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Commuter & Regional Rail

The_Cat said:
Enough money for trains but not teachers.
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Oh it will probably just be a small amount for some study and a bit more for a promotion campaign, along with continued vague promises of timelines decades in the future. So probably not much money for trains either.
 
Seeing a HST or even a standard affordable train between Edm and Cal would be great, although I think this is just another empty promise from the government.
 
yeggator said:
After seeing the pictures of the new public space at The Switch, I've been thinking a lot about how we might be able to integrate that with a new regional rail terminus for VIA Rail/service to Jasper and regional rail to the suburbs along CN's various ROWs and came up with the map attached. Imagine the Switch being tied in with the plaza in front of the RAM (directing you towards City Hall), the Living Bridge, Mary Burlie Park and a large new plaza with a drop-off loop (perhaps with an infill LRT station connection) in front of a new terminal (main building marked in orange, but platforms could extend all the way across the yellow zone). It would be a fantastic way to welcome visitors to the station right in the heart of the city from the suburbs, Jasper, the rest of the country coming in by train and even visitors across the world coming to the station to take the train to the mountains. Certainly much better than a crappy station by a rail yard, freeway and the giant Blatchford construction zone.
This also really puts into perspective just how much land we would need for a Downtown Station. Those VIA rail trains are ridiculously long and would stretch out almost to 92nd Street while stopped at the station! You'd have to acquire land where the Bissell Centre and Canada Post are, plus some houses on 106th Ave to set up platforms that are long enough for the trains, while not infringing on the LRT tracks.
View attachment 674166
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Prior to being a parking lot, this location actually was rail oriented industry with spurs servicing a grain elevator, among other things.
 
archited said:
But better than a long bus ride.
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It would be useful for those living in the city's extreme southwest. From downtown, an express bus will beat an LRT that's capped at 80km/h (and whose current fastest segments are limited to 70km/h) under all but the worst traffic circumstances.

If we could find some way to upgrade the Capital Line to some kind of tram-train system using equipment like the Stadler CityLink, then it can become a viable LRT/regional hybrid, especially if the line between Health Sciences and Century Park could be fully grade separated and upgraded to heavy rail. A similar grade-separation and higher speed route from Coliseum to Clareview and any further NE extensions could be interesting with similar operations (potentially allowing for viable service to Fort Saskatchewan).

But that's a lot of track replacement, plus a total replacement of rolling stock, at bare minimum.
 
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I think complementary aerial trams that run different routes than LRT might be a way to have both speed and efficiency aligned with more interconnected stops as per slower LRT. @thommyjo had a good idea some weeks ago with routes that might beg a little more study.
 
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