PtboChallenges

Heavy Rail
It is challenging to have light rail and heavy rail cross because neither vehicle can get out of the way. The only remaining heavy rail line through Peterborough and its crossings are shown on the following map.

Factoid: The railway crossing street sign is called a Crossbuck. (Thanks: Fraser Simpson 2021-10-23 cryptic crossword.)

River and Canal
The Trent Canal (and Otonabee River) trisect Peterborough from north to south. There are existing bridges and the opportunity for new crossings. Plans at this point envision:
 * a new multimodal bridge across the Otonabee River at Marina Blvd linking to Armour Road.
 * using the Hunter St bridge which was built during the previous light rail era and a route was planned but never built across it.
 * using the modern Lansdowne bridge which is assumed to be sufficient for streetcars (this could be researched).
 * None of the existing canal crossings are suitable for rail - swing bridges at Parkhill and Maria, high level bridge at MacFarlane or the Lift Lock tunnel. The route traversing the east side of the city could deal with the complicated heavy rail / canal / limited road crossing issue by going aloft on a trestle to cross all three in one swoop.

Grades
While the south end of Peterborough is quite flat there are some hills to be contended with. In most cases the hills have already affected with layout of the town and a streetcar network will follow existing development and therefore avoid hills too. But the proposed routes do encounter elevation changes in the following locations: back to Ptbo
 * the area of the Peterborough Zoo is 16m above the upper section of Water St.
 * the elevation change from Marina Blvd & Water St to the top of Towerhill Rd is about 60m
 * there is climb from Monaghan Rd & McDonnel St to the back of the Mount property
 * there is some elevation change from Armour Rd & Parkhill Rd down to Rogers St & Hunter St, then up again and down to whatever happens at the canal crossing.