Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Thomas Prendergast is leaving to run the biggest public transit system in the world, NYC.

Link?

[Xerx]

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/69296032.html

[BCPhil]

I can't blame him, being a manager in the BC public service has to be one of the worst jobs in the world. You get no respect, and when you bring 30 years of world leading experience to your job you get chastised for having a good wage. We expect people to throw themselves on the alter of service and work for free. Then we second guess every move and take thrice as long to debate building something as it takes to build it.

[GeeCee]

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20091105_142131_5780

Prendergast just resigned..

edit: whoops, was on the last page still..

[WaxItYourself]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20091105_142131_5780

Prendergast just resigned..

edit: whoops, was on the last page still..

I was actually just going to post that. How and what do you guys think will change and who do you think is the runner up for the job?

[kylemacmac]

Yeah, I've got no hate on for L.A., as L.A. is pretty sweet in many ways.

I'm just into the idea that people would want to feel like they're in Vancouver...when they're in Vancouver.

[WarrenC12]

You couldn't pay me enough to be in public service either as an elected official or with a high profile job like Tom's.

[Metro-One]

Well, technically that stretch of road is not in Vancouver, it is in Burnaby

The point is that no matter where you go in life, other places will always remind you of other places you have been. Such as when I was in rural Nevada, I could not help but think about Kamloops and the Thompson Valley, and when I am in Kamloops, I can not help but think back to when I was in Nevada.

Are these places carbon copies, heck no! But do they share some similarites, heck yes!

Why do you think when they film movies here they can say they are taking place in San Fran, New York, Seattle, etc... so easily?

PS, the California desert scenes in 2012 coming out next week are all filmed near Kamloops. While much of the rest of it was filmed in Vancouver, oh, and most of the movie takes place in LA

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by usog

I've always wondered, why do they use the phrasing terminus station instead of something more...I don't know, colloquial? I have never ever heard the word terminus used outside of skytrain before, where it was the first time I've seen that term used. Oh and is it just me or do some of the messages for Broadway-Commercial mention platform numbers now? I swore I heard them being mentioned in the announcement the other day.

Technically the word "terminal" would be the correct word to use - it indicates the last station. But I guess that the word terminal tends to be used interchangably with "station" so passengers may not realize that it's the last station. i.e. Grand Central Terminal in NYC.

[Zassk]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Technically the word "terminal" would be the correct word to use - it indicates the last station. But I guess that the word terminal tends to be used interchangably with "station" so passengers may not realize that it's the last station. i.e. Grand Central Terminal in NYC.

By "colloquial" I was thinking of an announcement like "This is the end of the line, get off the %^&% train."

[officedweller]

Don't thay ask everyone to exit the train anyways? They used to (haven't been through Waterfront in a while).

Originally Posted by Xerx

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/69296032.html

Reading that article Gordon Price just seems so one-track minded...

[Chikinlittle]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Thomas Prendergast is leaving to run the biggest public transit system in the world, NYC.

Funny enough I found this link while looking for more details:

http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?id=6424&siteSection=16

So, clearly he's been wanting to go back home for a while.

I was going to say, didn't he come from running that system previously?

[racc]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Reading that article Gordon Price just seems so one-track minded...

Gordon has a lot of experience and has studied many cities around the world. Just what makes you so qualified to make such a statement about him.

[officedweller]

I just meant that he automatically shifts commentary from Prendergast leaving TransLink to "the truckers have won".

From the article and Prendergast's own quote, it sounds like he got an offer he couldn't refuse - he didn't say "its hopeless, I gotta get outta here, transit will never work here".

From the Buzzer Blog:

Question: Do you think your leaving might send a negative signal about TransLink’s situation right now?

I don’t think it should. I mean, at the end of the day, the reason’s pretty clear. I’m going to work at the largest transit system in North America. And it’s one that I’ve worked at before and has some very very interesting, very very significant technical challenges. I believe we’ve stimulated dialogue here and we’ve got that momentum that I mentioned in the previous question, and there’s a will to get things done. So I don’t think people should look at this in any way shape or form in a negative way. Look at it in a transition and moving forward. That’s just the way I am in life. It’s much more optimistic to look forward and how we can take things to the next level, rather than look back with regrets.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Rusty Gull

Streetcar down Kingsway would rock.

Either way, I love Kingsway -- congestion and all. It's the closest thing we have to one of the great avenues of Los Angeles, minus the palm trees of course!

Imagine Kingsway if it were spruced up, gentrified a bit, and had some design code rules placed on it. THEN it would be a presentable street.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

You couldn't pay me enough to be in public service either as an elected official or with a high profile job like Tom's.

Hire a team from the Paris Transport planning team. The system they have here is unbelievable; dense coverage, lines everywhere, even a giant "super-metro" is being planned to encircle the city in a "figure 8" pattern to avoid having to transfer at the city centre. It's something to behold, and they could teach us how.

[metroXpress]

Don't think this has been posted before:

TransLink approves $10M to study unfunded projects
Metro Vancouver's TransLink is commissioning $10 million in studies for two projects the regional transit authority doesn't have the money to build.

The two studies will examine a new rapid transit line out to UBC and a rapid bus system for Surrey, although neither project is in TransLink's 10-year plan approved by the region's mayors just last week.
The 10-year plan did propose to raise $130 million by hiking fares and taxes on gasoline and parking.

But the money was only intended to maintain Metro Vancouver's public transit system and transportation infrastructure and specifically excluded any money for new projects such as rapid transit lines or new systems.

Nevertheless, TransLink decided to go ahead and commission the two new studies at a cost of $5 million each, authority spokesperson Ken Hardie confirmed Thursday.
Looking ahead to save time

Hardie defended the move, noting both studies are part of the provincial transit plan, and half the costs for the studies will be paid by the province with the expectation the projects will be developed sooner or later.

"The short answer is we're going to save time and money in the long run by doing this work now," Hardie said. "And secondly, we need these lines. It's not a matter of if they're going to be done, it's when."

But Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan called the studies a waste of money.

"When you are on life support, to be spending money on dreams of fantasy seems to be an absolute waste of very much needed transit [funding]," Corrigan said.

He pointed to the often-promised, much-studied and yet-to-be-built Evergreen line for the tri-cities area northeast of Vancouver as an example of how promises and studies don't get things built.

"There's a certain arrogance in spending money on studies when you don't even have the money to complete the line you've promised to complete," he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbi...translink-studies-unfunded-projects.html

[Mininari]

BURNABY (NEWS1130) - Today's sudden resignation of TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast is raising concerns for one regional transportation expert. SFU urban transportation expert and former TransLink board member Gordon Price calls Prendergast's departure 'tragic' for our region.

Prendergast says as a former New Yorker, the offer to take over that city's transportation system was too good of an offer to refuse. But Price believes Prendergast became frustrated because he wasn't given the resources to do the job he envisioned. "You don't have someone like Tom Prendergast with his background and skills with nothing to do to, effectively, to build the kind of region we want and then say, do it, but we're not giving you any serious money to do it with."

Price thinks Prendergast's resignation means we can kiss transit expansion goodbye. "We're building roads and bridges as fast as we can and we've capped transit investment. There isn't going to be anything significantly new for a decade at least."

[WarrenC12]

"SSP Forum poster WarrenC12 calls Derek Corrigan a waste of oxygen"

[Rusty Gull]

Corrigan will whine about any transit investment that doesn't involve Burnaby.