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Originally Posted by mr.x2
You seem to be unaware that the Canada Line has 40 metre and 50 metre station platforms (SkyTrain has 80 metre platforms that can be extended beyond). These 40 and 50 metre platforms cannot be extended any further due to the design (large powerful tunnel fans right before and after stations) and the required depth of tunnel for longer platforms. For example, the track switches right before and after Bridgeport Station are too close to the station to allow beyond 50 metre platforms.
The station platforms can be extended, probably, but for a hell lot of money after it is built. We're talking about digging up whole sections of tunnel, redoing the Bridgeport guideway......in other words, platform extensions beyond 50 metres is a dead end.
Do you really think that the Canada Line in 2020 when ridership is 150,000 daily (projections), the line will be able to sustain all that demand? The Expo Line is 33% longer with more stations AND with 80 metre platforms has difficulty in keeping up with all the demand. 180,000 people use the line each day. What makes you think that in 2020 - a line with less stations (therefore more passengers per station on average) AND a line that is shorter AND a line that has shorter platforms AND a line with smaller capacity trains - can handle 150,000 daily?
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I think a better question is whether or not we believe there will be 150,000 people per day waiting to ride the line; the official bullet-point list notes a potential ridership in 2021 of 45 million (assuming the year still has 365 days in the future, this would work out to 125,000/day—but let's not belabor that point; we'll give them the benefit of the doubt that weekends are less important). What is important, though, is that 45 million is the highest ridership lie inTransitBC feels they can foist on us. The more detailed ridership summary available
here states "The forecast ridership in 2021 is between 30.9 – 44.8 million riders per year." (30.9 million/yr = 85,000/day). Now it would be overly cynical to suggest that the line would have less riders in 2021, so maybe we should suggest that 100,000 is a ridiculous prediction. In fact, it appears that even Translink
agrees:
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Ken Hardie, director of communications for TransLink, said the transit authority's modelling shows the ridership will be there. "Even without the Canada Line, just looking at the current transit service in that north-south corridor, we're probably looking at about 80,000 a day by 2010," he said.
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Councillor David Cadman is even less generous about ridership:
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"We can only identify 43,000 bus riders who we anticipate will take the Canada Line because their service is being discontinued," he added.
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In the worst case, Translink can add capacity back to the bus routes it cut back on to create Canada line ridership in the first place.
It's worth pointing out that it doesn't follow that a shorter line with fewer stations will have more riders than a longer line with more stations. Also, there can only be one limiting factor wrt capacity; either the vehicles are the problem, or the platform, or—as in the case of the Canada line—neither are a problem.
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