10-30-2015, 12:50 AM
(10-29-2015, 10:47 PM)mpd618 Wrote:(10-29-2015, 08:34 PM)Drake Wrote: Hespeler Road is already bad. Throwing a train into the mix there is not an improvement, but what do I know.
What is persuasive to me about a Hespeler Road alignment is that it has a lot of past-its-prime big box and strip plazas, whose owners would likely be quite willing to redevelop to maximize their revenue. And no one would miss what's there now. Plus, a lot of it could be built just on the far-too-large parking lots, without initially displacing the current uses. There's a lot less opportunity for transit-oriented development along Coronation.
This. Anything of sentimental value has already been demolished and there's nothing of architectural value. Bring on the bulldozers. Through traffic is going to complicate things until a Highway 24 bypass is built.
LRT connecting to GO would be a dream come true. The proposed alignment along Water Street with a stop at GCI would serve Samuelson well; I don't think the CPR station is any farther from Water Street than Port Credit or Clarkson GO stations are from Hurontario. It's the Samuelson to Ainslie leg that's going to be tricky. Water Street is narrow and steep and the former Grand River Railway alignment is now a trail (and parking lot for a building facing Main and Wellington) so fitting it in is going to be challenging.