(04-13-2021, 11:20 AM)Bytor Wrote:(04-13-2021, 01:27 AM)dunkalunk Wrote: It would definitely be cheaper than the current proposed elevated structures crossing the Grand and Speed rivers though.
I'm sorry, but I really wish that people would stop suggesting that running Stage 2 ION along Homer Watson Blvd. would be a reasonable alternative to through Sportsworld. (Probably because most people making it are the NIMBYs trying to appear reasonable, even though I know that you, Dunkalunk, are not one of them.)
If you look at the table I posted of 2019 boardings by route, you can see that the 201+10+16 still don't make up what the 200+7 did in the lead up to ION starting service. Also, when you compare the map posted above with stop use circles, you can see that the portion of the 201 south of Ottawa St. isn't near as busy as the northern part and that it's the 10 & 16 which are the big drivers for ridership down into Pioneer Park, Doon, and along Homer Watson Blvd. That means that only a small portion of the 201's boardings can be used to add to the 10's and 16's to try and guesstimate some sort of demand for a Homer Watson LRT.
The numbers just don't pan out in a way that makes Homer Watson a better route choice at this point in time.
I'm mostly seeing the increased development potential and technical feasibility of a Homer Watson alignment over anything else. If our trains have a maximum speed of 90km/h (iirc) then why do we have a 4km stretch adjacent to a major highway buffered by environmentally sensitive lands and a major highways that can never be developed? In addition to the 1km long elevated structure over Grand river floodplain.
If anything, this is worse for the 'Stop LRT thru Preston' crowd because it requires a LOT more residential property acquisition along Eagle St S than the Shantz Hill-Fountain flyover alignment.