Okay, so I worked a bit more on my fantasy map tonight. I've added almost everything north of the river, including a heavy rail network.
I envision the heavy rail lines to be similar to
S-Bahn networks in Germany or the
Overground in London where the trains are frequent and efficient, with stations serving neighbourhoods of Edmonton that don't really have good LRT access. The biggest obstacle of the heavy rail network would be in the city centre, where I envision a tunneled portion connecting the main station at 97 Street (Royal Alberta Museum) to the lines heading west and south. The tunnel would utilize the 105 Avenue right of way and Railtown Park. In a perfect world, 105 Avenue streetscaping could be accomplished at the same time as a cut-and-cover tunnel, but I know the heavy rail portion of my network is not going to be built in the short-term. The tunnel would not have to built on day 1. Trains coming from Stony Plain and Morinville could head through a bypass track at Walker Yard and make a sharp right turn near Belvedere to head south into downtown. The lines from the south could terminate at Grandin. Not ideal, but it could work in the short-medium term.
VIA Rail would be accommodated at the Royal Alberta Museum station (this station would probably be named something special as it will be a main hub for different modes, maybe after a former mayor?). With the tunnel under 105 Avenue, they could continue west without having to back up to the mainline. The current VIA Station would be converted into a new neighbourhood station servicing Blatchford and Prince Charles. I would hope that by the time this network becomes anything close to reality, VIA Rail would establish frequent intercity services between Edmonton and Calgary. These trains could start downtown and then use the tunnel to head south across the High Level Bridge.
The other big addition is the Central Line (brown). This line may be less viable than the Relief Line (yellow), especially being so close to the Metro Line for a good portion. This line would follow 97 Street all the way up to the Edmonton Garrison, servicing neighbourhoods like Norwood, Alberta Avenue, and Northgate along the way. Downtown, it could run along 97 Street south to 103A Ave, then skirting across to 99 Street, ending just north of the Valley and Circle Lines. This would allow the line to have access to the Churchill hub.
So there you go! Let me know what you think, and hopefully next time I'll have the network pretty much built out.
