[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Steveston itself is enough of an anchor for a B-Line. I'm suggesting light rail because of the old ROW.



SkyTrain'd work better going to Ladner, though. Regionally speaking - as waves pointed out - Steveston's a dead end, better suited for a semi-rapid line.

Maybe ditch the commuter rail. The track is there, but the ridership isn't, and CP is still using the track regularly. Light rail'd need a couple of lane closures, yes, but it's a much more direct route with a larger catchment; not many people needing to get to the Holiday Inn.

Well, nobody's ever accused Richmond of having good long-term planning or an urban mindset.
Although a road might work better in the near future. The only major source of ridership would be the new condos around Capstan and the Oval - everything in-between is strip malls and warehouses.

Apples and oranges methinks. If a parking lot at the mall floods, you take the bus or stay home. If your home floods....

There's not much left of that ROW inside Richmond City Centre though, which is the problem. Which means reducing Granville Av. to 2-3 lanes, resulting in the same problem with putting LRT down 104 Av @ Surrey (ok, maybe not AS bad, but it's still a major arterial). Either that, or elevate it there- which means you may as well just extend the Canada down there and double-track the Landsome-Brigehouse section, killing two birds with one stone.

"Regularly" is an overstatement. It's one of CN's least used Rail spurs in Vancouver. http://cnebusiness.geomapguide.ca/

Also, I just noticed that there's a Rail spur paralleling the Expo to Central Park. Wut? I thought that was abandoned?

It would be better for long-distance transfers than LRT or Skytrain. And it may be cheap enough to justify it vs extending the Canada.

Though I'm not sure if NIMBYs would prevent building a lot of the 'new' Sections. The part in Steveston in particular is literally right behind a school and Apartments.

You lose your car?
Still a big deal.

Originally Posted by officedweller

Yeah, there's a lot less development potential in south Richmond and South Delta due to all the farmland.

South Delta north of Steveston is mostly suburbs, though.

Originally Posted by waves

It's not just Ladner that would get served though. With a Park and Ride station just on the south end of the new bridge, plus a terminus at the Ladner Bus Loop it would serve all of Delta, Tsawwassen (and the ferries), White Rock, South Surrey and even potentially some Langley commuters. It would be an excellent anchor point for a new Commuter Light Rail Line from the ferries, to Ladner, then South Surrey, Langley and maybe even Abbotsford and Chilliwack.

I hope that's not Skytrain.

Originally Posted by SpongeG

it's a lot of money though, there are better ways to spend limited funds. The kind of people who go to the ferry by bus are the kind of people who go to the ferry on a bus. Tourists will either drive on or take a charter bus. It's like a premium service for a select few.

TBF, you could use that argument against B-lines. Efficient, fast transit attracts people to use it via induced demand.

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

That's still a large number of commuters though. You've got around 50k people moving every day between Richmond, Delta and Surrey four and a half years ago. Run a B-Line (Canada terminus to Langley Station) to start, wait for it to burst, upgrade to an S-Bahn. Should take some pressure off the Massey Bridge.

And isn't this the fantasy thread? What about 2050 or later, when everything's built out? Not hard to see tourists from the States hopping off the Surrey HSR terminal and riding the tram to the ferry.



Annacis Island, right? This is also Delta. Not much, but people do live there - Prince Rupert is technically a city too.

Walnut Grove population: 23,295
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta,_British_Columbia#Communities
Ladner population: 21,112
Tsawwassen population: 20,933

Tram this far out is overkill. Ladner and Tsawwassen themselves aren't really destinations or large bedroom communities (except maybe the mall and Ferry Terminal), and thus, most people need to go far and fast, which is not really what LRT and Light Metro are designed for. They're intermediate urban transit systems, and as you're almost always going to be travelling at full acceleration, that time not accelerating even faster is wasted time; There's likely to be only 2 stops on the way to the Ferry Terminal, after all: one at Ladner and Tsawwassen for cover service.

Hence commuter Rail.

However, I'm not sure if building a commuter rail bridge at the GMB is really cost-effective.