They do indeed intend to reduce 104 to four lanes (you can see it at the 1:00 minute mark in the video below), and Stony Plain road will be reduced to two lanes. I think that's a mistake. They should've run this line down less busy streets. 102 Ave is at least not the main route through downtown, but 104 Ave is certainly the main route into downtown, and Stony Plain Road even more so. In a few years, when we have a new city council and residents are fed up with the traffic jams, we'll be looking at widening other roadways or providing alternative routes.
Here's the video by the way.
Maybe if this train would make it easier or faster for people to get downtown they might leave their cars at home, but this particular style of train is slow. The video even brags about the fact that this train travels at "
neighbourhood speeds" so that there's no need for flashing lights and crossing arms. Sure, that's nice for the neighbourhood but it also defeats the entire purpose of what's supposed to be rapid transit. The video says it takes approximately 35 minutes to get downtown from Lewis Farms. That's 10 minutes slower than a car, and that's not even considering driving to the park and ride, finding a parking spot, walking to the platform and waiting for the train. So what's the incentive?
If they're trying to build a cool looking low floor tram system that's neighbourhood friendly, then this plan is perfect, but if the goal is to make it easier for people to get downtown then this is a big waste of money, sorry to say.
