Quote:
Originally Posted by jsbertram
Right now, if you're on an Expo train from Waterfront but want to go to Sapperton, exit at Columbia & wait for the next Millennium train. No platform change needed. If you're coming from King George and going to Sapperton, you'll exit at Columbia, leave the westbound platform & go up to the eastbound platform to wait for the next Millennium train.
With Evergreen and Millennium trains running through Lougheed, to change lines you would just exit at Lougheed and wait for your train to arrive. If you're changing directions too, just exit at Lougheed, walk across the platform and wait for the right train to arrive. Every change of train would be a same-platform transfer.
This is already happening at Bridgeport: If you've landed at YVR and are heading to Lansdowne, exit the train at Bridgeport, walk across the platform and catch the next Brighouse train. If you grabbed the first train coming through Oakridge to get to Aberdeen and you've realised you're on the YVR train, exit at Bridgeport, stay on the same side of the platform & jump on the next Brighouse train.
The only use I can see for the 3rd platform is to accommodate large volumes of traffic as a way of separating Coquitlam-bound traffic from New-West -bound traffic, but this would likely be decades away.
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It does seem simple to have both lines interlined, but I can see where the problem is. It's not with excess volume, but the lack thereof.
Right now, if you are at Commercial heading to Braid, you get on the next train. With Evergreen line interlined with Millennium line, at Commercial, you have to wait for a Millennium train.
Lets say a M-Train just left as you ran down the stairs and just missed it. With average frequencies, that's a 4 minute wait until the next Evergreen train, and another 4 minute wait until M-Train. If it were 2 EV trains for every 1 M train you are looking at a 12 minute wait. (assuming 4 minute headways and not longer/shorter). Even if you hopped on the first EV train you would still have to wait that 12 minutes combined at Commercial and Lougheed.
With trains short turning at Lougheed on 3 platforms, you can have 4 minute frequency of both Evergreen line AND the shuttle at the same time without running empty trains on the rest of the line using up expensive rolling stock and electricity. By short turning trains you can use less rolling stock while maintaining consistent headways on the system.
I used to be in the interlining camp, but after thinking about it, it does seem like the average total trip would be shorter with Transfers (as long as the shuttle was still frequent and not some every 20 minute inconvenience).
And at Lougheed, the majority of time critical transfers (you know, the morning transfers on your way to work/school when you are late) will happen cross platform; evening (on the way home transfers) will happen down/up stairs.
If trains from Columbia terminate at Lougheed, then people to SFU will cross platform transfer to a westbound train on the Center track. People coming from Douglas can cross platform transfer to a train to Columbia on the South Track. That would be over 3/4 of all transfers be cross platform in the morning when people are in a hurry.
If it were a shuttle and there was no 3rd platform at Columbia, the shuttle could enter the station on the westbound platform, leave heading west, switch tracks and reenter the station on the eastbound platform; much like it does at Waterfront, King George and VCC. The train would spend less time blocking other trains, and offer a transfer point at both platforms, removing the need to use any stairs to switch trains.
The advantage of this layout at Lougheed is that it does allow trains to become through trains without confusing riders at Lougheed. All the platforms will still have trains that go to their proper destinations and any transfer would happen like normal (there would be cases of reduced transfers but no extras). This will be good for those situations where a segment of track needs to be closed to "medical emergency" thus preventing trains to flow from Waterfront <-> Columbia. Running trains from VCC <-> Columbia would be useful in a crisis, thus lowering the number of transfers needed at Lougheed to a limited capacity shuttle.
It's interesting to note that if the M-line were extended to the Canada Line that there would be 2 independent, mass transit ways of getting out of downtown, offering redundancy in case of a crisis that shuts down one of the lines.
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