City not interested in transit alternative
The Citizen reported on Kitchissippi Councillor Christine Leadman’s new transit proposal yesterday. Ms. Leadman repeated Clive Doucet’s proposal: with the eastern train heading down Carling, instead of following the Parkway.
Interestingly, Nancy Schepers (city manager for planning, transit and the environment) says that her department didn’t seriously consider Carling as one of the potential routes the train could follow. Which isn’t surprisingly, considering that the four plans were essentially identical. Ms. Schepers also says that the Carling route would be “far more expensive
” than the parkway route – which is odd, given that we haven’t seen a detailed cost analysis of the parkway route yet.
It’s a pity that this proposal didn’t go anywhere, because Carling has many of the attributes that make mass transit work: it’s surrounded by housing, and it has existing “destinations” along the route (Carlingwood mall, various medical centres, and a mix of stores). The Parkway is an easy route to follow since there isn’t any development there, but that’s precisely why it makes a lousy transit corridor.
Update: I forgot to credit the photo author. The photograph was taken by paulshannon.
The transit plan from a couple years ago had trains going up and down Carling. At that time people complained that they hadn’t considered the parkway route.
The reason that a Carling route would be obviously “far more expensive” is that they envision a “grade-separated rapid transit” route — which implies that the train will be elevated or sunk to avoid intersections and have fewer stations than the earlier plan. Much of the parkway route is free from intersections and could therefore be built with much less expense. I surmise the idea of the current plan is to rapidly move passengers between the western edge and the city core, not to supplant existing bus coverage. However, the current plan does acknowledge that some upgrade to the Carling corridor will be required, as it is marked as “future urban transit – to be determined”.