Rail tunnel

Why road and not rail?

One of the possible ideas regarding the Lion's Gate bridge is to replace it with a twin tube tunnel, each tube carrying two lanes of road traffic. No rail link would be built, for the implied reason that rail is more expensive and that the North Shore is not large enough to justify a rail link.

People should be questioning both of these reasons. First of all, is rail more expensive?

Double track rail tunnel versus two lane road tunnel

The cost of completing a bored (circular) tunnel depends on

• the tunnel diameter
• ventilation requirements
• outfitting of the bare tunnel

A rail tunnel for electric trains, it seems to me, wins out on the first two points. A marginally smaller diameter tunnel may be possible, as compared to a road tunnel. Ventilation requirements are very much smaller due to lack of noxious emissions. Both of these advantages point to a rail tunnel costing less than a road tunnel.

On the other hand, the road tunnel wins on the last point because it avoids the need to install rail, catenary and power substations. This advantage points to a road tunnel costing less.

So which would cost less? I don't think the answer is obvious, and I find it curious that there don't seem to be any engineers that want to tell me the answer to that question. If indeed a rail tunnel would be cheaper or perhaps even not significantly more expensive, then one must ask: what justifies spending money on facilities for cars, not transit?

The North Shore is not the only destination

The second reason given for not constructing a rail tunnel is that the North Shore is too small to justify rail transit. This begs the question, however: why is it not too small to justify approximately the same amount of money being spent on cars?

In any event, this is not really a valid justification for road, since it ignores the possibilities of a connection to, and upgrading of, the BC Rail line. A rail tunnel would allow a fast transit connection not just to North and West Vancouver, but also to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, Squamish, and Whistler. Given that highway 99 is becoming clogged, and that an upgrading of the highway has been estimated to cost $2 billion, it may in fact be cheaper to build a rail tunnel than to continue trying to cope by building more roads.

My suggestion

If the government is intent on building a twin tube crossing of Burrard Inlet, I suggest one of those tubes be a two track rail connection from Waterfront station to the BC Rail line.

The Lion's Gate bridge would remain for pedestrian and bicycle use. Car commuters will use the road tunnel, which would preferably be two lanes wide.