Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[mr.x]

Icy roads cause transit problems Monday evening

December 29, 2008 10:42 PM


METRO VANCOUVER - Icy conditions on Metro Vancouver roads are causing transit problems this evening.

Some busses in North Vancouver, the University of B.C. area, New Westminster and Burnaby are being rerouted, TransLink reports.

The problems are particularly bad at higher elevations and travellers are warned to expect delays.

TransLink says the reroutes as of 10:10 p.m. are as follows:

246 service to stay on Queens omitting the Highland area.

210 service is terminating at Lynn Valley Rd and Mountain Hwy.

230 service is terminating at Lonsdale and 23.

229 service to use Tempe Cres.

27 service to route via 22 Ave/Boundary to Kootenay loop.

17 service to terminate at Blanca Loop.

4 and 84 service to terminate at 4th and Alma.

Service in and out of 22 St Stn has been delayed to icy conditions.

99 service terminating at Blanca loop.

16 service to use Granville from Broadway to 63 loop.

All C1 and C2 service to stay on Hastings.

All S/B 22 service to route via Knight/49 Ave /Fraser/41 Ave/Knight.

All 100 service to reroute via 7Ave/20St/Sothridge in both directions.

20 service terminating at 54th Ave.

255 service terminating at Lynn Valley and Mountain Hwy.

239 service to terminate at Phibbs Exchange.

211/212/C15 to route via Mt Seymour Pkwy to Mt Seymour Rd then U turn and return.

8 service to terminate at 49 Ave.

For the latest transit conditions, visit: www.translink.bc.ca/Transportation_Services/Cust_Alert
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

[SpongeG]

i was driving on my break and i did some sliding - teh costco parking lot was awful just walking was treacherous

[fever]

It's unbelievably slippery. It's hard to walk. They had to close down Oak north of Broadway again, apparently not in time.


I guess environment canada got the week off

[ravman]

Black Ice is horrible! i rather be driving on snow!

[DKaz]

I guess the 25, 33, and 41 are the only transit routes in and out of UBC...

I used to live on Harrsion Dr near Gladstone and when it would snow I wouldn't even bother catching the 20, I would just walk a km (uphill both ways in two feet of snow) to catch the 26 which was way more reliable. The 100 would be another good choice when the Canada Line opens...

I drove into work today, there was a bit of black ice in Mission which proved to be a bit challenging even though I have proper winter tires... the highways were good though.

[Spork]

I was taking the 41 Eastbound yesterday night around Dunbar and we started drifting along the road for aways and spinning our wheels like crazy - we almost smoked a few parked cars! Not to mention slipping on my ass while walking to the stop.

[mr.x]

December 31 – regular weekday fares until 5 pm, then free service

Buses will operate on a regular weekday schedule, with extended late-night service on a number of routes.

SkyTrain and SeaBus will extend late-night service by one hour, with the last train and ferry leaving Waterfront Station at 2:20 a.m.

West Coast Express PM trains will depart from downtown at 1:00, 3:00, 4:50, 5:30 and 6:20 plus the regular TrainBus service.



January 1 – holiday fares (a one-zone fare is good for travel in all three zones)

Buses, SeaBus and SkyTrain will operate on regular Sunday/holiday schedules.

There will be no West Coast Express service on New Year’s Day.

[Spork]

I found this interesting post on a certain "civicsurrey.com" blog. It looks like 98b avenue that goes to King George station will be extended through the current park & ride parking lot. Here's to hoping that Translink is planning for a parkade there, as the current parking lot is absolutely tiny given how it is a terminus station and pulls in people from Surrey, Delta, Langley, and White Rock.

http://www.civicsurrey.com/?p=178

[officedweller]

It would be cool if TransLink could negotiate a deal with the Berezan Group (developer of the big project next door) for underground parking spaces - like was done at Bridgeport. Unfortunately., the Bridgeport case is probably unique, as the casino's parking demands and the station's park and ride demands nicely counterbalance each other over the course of a day. I doubt that would be the case at King George (i.e. without a big nightime parking demand)

[mr.x]

On Friday, at around 6 pm, at least 15-20 transit police officers lined up on the bottom of the Granville Station eastbound staircase (after the big escalator) and checked everyone's transit tickets. I saw at least 10 officers with their note pads out giving out transit fines.

It really explains why I saw a transit officer dragging away a [homeless-looking] guy away in handcuffs as I walked into the station entrance on Granville.

[Hot Rod]

why doesn't skytrain run until 2:20 (last train from Waterfront) from Th-Sat as a norm? Perhaps even 3:30am on Fri/Sat.

They could still do most if not all mtc on M-W, on Th-Sat you would still have a 3-4 hour window for mtc per day.

[DKaz]

Noise maybe? They could run the trains at 15 minute headways on a single track at 50km/h and it would still be faster than the night buses and encourage more people not to drink and drive and take transit instead.

[djmk]

i have a gripe

last night i took the expo line home from stadium station after the hockey game. to put it gently, it was a F*/K&*G NIGHTMARE!

there was literally thousands of people waiting to get on the trains and there were no trains. the the first public announcement told people there were problems at Nanaimo, the second announcement said there were problems at Joyce and the the 3rd announcement said 29th. At that point i wanted to walk back to burnaby however, i was trapped like a sardine inside a non-moving train. everybody was wet, people were coughing, it was gross. the cops had crowd control in force, which meant a lot of people were waiting in the rain.

and then i transferred to the Millennium Line, only to wait there for another 20+ minutes for a train.

[jlousa]

Looks like Translink is ordering 7 more bi-level cars for the WCE.

http://www.translink.bc.ca/files/procurements/Q8-0139/Q8-0139_EOI.pdf

The South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (“TransLink”) is requesting Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the supply of seven (7) bi-level passenger rail cars. These rail cars are required for the West Coast Express Service and Facility Expansion Project.

In order to meet recent and anticipated ridership growth on the West Coast Express commuter rail service, the additional rail cars are required for delivery in the summer of 2010.

To ensure a seamless integration with the existing West Coast Express commuter rail service, the new bi-level passenger rail cars must be capable of being integrated with the existing commuter rail.

From reading the document it sounds like the cars are able to handled 90mph and are designed to travel at 70mph.

[officedweller]

On a side note:

http://www.metro-magazine.com/News/Story/2008/12/Colorado-Railcar-to-fold.aspx

December 30, 2008

Colorado Railcar to fold

Announcing that it is ceasing business operations, Fort Lupton, Colo.-based Colorado Railcar Manufacturing LLC will release all its employees Dec. 31, according to a statement posted on the company's Website by President and CEO Larry E. Salci.

Salci’s statement noted that Colorado Railcar has a major liquidity problem, their lenders have a secured position in the assets of the company and, therefore, are in the process of liquidation.

The company was attempting to rejuvenate passenger railcar manufacturing in the U.S., and featured diesel multiple-unit (DMU) equipment options, but actual purchases were limited.

Colorado Railcar’s DMUs will debut on Portland TriMet’s Westside Express Service on Feb. 9.

[DKaz]

Woot! More WCE cars! Though 7 cars does seem a bit much. Perhaps they're being allowed to add an extra trip seeing it's the two 9-car train trips that are the most crowded, it would make sense to add an extra trip between the two trains. They only have one spare though. It wouldn't make much sense to lengthen the other trips. Train #1 inbound and Train #5 outbound runs a 4-car train that is adequate.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by djmk

i have a gripe

last night i took the expo line home from stadium station after the hockey game. to put it gently, it was a F*/K&*G NIGHTMARE!

there was literally thousands of people waiting to get on the trains and there were no trains. the the first public announcement told people there were problems at Nanaimo, the second announcement said there were problems at Joyce and the the 3rd announcement said 29th. At that point i wanted to walk back to burnaby however, i was trapped like a sardine inside a non-moving train. everybody was wet, people were coughing, it was gross. the cops had crowd control in force, which meant a lot of people were waiting in the rain.

and then i transferred to the Millennium Line, only to wait there for another 20+ minutes for a train.

I was chatting to someone last night who had problems in new west - the m line was not running - or so he was told - they had made an unaudible announcement over the PA - he saw an attendant and asked how he could get to Lougheed mall and the guy threw some attitude and than an old woman asked and the guy told her the m line was running - so there was obviously some issues with something - some people were told the m line was not running, there were no signs telling people to transfer at columbia station form the expo line to the m line etc.

anyway it took him a few hours to get from new west to lougheed mall

[officedweller]

What's the longest WCE train that can fit on the platforms? [he says, not meanig to expand the debate on platform lengths]

[mr.x]

^ i'm not entirely sure, but i think the WCE platforms are 180 metres long.

[SpongeG]

we made the news in Australia!

Canadian SkyTrain takes off with doors open

19:00 AEST Mon Jan 5 2009agoBy ninemsn staff

Canadian commuters experienced unwanted thrills and chills when their train took off with its doors open over the weekend.

While this would be frightening for any traveller, Vancouver's SkyTrain rides 10m above the ground — and on a northern winter night, open doors mean an extremely cool breeze as well as a potentially fatal fall.

Commuters were forced to huddle away from the doors as the train sped through the suburban night while the incident caught on camera, the New Westminster News Leader reports.

Operators say sensors that would usually sound an alarm if the train was to take off with its doors open had been disabled by technicians working in another carriage.

"This is literally a one-in-a-million occurrence," company spokesman Ken Hardie told the News Leader.

"But we don't want it to happen again."

He said some of the doors may have frozen open.

The paper said commuters described the incident as "crazy" and "horrifying".

Vancouver has struggled with an extremely cold winter — even by Canadian standards — and the public transport network has been brought close to breaking point by frozen rivers, snowbound roads and frozen train track switches.

Most of the SkyTrain network is being moved underground ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as part of a transport strategy to minimise problems if similar weather strikes during the Games.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/706690/canadian-skytrain-takes-off-with-doors-open