11-20-2015, 09:04 AM
(11-19-2015, 06:58 PM)Canard Wrote: Really good time at the PCC tonight. Interestingly the region and cities are the ones who directed the RT team to use 24. They basically are pinned between Pinebush and Delta and weren't allowed to deviate from that.
Some sternly worded letters to our local city councillors and mayors will be coming out of or our household!
It was good to get the reasons why they directed the team to use 24, but I still think Preston/Coronation would have been better. And so did many others apparently based on feedback and comments. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of it.
Getting trains across 401 and the tracks into Cambridge is going to be really hard and expensive. Also someone threw out the idea of why not ditch the Ainslie terminal and move it somewhere more convienent. I think that's brilliant, personally - why are we so attached to it. Kitchener isn't using their existing terminal...
Just some more ideas.
Just to put a stop at Eagle and Hespeler, the number of harsh turns, flood plain work, and rail crossings necessary, will come to $100-200M. I'm leaning towards advocating we at least look at taking King straight down to Main (option 3 for south Cambridge). Very straight, lots of parallel street options for traffic detours, for sharing North/South access between LRT, cars, bikes. I'd then suggest we use the huge savings to make phase 2 also an LRT/BRT investment, as phase 1 was, and to turn a lane of Hespeler into a bus lane, strengthen the ION route that's there, have it run up into the Speedsville/Maple Grove area for an east side lands stop, and then eventually hook up into iXpress territory along the west side of KW. The bus lanes on Hespeler would also allow us to have better Greyhound and GO bus access, letting us make an even better intermediate business case for GO trains, especially if part of the 401 can have HOT lanes. Then Cambridge would wind up being a bit of a transit capital for the region, allowing each of Hespeler, Galt, and Preston to share in redevelopment from RT.