Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassic Lab
I would hope that the city will develop plans to bury the Red Line under 7 Ave and plan infrastructure and utilities accordingly. Just to avoid screwing ourselves over. That said, I can't see it being required in the next 50 years, if ever. The 36 St NE section of the Red Line will fail long before the 7 Ave portion. I could see grade separation there being a necessity in the 25 to 50 year horizon.
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I think you mean the Blue Line too, and let me explain why I think it will never be moved underground. There is almost no benefit to be gained. Until ridership demands it, any grade separation downtown would be solely to the benefit of the few cars that cross 7th Ave, which would presumably have to wait for signalized surface auto traffic anyway.
There are a lot of options for increasing capacity on the Blue Line before we have to dig:
-133% increase to capacity by adding 4th car on all trains (already happening)
-200-300% increase to capacity by removing the Red Line from 7th Ave
-125% increase from continuous cars
That compounds and totals to a possible increase in capacity of 663% before 4-car station lengths can't handle the loads. The employment and population growth in the NE and W would need to see dramatic changes to get anywhere close to generating that kind of ridership, even in 50 years.
For the price of burying the Blue Line, we could service an entire other part of the city, i.e. 17th Ave SE, YYC, or commuter rail. In fact, the only way the Blue Line could possibly grow its ridership by anywhere close to 7x of what it is now is with the help of a MRU/37th St SW spur, which again would probably take priority over 7th Ave and cost about the same.
Then consider the cost and feasibility of extending suburban Blue Line Stations to service 5-car trains. It may not even be possible at some stations like Westbrook.
I think most of the proponent of burying 7th Ave c-trains either (a) falsely believe it will somehow improve traffic congestion downtown or (b) do not fully grasp how much capacity can be added and congestion removed by burying the Red Line.
May as well get used to 7th Ave being at grade, because it likely won't change in our lifetimes. Anyway, I kind of like the accessibility and visibility.