Millennium Line - Evergreen Extension | Completed - Page 4

mr.x · #61 Posted **Feb 3, 2007, 6:21 AM**

i'd call it SkyTrain Canada Line. "SkyTrain" is the name of our metro, like the NYC Subway, Hong Kong MTR, Toronto TTC, Calgary C-Train, London Underground, etc.

agrant · #62 Posted **Feb 3, 2007, 7:05 AM**

Vancouver Sky/Tunnel Train TM.

Nah. Keep it simple. Vancouver Metro.

smasher000 · #63 Posted **Feb 4, 2007, 7:08 AM**

I find this so stupid though.. nobody will ever call it Canada line

SpongeG · #64 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 2:21 AM**

a letter to the local paper... http://www.thenownews.com/issues07/021107/opinion/021107le1.html

Quote:

We need to lobby for LRT

If Tri-Cities residents want rapid transit, then we have to start showing it by demanding action from our civic, provincial and especially federal government representatives.

The proposed Evergreen Line will help us build our communities in a civilized and pleasant fashion. Instead of rushing about in our cars then waiting in traffic jams, the Evergreen Line will take us quickly and easily from Lougheed Mall to Douglas College in 23 minutes.

TransLink says LRT for this distance is between five and seven minutes slower than SkyTrain. Firstly, SkyTrain will cost $300 million more. Secondly, the people of Port Moody voted against SkyTrain. Thirdly, only LRT has been offered.

What we can get is a method of transport that encourages community; that lets you hop on and off to go shopping, visit friends or get to work. It's at street level and can be absorbed into the landscape with stations reflecting the neighbourhood.

There's scope for art and plenty of provision for safety. It has been well-received in Portland as well as in cities in Europe and Australia.

Other Lower Mainland municipalities such as Surrey, Vancouver and Burnaby are supporting the Tri-Cities' bid for the Evergreen Line, but have noted the seeming lack of support in the Tri-Cities.

Right now, $570 million has been committed by TransLink and the province towards the cost of the Evergreen Line. The remaining $400 million has been requested from the federal government. We won't know until summer whether the money will be approved - and unless we start to show we want an alternative to our cars, we want to improve the environment, we want to build our neighbourhoods, the Evergreen Line will not go ahead.

And if Evergreen is nixed, there will be no rapid transit in the northeast for decades because surrounding municipalities will start to compete for the funds, instead of support our request.

To date, lots of work, public consultation and funds have gone into planning and developing the Evergreen Line. There is more work to do, but we need to come together as a community to endorse the concept or it will never become reality.

Fred Soofi

Member, LRT Task Force

Port Moody

published on 02/02/2007

smasher000 · #65 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 2:42 AM**

LRT reminds me too much of a bus. The reason i hate buses is becuz its always stopping and starting becuz of traffic lights. SkyTrain is generally a smooth ride with stops only at stations

mr.x · #66 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 3:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by smasher000

LRT reminds me too much of a bus. The reason i hate buses is becuz its always stopping and starting becuz of traffic lights. SkyTrain is generally a smooth ride with stops only at stations

Yea I know what you mean. At least this system reminds me of the existing 97 B-Line. I doubt LRT would be that much faster than it.

Ideally of course, SkyTrain should be built....with a one-train ride from UBC to Coquitlam Centre.

I'd support LRT if it was built right....with complete traffic signal priority along its route. But it won't be.

Jared · #67 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 3:28 AM**

IIRC,

97 takes 30min
Evergreen LRT would take 20min
SkyTrain would take 12.7min (plus no need to transfer)

SpongeG · #68 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 4:08 AM**

a lot of it will be on its own as its not on the roadway in some parts - sections are tunneled or off to the side

SFUVancouver · #69 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 6:50 AM**

I like the letter and the tone it took. I think it is normal to be lamenting lost alternatives, whether it be full-blown SkyTrain or what have you, but it is past that now. The letter hits the nail on the head and puts it plainly; it is this or nothing. Once it is built, full signal priority can be added. Also, a LRT train, and that is what it is, is significantly larger than bus both in terms of overall size and internal volume. If the Feds pass on funding the line, due to their own priorities, or the percieved lack of political cost from the TriCities and Greater Vancouver, then it will be a very long time before we are back at this point with another proposal. But, if the TriCities and Translink are savvy, then the Evergreen Line can be put to the Feds as an opportunity to walk the talk of climate change and sustainablility. Get moving TriCities, Translink, raise a stink! Get mad, get over it not being SkyTrain, and go get this thing.

mr.x · #70 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 6:57 AM**

Are there even daily ridership projections for this LRT line???

officedweller · #71 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 8:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Henry_Man

^So, in legal terms, would Canada Line be called subway, or just simply "train"? Because right now, that's really confusing. Plus, it's pretty lame just to call it simply "Canada Line" without mentioning skytrain/train/metro/subway or what not.

That's not a legal question, it's a technical question.
In a legal agreement, you can define a term to mean whatever you want - and for the purposes of the agreement, the definition is what the defined term means.
It's only when you DON'T define a term in a legal agreement that you get problems. If you don't define a term, then the "industry" definition would be used, and if there's disagreement about that - i.e. "what is LRT?" - then you'd have potential for a dispute.
Remember that there are shades of gray to everything - nothing is black and white (language isn't mathematics) - most of the time you have clarifications and qualifications on terminology.

Lee_Haber8 · #72 Posted **Feb 5, 2007, 10:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.x2

Yea I know what you mean. At least this system reminds me of the existing 97 B-Line. I doubt LRT would be that much faster than it.

Ideally of course, SkyTrain should be built....with a one-train ride from UBC to Coquitlam Centre.

I'd support LRT if it was built right....with complete traffic signal priority along its route. But it won't be.

It will be now that the section near Coquitlam Centre is underground. The Evergreen Line will only stop at stations

SpongeG · #73 Posted **Feb 14, 2007, 10:43 PM**

Mayors plead for Evergreen cash

By Janis Warren The Tri-City News
Feb 14 2007

Tri-City mayors have signed their names to a letter urging the federal and provincial governments to ante up on the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam.

The letter, which was also signed by the mayors of Burnaby, New Westminster, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, was sent last week to Transport Canada minister Lawrence Cannon and Kevin Falcon, B.C.’s minister of transportation, to show a united regional stand on the proposed light-rail transit project.

TransLink is short $400 million for the $970-million line, which would run 11.2 kilometres from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Douglas College in Coquitlam.

The regional transportation authority has issued an April 1 deadline to get the extra money from Ottawa and Victoria — otherwise, the line is dead.

The letter, dated Feb. 5, states: “The Evergreen Line LRT project is the culmination of more than four years of public consultation and over $10 million of planning and engineering review, which reviewed two alignments and four technologies. Our residents, businesses and city councils have debated and carefully weighed the merits of each and have reached a consensus that this project is the best choice for our communities.”

TransLink chair and Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, who also signed the letter, said it shows area mayors are united.

Asked why the letter hadn’t been sent earlier, Brodie said, “There have been numerous discussions about this. It was just felt that an official letter showed the unanimity of the northeast mayors.”

BC Liberal MLA Iain Black (Port Moody-Westwood), who was at the TransLink meeting when the letter was proposed and signed, said yesterday the line is “one of the top priorities for our community.”

“I will continue to firmly communicate my support of rapid transit throughout the northeast sector, specifically including servicing Douglas College, to the Premier and Minister Falcon,” Black said in an email.

Tri-City MPs Dawn Black (New West-Coquitlam) and James Moore (Port Moody-Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam) also attended the TransLink meeting.

Black told The Tri-City News she’ll be pressing for the federal funding.

“I think that people want to be able to get to points A to B in the community,” she said from Ottawa. “We have to reduce traffic.”

Still, like some Tri-City residents, she has reservations about the light-rail technology. “It seems to me the decision has been made,” she said. “I’m not sure TransLink will go back to SkyTrain. At the end of the day, we need transit that gets people out of their cars... to reduce air pollution.”

Moore said he found the TransLink meeting “very instructive and helpful.”

“I am, and always have been, a strong supporter of rapid public transit to our community,” he said in an email from Ottawa.

http://www.tricitynews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=74&cat=23&id=832435&more=

SpongeG · #74 Posted **Feb 18, 2007, 11:43 PM**

Mayors look at partners, cutting price

TransLink is trying to shave $100 million off the price tag for the $970-million Evergreen light-rail transit (LRT) line to Coquitlam.

Yesterday, Port Coquitlam Mayor Scott Young said the regional transportation agency is looking at cost savings in an attempt to curry favour with — and financial support from — Ottawa and Victoria for the line.

TransLink needs another $400 million by April 1 to start building the LRT line in September. Without the senior government money, TransLink says Evergreen is dead.

Young said TransLink is also responding to new provincial government rules requiring capital projects of more than $20 million to have a component of private revenue.

“We’re looking at ways internally at TransLink, and within the region, for potential partnerships that may assist in reducing the overall impact of cost onto the taxpayer,” Young told The Tri-City News yesterday.

Last year, the TransLink board, which then included Young, Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson and Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini, voted to extend the completion date of Evergreen by two years, ending in 2011 rather than 2009.

The result, they said, would mean a cost “savings” of $107 million on contracts.

Still, the construction bill soared from $800 million to $953 million and, later, to $970 million — or $86.2 million per kilometre — when TransLink proposed a tunnel at Lougheed/Barnet/Pinetree.

To date, TransLink has committed $400 million to Evergreen while the province has earmarked $170 million after 2010, for a total of $570 million — $400 million short.

Young said private funding for Evergreen “is yet to be determined but we’re looking at potential partnerships like park-and-rides. It has been done on the Canada Line and we’re examining other models that have taken place, so we’re not pulling this out of thin air.

“We’re sending clear messages to our senior levels of government that we’re going to examine every potential aspect of this project,” Young said. “We’re going to demonstrate that we’re being financially responsible to gain their acceptance and, hopefully, overall approval of this project.”

Meanwhile, Young said he has asked TransLink to consider re-locating the proposed site for Evergreen’s maintenance/operations yard from an area south of Barnet Highway (around Bond Street) to the PoCo Transit Centre on Kingsway Avenue – land TransLink already owns.

That way, Young said, Evergreen could be extended to PoCo — a move that would be considered positive by Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, which are also pressing for an LRT extension to those communities.

“That invitation is out there to TransLink,” Young said. “It’s been clearly communicated on several occasions and we welcome the opportunity to be home to the maintenance yard for the LRT.”

PoCo Coun. Greg Moore, who chairs the city’s public works committee, said he has also raised the subject with TransLink, given the high cost to expropriate land and business from the Barnet corridor in Coquitlam.

TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie confirmed TransLink staff are studying options to extend Evergreen to PoCo.

“We’re having a look to see what corridors exist,” he said.

http://www.tricitynews.com/