05-07-2017, 01:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-07-2017, 01:50 PM by DHLawrence.)
(05-07-2017, 11:40 AM)KevinL Wrote: The one near Industrial will be bypassed by following it around the curve (which saves also crossing it on Hespeler Road).
The one near Concession should be a straightforward grade separation - I'm imagining a cutting for the rails, so they pass under Concession, Eagle and Witmer (or Witmer gets rerouted).
The one by the river is of course the trickiest and most important. I'm imagining elevated heavy rail (because there's no way to dig that close to the river) but it could go a number of ways.
There's an easier solution to the first two: take them out completely. There are no customers on the south side of Eagle at Concession, so nobody will be affected. I don't believe there are any customers on the spur east of Hespeler Road (correct me if I'm wrong), and Gillies Lumber will lose their rail access anyway; their northernmost building will have to be torn down to accommodate the LRT tracks - not to mention the LRT tracks will have to run south of the spur anyway to avoid light-heavy rail traffic conflicts.
One possible solution at the river is to have the LRT line cross under the CP tracks farther up the line (to avoid going through residential in Preston it will have to follow the rail alignment anyway, so have a duckunder at the top of the hill), move the CP tracks farther away from the river, and have the LRT tracks run parallel to the CP tracks but closer to the river. Would require a pedestrian bridge or level crossing over the CP tracks, but it would eliminate a conflict. And gives the added bonus of a potential station close to Toyota and the industrial park.
I do hope they follow King to Sportsworld Drive at least. They could turn up Sportsworld, have a stop near the GO/Greyhound/GRT bus platforms, and then continue under Highway 8 to the CP right of way.