[Oddball]

It's interesting that the problem is garnering international attention from a school in the Netherlands. But even if we were able to reroute the portion of the CPR mainline that cuts through downtown, I don't know if I'd want to lose the tracks. That would be the lynch-pin of a future commuter rail system and I'd take that over a greenbelt.

 

[maestro]

I'm all for CPR building a bypass around the city. I'm not for having the tracks removed. The vacant lots and buildings that turn theirs backs from the underpasses are more of a barrier than the tracks.

 

[gsunnyg]

I guess it doesn't have to be more than just an indoor rec centre.....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/westbrook-soccer-dome-1.4568874

Wow I really hope that never gets built, what a wasted opportunity around an LRT line, that too which is underground. From the development concept in 2009 it looked like we were for sure getting a small highrise node with high density and then 9 years later they pull this sort of stunt off. Whats the point of preparing redevelopment presentations if your not going through with them. What a buzz kill.

 

[darwink]

An interesting topic for sure. Some useful maps, red is indigenous reserves:

So, probably the most stable place to rejoin the mainline would be just east of the Ghost dam, which would also mean you wouldn't have to move it a second time if a future Bow River flood control dam was built in between Ghost and Cochrane. At minimum it would be something like 100 km of track. After all that money would still need to twin lines to get all day two way service.

I doubt it is elevation friendly, which is where a big cost would come from.

 

[Oddball]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the Aylth yard not CPR's busiest yard in Western Canada, if not the country?

@hollahollaholla posted this link a few months ago in the Fantasy Transit Maps thread:

https://rac.jmaponline.net/canadianrailatlas/

Re-routing that looks like one hell of an operation. I'm not quite sure a park is worth that. I think the better option would actually be to expand capacity through Calgary so that the CPR and future commuter rail connections could coexist harmoniously.

 

[DougB]

If the Alyth Yard and surrounding industrial land could be vacated and remediated, it would make for a very attractive urban renewal project. The cost would be enormous.

 

[Oddball]

I'm not sure that's something Calgarians should wish for. There has to be a tremendous amount of economic activity tied to the Alyth yard.

 

[DougB]

I was thinking it would be abandoned for being too small with a new facility being built somewhere east of the city with access to Stone.

 

[Surrealplaces]

You never know, moving Alyth yards to a location out of the city, maybe just east of the city isn't out of the question. Saskatoon is looking to move theirs.

 

[Golfing guy]

Didn’t CN move their yard to Conrad as well?

 

[Zoom]

Didn’t CN move their yard to Conrad as well?

They did, out to Conrich, about 10 years ago iirc. CP has a much bigger yard and operations, but they could move a good chunk of it out to the SE fringe of the city. The locomotive shops would be costly to move, and might have to stay, but they have a lot of track in the Ogden yards that they aren't using anymore. They could re-configure their existing yards and even that would open up a lot of space.

 

[jdixon]

CP's business is not real estate speculation or urban redevelopment. I feel there's absolutely no way CP would do either a re-route around Calgary or tunnel through downtown that unless government paid for the full capital cost, in exchange for the land they are vacating. I would also assume the government would have to take on the construction debt for the entire construction period before they were actually able to sell it.

If that's the case, unless the government was able to hedge by pre-selling the land, I really don't want any level of government to assume that risk for something like this...

 

[darwink]

Full capital cost and probably 30 years of additional operational cost. The new route wouldn't be as flat and would be longer.

A significantly smaller amount of money would get Calgary a great all directions all day rail system, maybe with some new towns on the Copenhagen model:
1947:

 

[Surrealplaces]

Calgary Tower view of the new YWCA

 

[Spudski]

A significantly smaller amount of money would get Calgary a great all directions all day rail system, maybe with some new towns on the Copenhagen model:
1947:

Seems someone has taken the "invisible hand" quite literally.