much for above grade construction all the way. It's not abundantly clear to me if the power line foundations make this idea less viable or not. Tunneling down Gilmore shouldn't too concerning, nothing with serious foundations along the route.
3. OMC access
Boundary is actually several metres below the Burnaby Transit Centre which puts a bit of a kibosh on this idea if the route is tunneled at this point. However, if somehow the route is above ground here this does become viable. Gilmore on the other hand is several metres
above the Burnaby Transit Centre, and in fact a tunnel portal could be built beneath Ingleton and it would be almost a perfect alignment.
4. Future growth
The biggest gap in the Expo Line is between Commercial-Broadway and Main Street-Science World. There just aren't really any destinations or origins for transit in the industrial area along Terminal. Boundary is kind of the same, it's not very likely that there will be many transit trips to the car and motorcycle dealerships or auto shops. Gilmore just has more people and potential future people.
If it wasn't for these concerns, Boundary does actually look a bit more appealing than Gilmore, since the Burnaby Heights tunnel could actually have its south portal at Boundary and Francis for an even cheaper and faster project.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djmk
The purple line is going down willingdon to hastings.
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The Purple Line is a high level concept, not necessarily an exact route. It would be a little silly for a Skytrain line which is intended to move passengers between the North Shore and the rest of the Lower Mainland to needlessly meander through Burnaby Heights just because of the existing road system. Especially since the line pretty much has to be tunneled through The Heights due to the local topography (it's called The Heights for a reason), there's no reason to be constrained to the existing roads and bus routes. On top of that, given that the Hastings corridor is considered a candidate for future rapid transit, it's also a waste to have redundant service along Hastings in the future.
(Not to mention the purple line alignment seems to completely skip Lonsdale Quay and has the inlet crossing to the west of the Second Narrows which makes very little sense to me.)
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Also, the city is already talking about new developments at hastings to accommodate stations
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Source for this? Are you sure they aren't thinking longer term about the future Hastings rapid transit?
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