Heavy Rail, Commuter Rail, & Intercity Transportation

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

My hometown? You do not likely know my hometown,and if you did, you would know that for its size, it has great transit.

As far as Aldergrove, if they were to use the old BC rail line to Abbotsford, would there be a stop in Aldergrove?

"Great" is relative. And most people aren't this vehement about something that belongs in the Transit Fantasy thread without some kind of skin in the game.

That's assuming they use the BC rail line at all - we've been over this multiple times. Easier to run a brand new line down the TCH and have a bus line to Aldergrove.

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Huh? Are you talking the old Via Dayliner or the commuter rail?

Commuter rail would likely be several trips timed for serving the navy base and serving downtown Victoria...

... Depends on the definition of return on investment.
Lets say it was using the old Talent trains from Ottawa. (the idea was floated.) They seat 135 people. Lets say that each trip it had 90% of the seats full the whole way. That would be a good return on investment. If it had less than 50% for the whole way, then it would be a bad investment. Quick google search, there are at least 4 buses leaving Monday morning after 5am. Typically those buses, if they are single level seat 80 people. That is 62% of the Talent fleet. This does not take into account the Lake Cowichan routes or the Shawnagan routes.

So, They could run 4 Talents right now every half hour for the commuting traffic and the buses would be able to be taken off the Malahat, and you would fill the Talents.

I would say that is pretty good return on investment.

Interestingly, the Bilevel coaches on the WCE hold about 160, so they could use 1 Bilevel coach and an engine and it be full too.

I'm talking about the ICF's actual "document:" they're literally starting out with one train, and then expanding (as you said) to three.
Again, if they're staying in Victoria, that's 1-3 round trips for the day. If it's multiple trips, it's 4.6 hours there and back, so 2WAD with three trains (assuming no layovers) works out to 92 minutes between trains at best. Nowhere close to SkyTrain frequency.

You've confused capacity with ridership. It doesn't matter how many trainsets you scrounge up when the province has run the numbers and determined that only 1,505 people between Courtenay and Victoria will switch and leave their cars at home. Those bi-hourly trains would sit mostly empty.