Canada Line | Completed

[mr.x]

^ THAT WAS AMAZING, thanks for sharing.

[ravman]

Originally Posted by Gordon

It would be interesting to know why the Canada Line platforms are so much smaller that the Expo and Millennium Line ones are, when you consider that the 80M platforms for the Expo Line will be extended to be able to handle 6 car Mark II trains.

Are they expecting this line to need a far smaller Maximum capacity in the future?

or could this have been a budgetary decision due to the cost of underground stations which are far more expensive then E or M lines stations?

Well this is what happens when the provincial govt gets a private firm to build and operate a public transit line. The prov govt was vague on the standards and only set the requirements of MAX 15,000PPHD. obiously the private operator is going to build the cheapest and crappiest thing he can built. We have seen corners been cut to save money to bring this project under budget. my opinion is that you should build it once and you should build it right.... 35 years later i dont want to see a big hole trench down cambie... but i am willing to bet that we may have to do it again.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by ravman

Well this is what happens when the provincial govt gets a private firm to build and operate a public transit line. The prov govt was vague on the standards and only set the requirements of MAX 15,000PPHD. obiously the private operator is going to build the cheapest and crappiest thing he can built. We have seen corners been cut to save money to bring this project under budget. my opinion is that you should build it once and you should build it right.... 35 years later i dont want to see a big hole trench down cambie... but i am willing to bet that we may have to do it again.

It wasn't the provincial gov't that set the standards and requirements, it was Jane Bird and RAVCO.....the province had zero influence on design, with the exception of maybe having it as SkyTrain-like and underground along Cambie.

With that said, it was the province's fault for forcing the wrong P3 model for the Canada Line. Private-public projects in transit do work AND can work in Metro Vancouver, but the one they have in place is just too much design and financial responsibility for the private sector.

If the demand was through the roof, like Hong Kong and the MTR where building anything will be filled up, it's different.

As well, the province provided too little funding to the project to start with....which left the funding gap to the private sector, and even a project cost of $2-billion isn't enough to get it done right. It really should've been more like $2.5-billion, the province definitely had the money in 2005 when the line was approved.

But I do agree with you on building it right the first time....



I don't blame InTransitBC, what they've build just means that they're being responsible to the shareholders. No company is going to build nor spend more than they are required under the set contract.

[Jared]

Originally Posted by ravman

Well this is what happens when the provincial govt gets a private firm to build and operate a public transit line. The prov govt was vague on the standards and only set the requirements of MAX 15,000PPHD. obiously the private operator is going to build the cheapest and crappiest thing he can built. We have seen corners been cut to save money to bring this project under budget. my opinion is that you should build it once and you should build it right.... 35 years later i dont want to see a big hole trench down cambie... but i am willing to bet that we may have to do it again.

What people seem to want is a $2.5B system, but they only want to pay $2B for it. No — there's corners cut, because it simply wouldnt have been profitable to build what was originally wanted under the terms given - ITBC is a buissness, not a charity. RAVCO could have either opted for a longer operation period for ITBC, they could have found more government funding, or they could cut certain elements of the project. They chose to do the latter. Without doing one of these things, we wouldnt have a Canada Line at all. Do I think the lower capacity is going to come back and bite us in the —? Sure. But that's RAVCO's fault for setting it so low, not ITBC's fault for building it to the standards set out by RAVCO. If you pay a car dealer enough to buy a Honda, dont be upset if he doesnt give you a Ferrari instead.

[MistyMountainHop]

Originally Posted by Gordon

It would be interesting to know why the Canada Line platforms are so much smaller that the Expo and Millennium Line ones are, when you consider that the 80M platforms for the Expo Line will be extended to be able to handle 6 car Mark II trains.

Are they expecting this line to need a far smaller Maximum capacity in the future?

or could this have been a budgetary decision due to the cost of underground stations which are far more expensive then E or M lines stations?

They cheaped out on it, basically.

[Jared]

Part 1: Bored Tunnel - Vancouver City Center to 2ndAve/Olympic Village



Shot of VCC station, showing the new station entrance under construction on the right.



Inside The Gates



The roof slab is almost complete. IIRC, they're supposed to start paving over it in the next couple of months.



Down we go...



Actually, I lied, I snapped one more pic of the roof slab before going down the stairs



The concourse level. Unfortunately my flash —, so all the underground pictures are rather dark.



The first bored tunnel, from the VCC station platform.



One of the few pieces of natural daylight left from the platform level.



Some water seeping through the tunnel walls. The walls havent had their "final seal" yet, so this is expected. The tunnel is not being designed to be 100% watertight; instead it has drainage installed.



The northmost extent of the track work. Its about 50m south of VCC station, so they have maybe 500m of track to lay in the one tunnel, before they're all done. The 2nd tunnel is less advances, the trackwork there is up to somewhere under false creek.



A passage between the two bored tunnels, for servicing, and also in case of emergencies



Looking down the length of the tunnel.




A pump at a low point in the tunnel. Originally, they tried removing a wall panel and putting it out to the side, but unfortunately the soil was to soft for this to work. Therefore, they had to put it beneath the tracks, which means it can only be services at night.



"They next station is....Yaletown"



Yaletown is the deepest station (18m). Those steel beams are street level.







2nd avenue station, where we have the transition to Cut and Cover tunneling.



2nd ave station is noticably behind in construction compared to some other stations. This is because the station excavation was used as a base for the TBM during the tunneling, and so they station couldnt have much construction work until all the tunneling was done.



The trains used to transport the tunnel workers to where the TBM was operating. Dont worry, these arent the actual Canada Line cars.



Olympic Village Progress



Somebody managed to get one of those Tyam orrange barrels on top of the streetcar power pole.

Part 2, when I get a chance, will be Bridgeport Station, and the ride to Sea Island Center station

Part 3 will be the OMC, and a couple pics of YVR 4

[djh]

Jared, THANK-YOU for posting some "insider" pictures to one of the most interesting projects going on in Vancouver this decade. I don't know what your connection is to the project (engineer/city/architect/designer/press) but you're a lucky guy to get access to this.

Re. the shots with the water pouring in: I have noticed water gushing around at various other parts of the construction. It's not rainwater, so where is it coming from? If it's from broken underground sewage or water mains, isn't this a future major hazard (high-voltage electricity and broken water mains...er...) - and shouldn`t the city be getting in there to fix it? But if it's, say, the water table, then surely, eventually, this water will seep into the tunnel, no matter how well it is sealed?

Just a question that I thought might be quite important. Thanks for any answers from those who know.

[quobobo]

Amazing pictures, Jared!

[mr.x]

awesome updates, thanks!

[Jared]

time for part 2!



North Arm Bridge, from Oak St. Bridge. The towers have to be fairly low due to flightpath issues. The bridge was designed by Buckland and Taylor, I believe.



Bridgeport Station seen from the street.



I presume this is simply a still-under-construction part of the parkade for Riverrock and Bridgeport?



Bridgeport concourse level



Looking east, from the edge of the Bridgeport Platform



Looking west, towards the Richmond/Airport "Y" splits.



This one is for mr. X, so he doesnt have to search the internet anymore, looking for comparable "how long will our platforms look" photos.



platform screen doors! (sort of)



The maps inside the trains. I'm unsure if these are permanent ones that will be used once revenue service starts, or simply temporary ones.



Trackworks...



The control panel



Just past Sea Island station, this was as far as we went on the train. The videos cover the entire trip between Bridgeport and here, which is why I dont have any pics of the ride. Note the switch from double track to single track.



The cars feel noticably wider. Unfortuantely this shot doesnt give the best indication of that.



Sea Island Center station, as seen from the inside of the train



me, enjoying my ride on the train.



Random picture, between Templeton and Middle Arm Bridge.



Richmond Skyline, from the Middle Arm Bridge



A nice pic of the "Y" splits. The middle two tracks go to Richmond, the side ones go to the Airport



Vancouver gets burned by Richmond



Canada Line logo on the train



Intransit BC logo



Translink Logo



Bridgeport with train inside



North Arm Bridge south approach bike ramp

[en2]

Originally Posted by Jared

Thanks, I'll check those out tommorow.

Since I dont want to be a total tease, here is a short video from Bridgeport Platform level of a train arriving at the station:

http://rapidshare.com/files/137902987/Tofino06_131.avi.html


Yes, I know its called Tofino06...

Its been a while since I used this computer for photos, and I forgot to update the auto-naming thingy.

I downloaded the video and uploaded it on YouTube for easier access.

• Video Link

[The_Henry_Man]

Thanks a lot of the pics, Jared. I think this is the first time ever that pictures from inside the underground and elevated stations as well as from inside the trains are taken and posted on the web.

Few questions, since you've taken a video of the train ride, is the train ride quieter than the MKII ones? I expect the C-Line Rotem ones to be quieter because the K-stock cars from the HK MTR are much much quieter than any of the MkI/II cars here (and as some of you guys know, the MTR K-Stock cars are from Rotem and are "genetically" related to the train cars of the C-Line). Also, how did it feel overall when you were inside the car (lighting, space etc)?

BTW, are these all of the pics that you've took? Or are you going to post all of the other ones on a separate website?

[clooless]

Awesome! Thanks for posting all of this.

[Jared]

En2:
Did you have to modify that video at all, or did you just upload it? I've never put anything on youtube before, but I think there's some size limit to files isnt there?

Or can I just register an account, and upload them, even if they're 150MB files?

------------------------

Henry Man: The train were very smooth and quiet, which the videos should show, ones I manage to upload them. Not as noticable a difference as between the Mk1 and Mk2 trains, but its still notably quieter and smoother. The smoothness may have something to do with the tracks essentially being in pristine condition though; whereas on the existing lines, they are only ground/replaced every once in a while, so they get worn a bit.

The cars felt very spacious, due to their 20.5m length, and extra width compared to Mk1 and Mk2 cars. Lighting was good, though partly because it was so damn sunny. The aircon wasnt on when we were in the trains though, it was pretty hot. I'm sure that will be resolved before revenue service starts.

I still have more pics to come, of the OMC and a couple pics of YVR 4. I'm not going to post absolutely everything, since:

a) some of them are just co-workers sitting on the train etc.

b) simply a couple pictures I snapped for people working on something we happened to pass by, but they wouldnt be very intersting to look at (i.e. picture of a piece of rebar)

c) some of the tunnel ones didnt turn out at all, they are simply to dark to see anything

--------------------

djh, I'm a civil engineering student at ubc, but I'm currently on a work placement at SNC-Lavalin.

i believe most of the leakage is ground water, and yes, some will inevitably leak in. Hence, they've designed drainage systems for the tunnels.

[The_Henry_Man]

Originally Posted by Jared

Sea Island Center station, as seen from the inside of the train

Sorry to correct you, but looking at the roof and the station layout, this one is Templeton Station. And this station looks absolutely gorgeous, almost just as good as Brentwood Station, and certainly looks much more spacious than I expect.

Bridgeport Station is also pretty nice too, it looks a bit like Lougheed Town Centre and Broadway-Commerical Stations.

[mr.x]

Thanks for that huge update Jared!

The maps inside the trains. I'm unsure if these are permanent ones that will be used once revenue service starts, or simply temporary ones.

If this was a recently delivered train, and it has that map, it might be the permanent ones.....the show train for the train unveiling had the same map, unless this was the show train.

This one is for mr. X, so he doesnt have to search the internet anymore, looking for comparable "how long will our platforms look" photos.

lol, thank you! i hope you're standing on the edge of the platform.

Can't really tell the length of the platform from this picture, but the platform itself is actually looking much better than I thought it would be....same goes for the concourse.

Sea Island Center station, as seen from the inside of the train

You mean Templeton Station.

This station is going to be gorgeous, I love the space....and when they peel off the plastic on the wood beams - wow.

Not that much of a fan with all those government logos on the trains though...

Did you have to modify that video at all, or did you just upload it? I've never put anything on youtube before, but I think there's some size limit to files isnt there?

Or can I just register an account, and upload them, even if they're 150MB files?

That's way too big....i would divide the vid into three parts if possible. Also note that YouTube limits video lengths at 10 minutes.



Thanks for the pics and the vid! i look forward to the others you'll be posting!

[The_Henry_Man]

^Well, if those route maps inside the trains are permanent, they better have another route map showing the entire Skytrain system, including E, M and C-Lines and their stations. Otherwise, it'll confuse local commuters (trust me, many people, including my parents, living in Richmond probably rarely, if ever, took Skytrain before) and tourists, and that the entire Skytrain brand/organization very messy and not unified.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by The_Henry_Man

^Well, if those route maps inside the trains are permanent, they better have another route map showing the entire Skytrain system, including E, M and C-Lines and their stations. Otherwise, it'll confuse local commuters (trust me, many people, including my parents, living in Richmond probably rarely, if ever, took Skytrain before) and tourists, and that the entire Skytrain brand/organization very messy and not unified.

Actually, looking closer I think it might be a temporary map....and that this was the show train for the unveiling. :p Look closely, and you'll see the future stations on the map as well:




I agree with you though, a lot of people really don't know how to use the system....SkyTrain/Canada Line really needs better and a lot more signage and maps at the stations and in the trains.

Having the estimated travel time on the map between stations would be nice too.

[en2]

Originally Posted by Jared

En2:
Did you have to modify that video at all, or did you just upload it? I've never put anything on youtube before, but I think there's some size limit to files isnt there?

Or can I just register an account, and upload them, even if they're 150MB files?

I just uploaded your video straight to youtube, took no effort except the uploading time.

I have no idea what the total limit is, but if I recall the maximum video length that I ever saw was about 10 mins.

[northwest2k]

Originally Posted by Jared

Vancouver gets burned by Richmond

THAT is awesome

"City of Vancouver" then right next to it "Richmond - Better in every way"

Hahahaha it's so true