Millennium Line - Broadway Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[lightrail]

I don't really understand why we're wasting money deciding on technology. It seems to be a given to me. Here's why.

Skytrain has been determined to be the best business case option for Evergreen. Presumably on interlining, speed and capacity verse construction cost. This is for a line that is expected to generated only 25,000 riders per day.

Now to Broadway. Why would anybody with at least half a brain pick anything less than Skytrain for Broadway, where the expected ridership is 200,000 people per day? What kind of insane thinking does it take to determine that a line carrying 25,000 people a day requires SkyTrain technology, while I line carrying 200,000 per day can make do with light rail.

Can you imagine if light rail is picked for broadway?

Tri-cities get to spread out in luxury, put their bags on seats and relax and enjoy a nice fast run to Broadway-Commerical. Now comes the fun, to go down to street level, cross some lanes of traffic to a small and inadequate platform and then fight to get on an overcrowded LRT for a slow ride down broadway. Oh, look, the LRT is stopped because some moron is illegally turning left.

Sorry, but the whole idea of LRT down Broadway, given the Evergreen decision, just seems pointless to me.

Some people, and by some people, I mean translink planners, have this nostalgic romantic notion of streetcars running down the middle of streets somehow make those street more human friendly. GET THAT OUT OF YOUR HEAD. This is not Europe, this is North America. What works in Europe does not necessarily work here. Besides, most European cities have much less traffic and larger cities (of the size of Vancouver) have underground lines in congested areas.