So in otherwords, what the professional transit planners had been planning for decades until Naheed Nenshi decided he knew better.
And I will point out, in terms of the north central alignment, nothing is actually done. There is still a possibilty to do what you are proposing. I would say that is actually the most likely outcome, the SE and North Central lines are separated, with the north central line running up nose creek. Then, instead of a street car, we just simply keep operaing the 301/Max Green on your route, using those new fancy shelters.
I don't think Nenshi did much to initiate any changes - he just took a phone call before the 2015 federal election that turned out to be a poisoned chalice. With hindsight that opportunity could have been managed better - we probably could have asked for more than $4.5B and gotten it - but this was just 3 years after wrapping a ~$1.2B LRT (without any federal funding and the majority was funded by province) so the city taking on a $1.5B obligation was a dramatic increase in itself. (but I agree splitting the lines is the most pragmatic solution)
If timelines shook out a little differently it's interesting to wonder how things might have played out. For instance, if that federal phone call came a couple years later when a 2026 Olympic bid was in exploration stage then things may have been prioritized very differently; the late 2015-19 council deserves some credit for not letting that potential shiny object sway plans, though it's probably only because they already promised the world to the SE. Also a little crazy to think about the watermain situation in an alternate reality where we're welcoming the world next month!
Interestingly, connecting to the airport does not seem to have been a benefit considered in the Nose Creek alignment...at least not as of 2005 (but speaking of shiny objects I can imagine why they might be reluctant to draw that line on a map):
But looking at the strategic plans from 2005 also shows that the green line is not the first time 'professional transit plans' have changed quite substantially - the idea then was to start with BRT in the west, north, and SE:
Which would have meant we'd have something like this by now:
Instead we built the west LRT right away (operational about 8 years before planned here), extended to Tuscany/Saddletowne, and implemented some other glorified BRTs.
They knew as of 2005 that they didn't really know how to handle 3 or 4 LRTs entering DT in the east and had ordered studies to figure it out. The progressions from BRT to LRT within a decade never made a ton of sense, but it was a mistake to seemingly abandon mode progression altogether.
It's interesting to wonder if the money fairy was more generous in the late 2000s if they would have jumped to doing the W and SE together...they did have LF trains in mind by then for the SE, so maybe both lines stay on the south side of the heavy tracks (though the beltline was a lot less developed at that point)
