Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion II

[jollyburger]

Who makes signs with bay numbers this small? At least get rid of the redundant "Bay" and make the 4 larger.



Credit: https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/01/09/translink-launches-accessibility-tool/

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Who makes signs with bay numbers this small? At least get rid of the redundant "Bay" and make the 4 larger.

I would suggest making the orange disc larger but keeping the "Bay". The number "4" by itself would have people wondering what the number referred to. Some might even mistake it for "Route 4" despite the adjacent sign.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

The signage on the Canada Line is truly abysmal and has been since day 1.

I like how it takes a whole station to station time to scroll through the message at the front telling you what the next station is. It does suck.

[p78hub]

The Canada Line trains are desperately in need of a refresh. It's amazing how dated they look what with the dim lighting and lack of any sort of modern wayfinding.

[cganuelas1995]

Originally Posted by p78hub

The Canada Line trains are desperately in need of a refresh. It's amazing how dated they look what with the dim lighting and lack of any sort of modern wayfinding.

They could easily fit two bikes in the bike section if they have them vertical.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

How is Translink introducing the Mar V into revenue service? It seems that only one train right now (my guess is to work out all the bugs of live revenue service). When will the other 3 trains go into revenue service.

One of the trains is in revenue service (I want to say it was train 602 but I'm not entirely sure). I had a short ride in it today. Aside from the obvious (it being longer) it wasn't all that different from the Mark 4 trains.

I was in the end car, which had 2 sections for bikes / standing / etc. I really like the leaning pads they have there and hope they retrofit them into the Mark 4 cars. There was an open spot (where there would be a seat on other trains) which had a wheelchair symbol. Also the wider panels near the doors had some First Nation art, which was a nice touch (some of the panels were narrower and plain).

Originally Posted by NewfBC

It's an LCD screen not a printed sheet. The screen can scroll or alternate.

Ron.

It alternated like a standard video screen. I saw 3 different screens - the map that's already been shown on here, another map just showing a small section of the route that it's on, and then a standard 'know before you go' blurb from TransLink.

[Express691]

Originally Posted by dpogue

Train 602 (6011-6025) was the first to arrive but is being used for special system testing and has not (to my knowledge) started its non-revenue testing.

Train 604 (6031-6045) was doing non-revenue testing but I haven't seen it lately. It's possible it had some sort of fault that requires re-starting the testing and they opted to just keep going with the next train.

Train 606 (6051-6065) has completed its non-revenue testing and is now in revenue service testing. This is the train that was used for the promotional event on Thursday.

Train 608 (6071-6085) is somewhere in the yard. I don't think it's been out for non-revenue testing yet.

Train 610 (6091-6105) just arrived this month.

It's just me but it's kind of alarming how there's only 2 trains that arrived since April, and we need at least 16 more trains over the next 29 months to reach the end of 2027 if they want a 1 for 1 replacement of mark 1s AKA reach 25 Mark V trains delivered.

If we read off the current pace of 1 train every 3 months, there will only be 14 trains by the end of 2027, not accounting for those undergoing testing. This also assumes 66 mk1 cars are left.

Assuming that 18 mark V has the same capacity of 25 Mark 1, they can operate the Expo Line with 7 less total trains online. If you go and transfer 66 mark 1 to the Millennium Line for 16 mark 2 (11 6-car mark 1s for 8 4-car mk2s), that's a total of 10 less trains on the expo line while still at more or less the same capacity.

if I were TL I would store additional Mark 2 in Coquitlam on the overnights and dedicate S10 (track lane) at OMC1 to mk1 storage instead of scrapping.

New yard opens 2027
Broadway Subway opens 2027.
That's not enough time to stockpile rolling stock to run the network.

((please I don't want to do anymore mental gymnastics))

[madog222]

Perhaps deliveries have been delayed by Translink's request due to commissioning of the first trains taking longer than expected? Just a theory.
If this is the case we should see deliveries speed up now.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Express691

It's just me but it's kind of alarming how there's only 2 trains that arrived since April, and we need at least 16 more trains over the next 29 months to reach the end of 2027 if they want a 1 for 1 replacement of mark 1s AKA reach 25 Mark V trains delivered.

If we read off the current pace of 1 train every 3 months, there will only be 14 trains by the end of 2027, not accounting for those undergoing testing. This also assumes 66 mk1 cars are left.

Assuming that 18 mark V has the same capacity of 25 Mark 1, they can operate the Expo Line with 7 less total trains online. If you go and transfer 66 mark 1 to the Millennium Line for 16 mark 2 (11 6-car mark 1s for 8 4-car mk2s), that's a total of 10 less trains on the expo line while still at more or less the same capacity.

if I were TL I would store additional Mark 2 in Coquitlam on the overnights and dedicate S10 (track lane) at OMC1 to mk1 storage instead of scrapping.

New yard opens 2027
Broadway Subway opens 2027.
That's not enough time to stockpile rolling stock to run the network.

((please I don't want to do anymore mental gymnastics))

I remember the plan is to eventually have one train arriving each month.

For Broadway subway, they probably need some test trains very soon, and likely be in full service testing mode late 2026 or early 2027 (depending on the opening date)

Also, the plan is to turn all M-Line trains into 4 cars... not sure what's the timing of this - would they initially run the Broadway Subway using 2 car trains, or switch to the longer train to coincide with the opening? With the explosion of the ridership at Brentwood, the first part of M-Line is already getting quite crowded...

So here is my calculation for the train requirement

Broadway subway - 4 trains (24min r/t, 3min headway = 8x 2-car trains)
Restore full service to Production - 1 train
Expand ML to 4 cars - 17 trains (26x 2-cars for current M-Line, plus 8x 2-cars for Broadway)

So they'll need at least 5 additional trains by 2027 if they want to run Broadway with 2-cars, or 22 trains with 4-cars.

For the latter case, I don't see there's much retiring of MkI until 2027... and then, Langley extension will need some trains to start testing by that time...

[Express691]

Originally Posted by nname

I remember the plan is to eventually have one train arriving each month.

For Broadway subway, they probably need some test trains very soon, and likely be in full service testing mode late 2026 or early 2027 (depending on the opening date)

Also, the plan is to turn all M-Line trains into 4 cars... not sure what's the timing of this - would they initially run the Broadway Subway using 2 car trains, or switch to the longer train to coincide with the opening? With the explosion of the ridership at Brentwood, the first part of M-Line is already getting quite crowded...

So here is my calculation for the train requirement

Broadway subway - 4 trains (24min r/t, 3min headway = 8x 2-car trains)
Restore full service to Production - 1 train
Expand ML to 4 cars - 17 trains (26x 2-cars for current M-Line, plus 8x 2-cars for Broadway)

So they'll need at least 5 additional trains by 2027 if they want to run Broadway with 2-cars, or 22 trains with 4-cars.

For the latter case, I don't see there's much retiring of MkI until 2027... and then, Langley extension will need some trains to start testing by that time...

They’re down to at most 69 mk1 pairs from the total fleet of 75 as of now. There may have been a couple more sent off with this most recent arrival of 6091/6105

[jollyburger]

Some group called Embrace Vancouver apparently made an RFI submission

https://www.embracevancouver.com/repurpose-translink-skytrain

[RedArbutus]

Very interesting, Jolly.

I don't remember if I said this here but I'd personally love to see them integrated in a novelty way into a building renovation somewhere. Why not like Easey's in Melbourne? (Great burgers btw)

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by RedArbutus

Very interesting, Jolly.

I don't remember if I said this here but I'd personally love to see them integrated in a novelty way into a building renovation somewhere. Why not like Easey's in Melbourne? (Great burgers btw)

Perhaps we need some New Old Spaghetti Factorys?

[cganuelas1995]

It would be cool if they could build a restaurant attached to a station and have a fake third platform/track and the shell of an old train car as part of a stairway up, like an homage to the iconic Montparnasse derailment photo

[jollyburger]

Stack one on top of the Trans-Am Totem

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Perhaps we need some New Old Spaghetti Factorys?

Brilliant!

And maybe if we squish a car down really small, it'll fit on the Trans Am.

[Mac Write]

When can we expect more MarK V trains to enter public revenue service? we only have 605-606 in service. What is the status of 603-604, 607-608?

[jollyburger]

Next board meeting is October 1 but we'll probably see at least one of the sets currently in testing in service by then?

[cganuelas1995]

I really feel that airport trains need to have seating along the side. I see too many people with rolling luggage taking up whole rows of seats with their luggage.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by nname

I remember the plan is to eventually have one train arriving each month.

For Broadway subway, they probably need some test trains very soon, and likely be in full service testing mode late 2026 or early 2027 (depending on the opening date)

Also, the plan is to turn all M-Line trains into 4 cars... not sure what's the timing of this - would they initially run the Broadway Subway using 2 car trains, or switch to the longer train to coincide with the opening? With the explosion of the ridership at Brentwood, the first part of M-Line is already getting quite crowded...

So here is my calculation for the train requirement

Broadway subway - 4 trains (24min r/t, 3min headway = 8x 2-car trains)
Restore full service to Production - 1 train
Expand ML to 4 cars - 17 trains (26x 2-cars for current M-Line, plus 8x 2-cars for Broadway)

So they'll need at least 5 additional trains by 2027 if they want to run Broadway with 2-cars, or 22 trains with 4-cars.

For the latter case, I don't see there's much retiring of MkI until 2027... and then, Langley extension will need some trains to start testing by that time...

The ridership memo (linked pdf) shows that the Production Way branch could start running through to Arbutus during peak times in 2035. Perhaps this operating pattern is moved forward to provide that extra capacity on the Broadway to Brentwood section of the Millennium Line without sending too many longer trains to Coquitlam once the Broadway Subway is completed.