Calgary Area Regional Transit

[outoftheice]

Actually from what I understand, when the numbers are broken down, the heavy rail portion of Go Transit operates on a 100% cost recovery basis... it's only the bus portion of the service that requires an operating subsidy.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by mersar

Are you aware of the cost of a large scale interchange in Calgary? We're looking at around $400 million to $600 million.

...

the second is the reply by the current Cochrane Mayor.

That's scary that their Mayor is that far off in terms of dollar value.

[frinkprof]

^Yeah that struck me as strange as well. $400M - $600M for an interchange? That's like 15-20X what it costs. The rest of his thinking is spot on though.

[mersar]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

^Yeah that struck me as strange as well. $400M - $600M for an interchange? That's like 15-20X what it costs. The rest of his thinking is spot on though.

Probably 10x or so actually (Metis @ 64th is budgeted at $55M for instance). I replied over there to just point out some more accurate numbers, though I'd still say his overall point is pretty valid

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by mersar

The link is right below the second comment

After two near all nighters I thought I was a bit tired, but wow, I didn't even see that before.

[para transit fellow]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

That's scary that their Mayor is that far off in terms of dollar value.

does anyone have an estimate for the proposed glenmore/ deerfoot modifications?

if a simple interchange is 42 million (ref: airdrie "rat hole") what is the cost of all of the phases to make glenmore/ deerfoot functional?

Cochrane's Mayor may embellish the amounts ... but there is a point about the cost of developing/ maintaining roads and who pays vs. who uses the road.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

does anyone have an estimate for the proposed glenmore/ deerfoot modifications?

if a simple interchange is 42 million (ref: airdrie "rat hole") what is the cost of all of the phases to make glenmore/ deerfoot functional?

Cochrane's Mayor may embellish the amounts ... but there is a point about the cost of developing/ maintaining roads and who pays vs. who uses the road.

GE5 ended up at what? $110 million? It doesn't get a whole lot more complicated than that. Detour work is a fairly big part of the total cost of some of these structures. Deerfoot/Glenmore interchange modifications won't require too much in terms of expensive detours, I'd say in the range of 60-80 million.

Metis/64 interchange actually has 2 bridges (one over Metis - one over the LRT tracks), and has a whole bunch of MSE concrete walls (the precast retaining wall panels), which adds to the cost to get it up to it's 40 million or so budget. The detour work was 10% of that budget too.

[mersar]

GE5 was budgetted at $110, not sure about any overruns. Metis/64th is $55M budget according to the city's website.

[mersar]

Regional transit plan will help ween us off car culture

By Mayor Truper McBride
The Calgary Regional Partnership is finishing up the final components of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and will be voting to ratify it on June 19. This plan will begin laying the foundation for a cultural shift in our region regarding our mobility, and will begin moving us away from an automobile-dependent society and towards cleaner, more cost-effective transit systems.
The RTP will speak to the immediate deployment of a regional bus rapid-transit service into the Cochrane region. Made up of high-quality stretched buses equipped with laptop plug-in stations and possibly even a beverage service, the rapid-transit service will move people to and from Calgary with an estimated three trips in the morning and three trips in the evening. Not only will it provide a method of transportation from Cochrane into the City of Calgary, but also transport Calgarians to regional communities. Purchasing a ticket on the bus service from outlying communities like Cochrane will give users seamless access into the Calgary transit system, and vice-versa for Calgarians using the service and traveling into outlying regions.
The Regional Economic Development Plan has identified a significant economic opportunity for light industry to locate in municipalities like Cochrane if the labour force is connected via transit systems. This will be of significant value to Cochrane as we continue work to create more local jobs.
Along with bus services are significant changes to our “built” form and our downtown core with a re-write of our Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan. A transit hub will be developed downtown along the rail tracks to serve multiple purposes for Cochrane: it will become a significant economic anchor for our downtown core as well as the central hub for internal and regional transit systems. Regional buses would “dock” in Cochrane and, eventually, our internal transit system would transport people around town from that location.
In the medium- to long-term, and after the transit market/culture has been established, heavy-rail transit will be deployed to Cochrane and also arrive at our downtown transit station. Depending on the economy, this may happen in 10 to 15 years. In preparation for the arrival of rail service, the Calgary Region will be working with CP Rail and the City of Calgary to protect key pieces of land for this future infrastructure requirement.
If there are any questions about the Regional Transportation Plan, I hope to hear from you at 403-851-2505.

Source

[Beltliner]

^^^ Good news, and well worth following--but The Eagle's headline writer needs to be weaned off his iPod and to be slapped upside the head with a couple of volumes from the OED.

[para transit fellow]

http://chestermerecommuter.com

Unfortunate News:
The Management and Staff at Chestermere Commuter Service are very sorry to announce that as of July 01, 2009, we will be unable to continue offering our services to the residents of the Town of Chestermere. Due to recent decline of the economy, mechanical failures with our equipment, along with low revenues and ridership, the cost of operating the commuter service has become too large for us to continue offering this service. At this time we wish to thank all our riders for their patronage over the past 20 months.

Any thoughts?

I'm tending to think that heavy maintenance started creeping up on them.

[mersar]

Yeah, that is quite possible considering the equipment they were using.

[para transit fellow]

I recently noticed these two documents over at the Calgary regional partnership:

Regional Transit Plan Discussion Paper on Commuter Rail
Regional Transit Plan Governance Discussion Paper

http://www.calgaryregion.ca/crp/projects/projects/regionaltransportationplanning/documents.aspx

Seems that we are going to get stuck on the basic "how do we fund the operation" question.

[mersar]

City helps fuel Cochrane’s transit dream

August 25, 2009
By: Rachel Maclean

Transit could be driving into Cochrane sooner than expected.
The Town of Cochrane is getting some help from the City of Calgary for a new transit feasibility report. “Cochrane has some challenges when it comes to transit,” said Mayor Truper McBride. “With Calgary helping us by giving us resources . . . this is an incredible deal.”
The report, pegged at $25,000, will look at how cost effective it would be and how many people would be interested in a Bus Rapid Transit system running from Cochrane to the Crowfoot C-Train station in Calgary.
It will also look at the best places for a heavy rail train to be going into Calgary, and how Cochrane can eventually create a transit system of its own.
McBride also said transit planning will be important for new developments, like a potential mix-use development on the old Town Hall site.
McBride said the hope is to make a transit-friendly property that includes affordable housing, a possible senior centre and business space.
More concrete plans for the site should be out in the fall, and the transit report should be done by the end of the year.

Source

[jeffwhit]

^^With all due respect to the people of Cochrane, I hope this service has a price that will offset the costs. I mean, it's Calgary's transit system. Getting more cars off the road is good for everyone, but I don't see a problem charging a premium fare for this.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by jeffwhit

^^With all due respect to the people of Cochrane, I hope this service has a price that will offset the costs. I mean, it's Calgary's transit system. Getting more cars off the road is good for everyone, but I don't see a problem charging a premium fare for this.

Agreed. But they need to implement a system where a single fare (or monthly pass) takes you all the way to your ultimate distination. You don't want to make the system inconvenient to use by forcing users to pay twice on one trip - once for the Cochrane-Crowfoot segment and then again to use the C Train.

[Stang]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Agreed. But they need to implement a system where a single fare (or monthly pass) takes you all the way to your ultimate distination. You don't want to make the system inconvenient to use by forcing users to pay twice on one trip - once for the Cochrane-Crowfoot segment and then again to use the C Train.

I'd imagine that it wouldn't be unlike the premium express buses in the suburbs. Instead of a 50 cent premium, maybe $1 or $1.50 (just throwing numbers out there).

By the sounds of the article, they'd be on a Calgary Transit bus, so I'd assume that transfers would apply the usual way.

That being said, they should also give the Cochrane folk a chance to buy a pass with the premium built-in so they don't have to pay with a pass/ticket plus the premium in cash. That was always a peeve of mine on the express bus. I didn't mind the premium itself, but paying it with change in addition to a pass was a pain.

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by Stang

I'd imagine that it wouldn't be unlike the premium express buses in the suburbs. Instead of a 50 cent premium, maybe $1 or $1.50 (just throwing numbers out there).

By the sounds of the article, they'd be on a Calgary Transit bus, so I'd assume that transfers would apply the usual way.

That being said, they should also give the Cochrane folk a chance to buy a pass with the premium built-in so they don't have to pay with a pass/ticket plus the premium in cash. That was always a peeve of mine on the express bus. I didn't mind the premium itself, but paying it with change in addition to a pass was a pain.

I agree with you there, it needs to be as easy as possible. If we went to a modern fare system instead of the ripped-piece-of-paper-transfer system, this would be easy to implement. With a Metrocard system, this would be a piece of cake.

[jeffwhit]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Agreed. But they need to implement a system where a single fare (or monthly pass) takes you all the way to your ultimate distination. You don't want to make the system inconvenient to use by forcing users to pay twice on one trip - once for the Cochrane-Crowfoot segment and then again to use the C Train.

No, i didn't mean that, just a premium to board a bus in Cochrane, and that ticket/transfer would take you all the way to wherever in Calgary you wanted to go. Basically a 2 zone ticket. The problem lies more in the trip back to Cochrane, the c-train ticket machines would have to beable to dispense 2-zone tickets as well, and bus drivers would need to have zone-2 transfers as well as the regular ones. Am I missing something?
As long as we're sticking with a POP system, which I'm fine with, we should honestly just copy what Vancouver is using.

[para transit fellow]

FYI the Consultant's full report (at least I think it's the full report) for the Calgary Regional Transit Plan is now available:

http://www.calgaryregion.ca/crp/media/60480/transit%20plan%20with%20appendices-nov-091.pdf