Heavy Rail, Commuter Rail, & Intercity Transportation

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Says the poster siding with the people who oppose the Vancouver Plan, Broadway Plan, UBC SkyTrain, Langley SkyTrains and the Jericho Lands. If they're all on one side of the argument, it's the wrong side for urbanism.

You're so mistaken and misguided here. I'm not opposed to any of those, but want most of those you stated to be even grander. Remember how you opposed buildings of 50-70 stories to be along Broadway Corridor but want to have structures reaching max out at 40? Guess what, this may be a possibility now with the ABC government.

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Except GO corridors take people to where they want to go. That's not the case with the Lower Mainland:

This is a lie.

See this:

Originally Posted by Vin

We can create dedicated commuter train lines beside existing freight lines for the busiest routes. It takes commitment.

Also discussed many times: it is not true that "our rail lines travel is not where passengers want to go".

In fact, south of the Fraser, most town/city/industrial centres with high concentration of population or work/services have railway lines that run right through them. Hope, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Fort Langley, Walnut Grove, Bridgeview (Surrey).

Of course, north of the Fraser, we have Mission, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam Central, Port Moody, Brentwood Town Centre (Burnaby), New Westminster and Vancouver proper. Some of the mentioned are already currently served by WCE but with lots of room for expansion.

I am not even including Richmond, White Rock, Londsdale Quay (North Vancouver) and Ambleside (West Vancouver) which can easily have commuter trains running along non-busy freight lines, as well as stations that can be conveniently located at the town centres.

Therefore, it is an utter lie to say that our rail does not serve where people want to go. Even if passengers want to go further from these town centres, they can always opt to get there with an efficient and reliable shuttle bus service (funding can be transferred from long-distance buses to such services) in the immediate districts, or even via car-share services such as Evo or Modo around the stations. In fact, our railway lines can serve way better than Toronto, but only if we, as well as the politicians, have the heart and will to move this forward.

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Yes, I think you're right. In Toronto, they seem to follow the philosophy of Fred Astaire: "Do it big, Do it right, and do it with style." Here, it's the opposite: "keep it small, keep it under-built, and keep it folksy."

Definitely can't disagree with that! You used to live in France and you know what we are talking about here regarding commuter rail.