[Vancouver] Canada Line | Completed [In Service]

[mr.x]

THESE HAVE ALSO BEEN ADDED IN THE FIRST PAGE TOPICS.




The same train being used on another automated rapid transit rail line in South Korea.




Canada Line tunnel boring machine, "Sweet Leilani"





Station travel times map

[zilfondel]

40-50 meters is indeed very short; our MAX system here in Portland has 66 meter stations, and people are talking about how they are too short and need to be expanded to allow longer trains, although our frequency isn't that great for most of the day.

[officedweller]

Stacked Tunnel @ King Edward - posted by sillygwailo on Flickr

[Wright Concept]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

40-50 meters is indeed very short; our MAX system here in Portland has 66 meter stations, and people are talking about how they are too short and need to be expanded to allow longer trains, although our frequency isn't that great for most of the day.

For Portland it would make sense to lengthen the platforms because most of the service is operated with few grade separations, mostly at-grade short lengths between street blocks. The problem there is looking at ridership numbers folks are traveling from a longer distance on LRT than anticipated. Which is good for suburb to Downtown riders, but for Downtown riders that pushes would be users off the system. A subway or grade separated route through Downtown would allieviate that problem.

Where as with Vancouver's grade-separated driverless automated operation they can run a train every 45 seconds and have as much capacity as the NYC Park Avenue Subway with a smaller platform length.

[officedweller]

We think that the Canada Line will be very similar in scale to the Copenhagen automated metro.
Platform / train lengths are very similar, both are automated, double branched and of similar system length.

http://www.m.dk/en/welcome.htm

[mr.x]

^ very similar.

Copenhagen Metro trains are 39 metres in length and 2.5 metres wide. Canada Line trains are 41 metres in length and 3 metres wide.

Copenhagen Metro station platform stations are 60 metres in length, except for one major interchange station at 80 metres. More than half of the Canada Line platforms are 50 metres in length, with the rest at 40 metres. Canada Line platforms that are 40 metres in length are expandable to 50 metres so that an additional car can be added to the train to run 52 metre trains.

Copenhagen Metro trains have a capacity of 300 passengers. Canada Line has a capacity of 334 passengers.

Both Lines run from the main metropolitan area to the city centre of a suburb, with a span to the airport.

Copenhagen Metro will run 34 trains for a rush hour frequency of 2 minutes on the mainline and 4 minutes on the two span lines, with day and evening frequencies at 3 mins on the mainline and 6 minutes on the spans. Night frequencies are 15 minutes. The Canada Line will run 20 trains in 2009, with a rush hour frequency of 3.5 minutes on the mainline and 7 minutes on the two spans, with day and evening frequencies at 6 mins on the mainline and 12 minutes on the two span lines. Night frequencies are 10 minutes on the mainline and 20 minutes on the two span lines.

Copenhagen Metro will have 17 stations. The Canada Line will have 16 stations when it opens in 2009, with 4 additional future stations.

Both are completely automated driven.



Copenhagen's 60-metre platform and 39 metre trains.

[raggedy13]

^Wow, very similar indeed. I wonder how long it will take before the Canada Line will require more that 20 trains. I wouldn't be surprised at all if ridership quickly outpaced initial projections. Speaking of which, if possible you should add the projected ridership to the first page mr.x2.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

^Wow, very similar indeed. I wonder how long it will take before the Canada Line will require more that 20 trains. I wouldn't be surprised at all if ridership quickly outpaced initial projections. Speaking of which, if possible you should add the projected ridership to the first page mr.x2.

lol, it's already there....intro.


"The line is expected to carry 100,000 passengers per day at launch on November 29, 2009 and 142,000 passengers by 2021."

The Copenhagen Metro is currently carrying 120,000 passengers daily, much due to the fact of excellent bus connections funnelling passengers in.

[raggedy13]

^Oh, thanks. Sorry about that. I guess I missed that bit. Keep up the good work mr.x2.

I could see those 2021 numbers being a lot higher. Especially if the airport continues to see as much growth over the next decade as they have been recently, and especially since tourism is likely to get a boost after the Olympics. Also, Richmond's plans to increase their city centre population to ~80k (or is it by 80k?) should also give the line a healthy injection of riders. Add onto that the increased intensity of development along the line in Vancouver in places such as Oakridge, Broadway/Cambie etc and I don't see why it couldn't potentially reach closer to 200k by that time. Also, you could just add on the fact that the metro population will be several hundred thousand people larger overall.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by PracticalVisionary

For Portland it would make sense to lengthen the platforms because most of the service is operated with few grade separations, mostly at-grade short lengths between street blocks. The problem there is looking at ridership numbers folks are traveling from a longer distance on LRT than anticipated. Which is good for suburb to Downtown riders, but for Downtown riders that pushes would be users off the system. A subway or grade separated route through Downtown would allieviate that problem.

Where as with Vancouver's grade-separated driverless automated operation they can run a train every 45 seconds and have as much capacity as the NYC Park Avenue Subway with a smaller platform length.

Yea, you guys are really lucky to have that kind of frequency.

Even though during rush hours our MAX trains can be stacked up 2 blocks apart (about < 1 minute intervals), it's only for a short period during the peak hours, and it still doesn't move very fast. You can usually walk at the same speed between two downtown stops - which are only about 150 meters apart!

The funny thing is that they toted it as an 'express' train... at least in the burbs it goes 55 mph.

You guys are definitely getting the real deal! We'll see how it handles the Olympic traffic. Personally, I'll probably be taking the Amtrak Cascades train up to BC for it, although I do like your airport too! Quite good local architecture, IMO.

[officedweller]

Pics of the Waterfront Station breakthrough are now up at the Canada Line website:

http://www.canadaline.ca/gallery.asp?galleryGroup=7&CurrPage=1

[mr.x]

[Hot Rod]

^^ awesome!!

[mr.x]

"Bus Service Discontinued at this Stop" — Excavation begins north of Broadway.




A crane prepares to lower components of the Tunnel Boring Machine into the work pit at Olympic Village Station.




The cutting head of the TBM, face down.




More TBM components await reassembly.

[mr.x]

[mr.x]

Photos by Unregistered


Richmond - No. 3 Road












Bridgeport











Bridgeport Operations & Maintenance Centre (OMC)










North Arm Bridge

[raggedy13]

^Cool photos. Those ones of the guideways converging/diverging around Bridgeport looks pretty intense. Richmond will be amazing when/if their city centre plan becomes reality. I might have to wait 20 years or so before I can see it in its entirety though, but hopefully closer to 10-15.

[officedweller]

New casting yard pics at the Canada Line website - for Vancouver, it looks awfully industrial!







The square profile suggests these are for a long span - maybe the North Arm Bridge (or if these are old shots, the Middle Arm Bridge):

[officedweller]

Canada Line Quarterly Report - January - March 2007 - get all your progress info here:

http://www.canadaline.ca/uploads/NewsReleases/News377.pdf

Sweet pic on the cover:

[officedweller]

From the Richmond News:

Canada Line drives massive development

By Nelson Bennett

Rapid transit is driving a massive north city centre development that includes a new hotel at River Rock Casino Resort, an expansion of Aberdeen Centre and 16 new high-rises south of Sea Island Way.

In fact, the Canada Line is so important to developers that Pinnacle International and Sun Tech City Developments are offering $15 million to fast-track the construction of Capstan Station, which Canada Line had not planned to build for years to come.

Coun. Harold Steves, who chairs the city's planning committee, said Tuesday's meeting will be one of the most important ones this decade, because it will set the tone for all future development in the city centre.

"Right now, we're at the ground floor of developing new concepts for downtown living - concepts that are environmentally sustainable," Steves said.

Pinnacle and Sun Tech are proposing a mixed-use development that would see 16 high-rises up to 14 storeys in height on a 17.2-acre parcel of vacant land bordered by north-south by Sea Island Way and Capstan Way, and east-west by Sexsmith Road and No. 3 Road.

The proposal calls for a hotel, various commercial uses, and 2,136 residential units.

Proximity to the Canada Line is so critical to the development, the developers are offering to help build a fifth rapid transit station at Capstan Way.

Current plans call for only four stations to be built, with Capstan station to be built at a later date.

"It's a huge benefit to the city," said Terry Crowe, manager of policy planning for the city. "By building the station, it will certainly aid ridership. It's a very important piece of infrastructure in the city." The Sea Island Way parcel has been the subject of various proposals over the years, including a trade and exhibition centre.

"We're fortunate that Sun Tech (and Pinnacle) are coming forward now, not 10 years ago, because we wouldn't have been able to integrate it with the Canada Line," Steves said.

Because the development is tied to such a great extent to public transit, the city is considering a proposal to reduce parking requirements by 35 per cent.

In addition to being largely driven by public transportation, the Fairchild and the Pinnacle/Sun Tech City plans also integrate many of the sustainability requirements being proposed in the city centre area plan, which is still in the works.

Steves said developers are considering green roofs and geothermal heating, for example.

In the Pinnacle/Sun Tech case, the developers are also agreeing to provide the following:

- 100 affordable housing units (five per cent of the total residential component);
- A 25-space daycare;
- $250,000 worth of public art;
- A 1.4-acre city-owned park.

The developers are also proposing to build live-work dwellings. The idea is that shop owners would live above their ground-floor retail operations - something that reduces reliance on cars.

Two other major proposals on Tuesday's agenda are a proposed expansion of Aberdeen Centre and a rezoning needed for hotel expansion and public parkade at River Rock Casino Resort.

Fairchild Developments plans to add an eight-storey expansion to the existing Aberdeen Centre, plus a 150-room hotel. The expansion would be linked to the Canada Line's Aberdeen station. The proposal includes a plan to provide $100,000 for the purchase of two-zone fare saver tickets - a move aimed at encouraing Aberdeen Centre employees and customers to use public transit.

As for the River Rock proposal, it includes as five-storey, 192-unit hotel, to be integrated with a new 1,200-stall park-and-ride parkade, which will be used for Canada Line transit users and casino patrons.

The new 12-storey hotel and parkade would be located directly across the street from River Rock on River Road. Immediately south of that would be a bus loop and the Canada Line's Bridgeport Station.

published on 05/08/2007