Millennium Line - Evergreen Extension | Completed

[Canadian Mind]

lol, evergreen death is only 2 months away... hopefully will be revived in a few years as skytrain

[hollywoodnorth]

Die Evergreen Die!

Go Skytrain Go!

[SpongeG]

Transit hopes rise with green pledge

By Jeff Nagel
Black Press
Feb 20 2007


Gateway undermines throne speech: critics

The province’s new commitment to fight climate change is fanning hopes it may bring more money for transit along with transportation policy reform.

The Feb. 13 throne speech pledged a 33 per cent cut in B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 – a target more aggressive than California’s, which drew praise from environmentalist David Suzuki.

Topping the wish list for TransLink is money for more buses, and a $970-million Evergreen light rail line to Coquitlam, which is underfunded by $400 million.

“There’s a lot of general indications in interest in what TransLink is attempting to accomplish,” said TransLink chair Malcolm Brodie.

“Bus expansion is big for us,” he said. “We’re also looking to add a third SeaBus in the next three-year plan.”

Marion Town, executive director of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST), said Victoria’s promise to set firm targets to reduce emissions is a “remarkable shift” but added the devil is in the details. Since transportation is the single biggest greenhouse gas contributor, she said, major transit investments would mesh well with the new commitments.

“It would be such an easy win to actually make a commitment to the Evergreen Line,” she said.

Town also hopes the budget will bring changes that put TransLink on solid permanent financial footing, perhaps through increased fuel taxes.

The throne speech repeated the government’s position that the Gateway project will ultimately reduce emissions from vehicle idling by cutting congestion and opening up more transit and cycling options.

Critics say Gateway will enable more car use, and contend emissions could be better slashed by putting more of the money to transit improvements.

“By clinging so stubbornly to Gateway, the Campbell government cannot hope to have any credibility on global warming,” said Fraser Valley environmentalist Donna Passmore.

The speech also said “electronic tolls will help restrain traffic growth.” So far the province’s policy is to only toll new infrastructure but most transportation experts favour a move to road pricing where some form of tolling is applied everywhere

Town said the province should change the policy and accept tolling of existing routes – a move that could fight climate change at the same time.

Also listed in the throne speech is $89 million for hydrogen fuelling stations and 20 fuel cell buses, as part of an planned “hydrogen highway” from Whistler to Vancouver and Surrey that may eventually run south along the west coast all the way to San Diego.

http://www.peacearchnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=44&cat=23&id=836695&more=

[SFUVancouver]

Budget came down today, a housing budget. On first blush it doesn't look like there is any follow-through from last week's throne speech. I'm starting to look ahead to the silver lining of the Evergreen Line being shelved, and that would likely be a significant increase in bus and SkyTrain car purchases, probably another SeaBus too. I'm truly not saying that these things should be given priority over the Evergreen Line, in fact we should do both and more simultaneously, but it would really help take the edge off if Translink announced 250 new fleet expansion buses and a full exercise of options on the recent SkyTrain order.

[ssiguy]

Why are there so many damn stations on the Evergreen Line?
If there are that many stations they should just go with BRT. The #97 is slower than #99 or #99 because they have far fewer stations.
The Evergreen line is not rapid transit but just a glorified streetcar.
They should look at Calgary's CTrain for insperation.

[officedweller]

I'm not sure how well the Evergreen Line would work as a P3 - but that's what they want to do. One possible benefit is that if ridership fails to materialize, it could be extended sooner rather than later to prop it up.

Government guarantees Evergreen Line but TransLink is short money
Friday, February 23 - 06:30:00 AM

Reaon Ford/Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - After months of nasty debate, the Provincial Government is finally offering a guarantee about the Evergreen Line. Transport Minister Kevin Falcon says the rapid-transit project to the Tri-Cities will be built but the only question is how TransLink will pay for it.

The answer will be private money. TransLink has submitted a new business case to Partnerships BC, which is a body that helps set up private involvement in public projects. Falcon has been pushing a so called P3 to build the line since the start. TransLink is short more than $400 million in funding, which is almost half of the project's overall cost.

[Smooth]

Another article from today's Vancouver Sun. There are some good quotes from Falcon at the end of it.

Burnaby- Coquitlam transit line will be built, minister says

William Boei
Vancouver Sun

Friday, February 23, 2007

The Evergreen rapid transit line from Burnaby to Coquitlam will "absolutely" be built, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said Thursday, adding that he is certain it will be built as a public-private partnership.

TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, had been planning to build the Evergreen Line as a public project, but was more than $400 million short of the $970-million price tag.

Last fall, Falcon rejected TransLink's request for more money.

"The provincial government commitment to the Evergreen Line is absolute," Falcon said in a telephone interview from Victoria. "It's going to get built.

"The issue really is, how's TransLink going to pay for it, and how is it going to get built?"

Falcon said he has told TransLink its plan to build the Evergreen Line as a public project "is absolutely not on. You are going to be examining a P3 [public-private partnership] option and I can tell you, I can't see any circumstances where this is not done as a P3."

In P3 projects like the Canada Line and the Golden Ears Bridge, private companies generally help finance, design and operate the projects under long-term contracts.

TransLink has submitted a new business case for the project to Partnerships BC, a company owned by the province that assesses and oversees P3s.

The other piece of the puzzle is a governance review of TransLink ordered by Falcon. The review report has been delayed since fall, but Falcon said he will make it public in the first half of March.

"To me that is the first priority," Falcon said.

"Let's get a governance structure in place. Let's get a system and a structure in place that can rebuild confidence in the organization's ability to carry out megaprojects like that."

However, he would not say whether he plans to impose a new structure on TransLink -- speculation has involved everything from a private-sector authority like the one that runs the Vancouver International Airport, to an expanded agency governing transportation for Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley -- or whether he will just tinker with TransLink and provide it with long-term funding mechanisms.

Falcon has publicly portrayed TransLink as incompetent and dysfunctional, while most TransLink directors say its major problem is that the provincial government that created it has never provided the funding it needs to do its job.

[email protected]

- --

TRANSLINK TARGETED

Railing against TransLink is one of Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon's favourite activities. Here are some excerpts from the Sun's interview with Falcon:

On finances: "With the current fiscal plan that TransLink has in place today and the current projects they have in the pipeline, they are going to start significant deficits in '09, and they will essentially be bankrupt by 2012. So the whole organization is not financially sustainable. They can't go forward like this. They're lurching forward, adding new projects without putting the financing mechanisms into place, and they run off and do things like parking stall taxes etc., and it's a combination . . . that is filling the public with a deep sense of unease and lack of confidence in their ability to carry these things forward."

On Evergreen Line funding: "One of my frustrations with TransLink has been that they discovered a few months back that they had a hole [in the line's capital budget], and they came to us and asked for several hundred million dollars with a couple of days' notice. I flat-out said to them, 'Look, that may be how you make decisions, that's certainly not how we make decisions. You haven't even presented a business case for me. So don't you dare come and ask me for that kind of money.'"

[officedweller]

The Sun also had a map that included the southern Lougheed Highway route!!

If it's going to be a P3 - I wonder whether both routes would be put forward to proponents? That wasn't done for the Canada Line, but you'd guess that a P3 proponent would prefer the route without the tunnel, especially with a route with such low ridership - they'd want to minimize capital costs as much as possible.

One other thing - unless Translink's governance review leads to the privatization of the M-Line (at least from VCC to the Evergreeen line junction @ Lougheed (northern route) or Braid (southern route)), a P3 will not interline with the M-Line - so the P3 would preclude reverting to Skytrain.

[G-Man]

Couldn't a P3 for Millenium line be built to the specs of skytrain and they just charge Translink a usage fee for X amount of years?

[officedweller]

Yeah, but it may not be a very competitive P3 (on the capital cost side) if the Bombardier technology is the only technology specified.
Ideally, that would be great, as it would eliminate a transfer for a lot of riders.

[twoNeurons]

Make Privatizing the M-Line an option then... sweeten the pot for private parties... but make the public cost much lower.

[mr.x]

Updated info on the Evergreen Line at the Translink website:

Service
Hours of operation will be the same as SkyTrain, running seven days a week, in both directions. There will be a train every six minutes during rush hours and travel time from end to end will be approximately 24 minutes.

It was 20 minutes before. I really don't like where this project is going. If we're gonna build LRT, let's build it right! 24 minutes is too long when we're trying to make this an attractive fast and efficient option to take drivers off the road: either fix the LRT plan or build SkyTrain.

[The_Henry_Man]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

Updated info on the Evergreen Line at the Translink website:



It was 20 minutes before. I really don't like where this project is going. If we're gonna build LRT, let's build it right! 24 minutes is too long when we're trying to make this an attractive fast and efficient option to take drivers off the road: either fix the LRT plan or build SkyTrain.

Especially when 97B from end to end is only around 35min.

[SpongeG]

they should just build it from braid to coq centre

i don't ride the b line route ever but i don't think they pick up that many people in between coq centre and lougheed town centre

[David]

Travel time for 169 Coquitlam Station to Braid Station (along Lougheed):
15 minutes with minimal traffic
20-25 minutes with traffic (meeting freeway traffic twice, at Cape Horn and Brunette, no less)

Evergreen Line 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵.

[cornholio]

Well its April now so im guessing its axed since this was their deadline for funding that they set. Im happy since this project was a waste of money, sure it was better then nothing but thats not a reason to be throwing away a billion dollars. Hopefully it wont be to long until they re-plan the project and hopefully build it properly...either skytrain through port moody or lrt down lougheed(though that would miss burquitlam and port moody, but is the only decent lrt option).

[agrant]

Deadlines don't mean shiit these days. I saw an interview with Kevin Falcon a couple weeks ago and he seemed to indicate the funding will be there. But take my word with some salt.

[The_Henry_Man]

I think the best way for Falcon is to set the maximum allowable riding time for the Evergreen Line criteria. If riding time is over 15 min, then axe the Evergreen Line project, and tell them to come up with a better idea to get the line in place.

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

Updated info on the Evergreen Line at the Translink website:



It was 20 minutes before. I really don't like where this project is going. If we're gonna build LRT, let's build it right! 24 minutes is too long when we're trying to make this an attractive fast and efficient option to take drivers off the road: either fix the LRT plan or build SkyTrain.

Build Skytrain! 24 minutes is slightly faster than a B-Line bus. What a waste of money! Go with a proven winner; Skytrain.

[SpongeG]

i say funnel the projects money into expanding millennium line to UBC

and build some really good parkades for park n ride at braid and lougheed town centre