Millennium Line - Broadway Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[BCPhil]

As much as I love the streetcar and think it would be perfect for downtown or to replace certain bus routes, I think it's success actually shows how it is totally inappropriate for Broadway at this point.

It took two months of of Olympic related activity to move 500,000 people. Canada Line moved that in 2 days, the Expo Line in a single Sunday. And this is with streetcars able to leave every 5 minutes. That's just not enough capacity for what is needed. Most times I rode the streetcar it was packed, with people left standing.

Now the opposition will argue, hey, that was only to Granville island, and there wasn't a lot of demand for that destination at off peak times. I would retort: but at peak times there were multiple trains waits when trains were running every 5 minutes, that's what Broadway is like all day everyday.

Also, the corridor is so long. The streetcar is perfect for short trips of a few KM, but going all the way to Granville or UBC from Commercial wouldn't draw more people from their cars. People are looking to get to work fast, and on time, they don't need the scenic route. The study shows that 50% of travelers in the corridor are from outside CoV, that's from beyond Broadway. These aren't people looking to do window shopping or searching for a coffee, they are half asleep on their way to work.

Personally, I think there are too many people in key spots of power that know they need to have Skytrain under Broadway. It seems, after reading the above reports, that the people in City Hall (the kind that live there and don't change with each election) know what it should be too, and are setting the expectations so that only one option meets their conditions. The city planners seem to be able to tell the difference between the need for streetcar, LRT, and Skytrain; even if councilors can't.