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Green Line LRT


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1 hour ago, Transit Fan said:

Not this again. I thought we were finally set on the tunnel.

How would you even build this thing at-grade given the short blocks north to south?

I thought Centre Street was a disaster already, but if they ditch the tunnel now, I will lose hope

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1 minute ago, Nick B said:

Elevated perhaps?

Elevated in the north was exactly what I was thinking. One of my buds is in Monterrey, Mexico for the summer and rode the LRT there.
It don't see it being elevated as high up, but you can see my point as it runs above this busy road instead of on it.
 

image0.jpg

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2 hours ago, green_line_26 said:

Elevated in the north was exactly what I was thinking. One of my buds is in Monterrey, Mexico for the summer and rode the LRT there.
It don't see it being elevated as high up, but you can see my point as it runs above this busy road instead of on it.
 

image0.jpg

Kind of like the west leg blue line

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4 hours ago, Transit Fan said:

Not this again. I thought we were finally set on the tunnel.

How would you even build this thing at-grade given the short blocks north to south?

It's okay we'll just shut down Centre Street to vehicular traffic.....and 6 Avenue to build a platform.....and 2nd and 3rd avenues too!

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5 hours ago, downbeat said:

City might choose to keep Green Line at grade due to cost considerations.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5430501/city-of-calgary-administration-waves-red-flag-at-green-line-tunnel/

Interesting... well what if they used the NE tunnel spur underneath City Hall, built a transfer station there and then only built the tunnel from City Hall, and up Centre to 16th? How much money would that save?

Still though, kind of worried about Calgary adopting a Winnipeg, "cheapest option available" mentality when it comes to public works, infrastructure and transit projects. Unless they have an elevated alternative...?

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In the end, it really needs to either be tunnelled or elevated. It's disappointing that they're even contemplating any kind of at-grade possibilities through the core and beltline at this point.

I'll admit that having an elevated portion in the downtown isn't the nicest looking option. 2nd St SW isn't exactly a super wide street like the one in the image above. Getting it to run along 12th Ave SW would be interesting as well.

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I get that a lot of people are feeling upset and worried about news that the downtown portion may be changed or re-evaluated - but the Federal and Provincial governments have given $3+ Billion to this project, so I'm not sure you just decide to cancel the whole thing and give the money back.  You have to try to still make the thing happen with the money you have, right?  I'm sure there's a point where the cons outweigh the pros, but I'm not sure it's at that point yet.

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There's so many years of planning and consultations that went into figuring out that the tunnel was the best idea, despite the cost, that it's really weird for them to get cold feet now. Especially since they've only been planning and designing the tunnel. 

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42 minutes ago, DarkKeyo said:

There's so many years of planning and consultations that went into figuring out that the tunnel was the best idea, despite the cost, that it's really weird for them to get cold feet now. Especially since they've only been planning and designing the tunnel. 

Perhaps geologically it is not financially feasible. I have a funny feeling they may have found some issues that probably drove the price up.

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I'm working on a map for fun of an At-grade routing of the green line through downtown, but I need to know a couple things:

1. What is the minimum clearance of a Flexity/S70?

2. What is the maximum grade for an over/underpass?

3. What voltage range do the existing trains actually run on? I know for sure it's more than 600V (I've seen 640-780)

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1 hour ago, GrandeWest_B35G said:

I'm working on a map for fun of an At-grade routing of the green line through downtown, but I need to know a couple things:

1. What is the minimum clearance of a Flexity/S70?

2. What is the maximum grade for an over/underpass?

3. What voltage range do the existing trains actually run on? I know for sure it's more than 600V (I've seen 640-780)

I'm not sure what part of the train clearance you're talking about (overhead, dynamic envelope, curve radius?), but the typical maximum grade (for the LRVs at least) is 6%.  While some trains, like Ottawa's Citadis Spirits, run at 1500v, the typical voltage right now is about 750v.

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2 hours ago, GrandeWest_B35G said:

I'm working on a map for fun of an At-grade routing of the green line through downtown, but I need to know a couple things: 

1. What is the minimum clearance of a Flexity/S70?

2. What is the maximum grade for an over/underpass?

3. What voltage range do the existing trains actually run on? I know for sure it's more than 600V (I've seen 640-780)

The downtown feasibility study from 2006 may help you.
https://www.calgarytransit.com/sites/default/files/reports/downtown_final_report.pdf
Page 15 is of interest showing downtown routing options.

I'm not sure why the city pushed so hard to go underground at 12 ave. The original at-grade 10 Ave option seemed more feasible. Two blocks of economic development didn't seem significant enough to justify the massive cost.

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34 minutes ago, CTrainDude said:

I'm not sure what part of the train clearance you're talking about (overhead, dynamic envelope, curve radius?)

Overhead. I'm adding another 50cm for catenary.

36 minutes ago, CTrainDude said:

the typical voltage right now is about 750v.

So they will probably be able to cross tracks, then. As far as I know, the only major issue with that was voltage.

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Here is the map I made showing an alternative route through downtown.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive?state={"ids":["1PpYbosxC6OMDLQlmzBmbM065QaIl44Qm"],"action":"open","userId":"107821817840719664201"}

The main problems are:

1. +15s. The S70 needs more than 15 feet of clearance

2. Parking. The best/cheapest way to build this is to acquire a couple parking lots to build on, which limits the already limited parking downtown.

3. Room on Centre Street. To prevent having SB centre Street cut off every time a train goes by, I put the line on the valley above it. This requires some engineering work to level the ground.

Edited by GrandeWest_B35G
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