I read two contradicting arguments about the necessity for a
Hastings Skytrain line; one for it and one refuting the necessity of it.
In my opinion, a
Hastings Line is not only useful, and "does justice" to East Hastings and East Vancouver, but has great potential as well as a transporter of commuters from the Northeast part of the Vancouver and Burnaby area, and as a more far-reaching transportation corridor which could serve intra-regional transit not necessarily bound for downtown.
I agree that the Hastings Line is a logical, eastward extension of the Expo Line corridor from Waterfront, turning sharply eastward.
Going underground along Hastings it would naturally serve stations like Main, Clark Drive, Nanaimo, Renfrew, and terminate AT THE VERY LEAST at the present-day Kootenay Loop.
In his design,
Deasine had it running far eastward, boring under Burnaby Mountain. While this itself (boring under SFU) is a great and ambitious idea, it may not be the most practical solution, whereas there are others that might be.
The
Hastings Line, which, naturally, would come up to be at-grade past the developed and dense corridor of East Hastings itself, could terminate at Willingdon, or Curtis and Duthie by SFU, where a major bus connection would bring in SFU-bound passengers, and people in areas of North and East Burnaby.
However, on a more ambitious and perhaps functional scale, the line would skirt the south side of Burnaby mountain, where a lot of high-rise development (and accompanying population density) is planned, and link up with the Lougheed Mall Town Centre Station.
This would facilitate linking people who live in the notheastern parts of the city, with points south and east in the metro area.
It is important to remember, as several readers pointed out, that much of the traffic within the Vancouver area is
regional centre - to - regional centre, and not just commuters to and from downtown.
If people complain that this will not benefit people in the Northeast quadrant, like Port Coquitlam, the line could bifurcate, one branch going southeat to Lougheed for southerly and easterly connections, and the other following the Barnet Highway route, either in the middle of the highway itself, or along the waterfront. (Hopefully, the Westcoast Express will become more frequent, but that's another issue) The line could connect at the Coquitlam Centre, with both the WestCoast Express and Evergreen Line for service to Douglas College and connecting busses up the slope of Burke Mountain.
At stations like Nanaimo, Kootenay Loop (perhaps to be renamed) and Willingdon, local busses serving east Vancouver and North Burnaby - neighbourhoods like Burnaby Heights and Capitol Hill - could connect, with smaller, more frequent mini-busses, instead of the usual busses, often running with a handful of passengers, (or no passengers at all), at hourly intervals rendering them inconvenient, at a great waste of fuel and material cost.
At a station like Curtis and Duthie, it seems only logical to have frequent commuter busses serving SFU, without having to bore under Burnaby Mountain, which is an impressive idea, but hugely expensive and gargantuan in scope.
Continuing southeast along the flank of Burnaby Mountain, the line would serve a large catch-basin of commuters either going downtown and points west, or to places Like Lougheed Town Centre, New Westminster and Surrey, which are predicted to grow faster than the city of Vancouver itself over the next 20 years, rendering them "mini-cities" with a necesssity of a "ring-connector" route linking them. Again, the extension of the Hastings Line from Downtown fits this need well.
As to exactly where the line should terminate is debatable, but the
Hastings Line is NOT jsut a "cute" addition to what has already been proposed. It is a potentially vital and versatile link that merits further study and discussion.
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Hastings Line Clarification
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