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High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London
(04-15-2018, 12:24 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: I think closing Lancaster to vehicular traffic will be a non-starter; it is too busy (17,000 AADT in 2014) and the detour would be too long (for residents, EMS, fire, GRT, snow ploughs, etc.).

Too long for whom? The worst case is somebody who needs to get from Breithaupt and Lancaster to Victoria and Lancaster, who would now have to detour via St. Leger (level crossing) or Margaret (bridge) (Although for that specific case they could just walk under my proposal…). But almost anybody else can take an alternate route that isn’t really a “detour” as such. For example, Wellington and Lancaster to Margaret and Queen; instead of Lancaster to Queen, take Wellington to Margaret. Almost the same distance. Or anywhere east of the expressway to Victoria west of Lancaster; instead of Wellington to Lancaster and then Victoria, take Wellington to the Bruce St. extension and then Victoria; no difference in distance. I predict that a network analysis, taking into account Lancaster’s unsuitability as a through route south (east) of Victoria, would show that the Lancaster crossing could be removed with essentially no impact on travel times. Actually they might improve because Victoria and Lancaster would not jam up the way it does now. Just because there is lots of traffic through that link doesn’t mean that re-routing the traffic is infeasible. And often the solution to a bottleneck is not to widen the roads in the bottleneck but rather to improve alternate routes. This is already being done with the construction of the Bruce St. extension as part of the Highway 7 project.

Quote:I would prefer that they add active transportation crossings at St. Leger and Ahrens, and work on grade separations at Duke, Lancaster, and Bingemans. If HSR were to come through we'd also have to grade separate Park and Strange as well; but I see those as lower priorities even if the GO yard eventually moves to Baden.

Why do you think HSR would require grade separations at Park and Strange? No matter how “HS” the service is out in the country, it’s not going to be “HS” at those locations. That’s one of the great things about HSR as opposed to fancy stuff like maglev: it can run on normal track, even poor track, as long as it isn’t expected to be “HS” in those locations. And no train is “HS” near a station.
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RE: High-Speed Rail (HSR) - Toronto/Pearson/Kitchener/London - by ijmorlan - 04-15-2018, 02:15 PM

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