Quote:
Originally Posted by vtecyo
The extra cost of the grade separations is one reasons why I'm not convinced that going west of Bells Corners would be an easy sell. Although even if the total minimum cost was closer to what your saying for just going to Bells Corners, it's still an existing route with relatively little cost per km compared to the confederation line. I think it would end up cheaper per km than Trillium phase 2.
As lrt's friend said - the initial Trillium line costs included replacing the rails in the 2013 upgrade [oops - I said 2011 before ] - and some sidings etc. I'd imagine a bunch of the stations would be double tracked - but it would mostly run a a single track line like the original Trillium line.
I disagree about development potential along the line. There are empty fields and single story suburban commercial/industrial spaces near many of the stations. It would take years to fill that in - just like it has along the Trillium line.
I don't think it's as ideal of a project as the Trillium pilot was - but if it was - it would have been done already.
In any case I'm thinking of this in terms of what creates a network improvement for the whole south end - and could induce demand for transit in parts of the city that seem heavily car centric.
|
Leaving out west of Bels corner while the expensive section is to me leaving out the reason to even attempt to build this. As relying on induced demand to provide the ridership requires that the route goes to a prominent destination, like Kanata North or even a connection to possibly, Confed LRT stage 3.
AFAIK, neither the original pilot nor the upgrade included a full replacement of the rails as part of the upgrade. It was just welding the existing rails together, replacing section beyond repair, and adding siding. Stage 2 is what includes full replacement and that's costing ~663 million. As for running single tracked stage 2 will be roughly 40% double tracked to get 12 minute intervals. To me stage 2 would be a better comparison on costs so $27 million/km on the low end (only 4 stations included in that cost).
As for connection, again to what? this isn't a crosstown route (at least not without the west section), it has no major destination nor origins and its not cheap. Future idea sure in the far future after the current issues have been resolved, one of which will soundly and negatively impact this idea. That issue being the lack of bus frequency or even bus priority.
Threaded Mode