Quote:
Originally Posted by Aylmer
It may not be the ideal axis, but let's keep in mind two things: - The CBD isn't very wide. It's long, but only about 400m wide from Wellington to Laurier, after which it's principally residential. You could save at most 200 metres by having it run down Albert, which translates into a 2 minute walk. Is it a savings? sure. Is it significant? Not really.
- Cross traffic. Wellington's position on the fringe of the CBD gives it the unique benefit of having next to no automobile cross-traffic to gum up transit movements.
There's a grand total of five of them, one of which is only for the occasional minibus, and another four that can be easily consolidated as they all serve the same parking lot. None of these generate more than a trickle of traffic. In these conditions, you can have generous signal timing for trams, requiring them to only stop at stations.
Compare that to an Albert option, which would have to contend with major cross-traffic at every intersection. You have little flexibility to time signals favourably, and a risk of box-blocking. Running time, capacity, and reliability suffer for it.
So any marginal gains in having a line 2 minutes closer to the southernmost reaches of downtown is likely more than eaten up by the limits imposed by cross-traffic.
They haven't said, but they'd probably either continue through Wellington at low speeds, or short-stop at Lyon (as was done until now with buses). With the loop, you could also have trams short-stop at Rideau street in the other direction. But honestly, you can count on one hand the number of protests and events that actually close down Wellington, and they're almost always on weekends or holidays. It's not the most pressing issue facing the Wellington alignment. |
Totally agree. Although many focus on the occasional protest or event as a reason to discard Wellington, this option would actually see far less disruption by running nearly unimpeded by day-to-day traffic. Any other option south Sparks would likely result in frequent accidents involving cars and trucks.
Furthermore, as pointed out, the loop doubles the capacity of the system through downtown. It doesn't need to be built as part of the initial tram, but will be essential by the time the RapiBus is converted. The routing (but using Wellington instead of Sparks) and service pattern proposed by Hybrid would be quite effective in serving more of central Hull and balance the loads through the loop. The RapiBus between Montcalm and UQO could be maintained for a shuttle service between the two (or three with Trillium should it be extended) Lines.
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