Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Mac Write]

New SkyTrain cars

When oh when? Expo line is still too crowded! Any chance the option for 24 more cars will be exercised? They should also go to 6-car Mark I's only to increase capacity per train. Maybe order 52 cars when the order for 28 Mark II's for Evergreen line is put in (one can only hope).

As for side seating, it is so unconfortable, and hard for people who have to sit with balance issues to sit straight up.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by lightrail

I find it hard to believe you had to wait 15 minutes when the trains are running every 8 minutes. Miss a train, worst case is an 8 minute wait for the next one.

The first one could have been a train going back down the millennium line. Is the interlining frequency 8 minutes or 4 minutes at night?

[Mac Write]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

The first one could have been a train going back down the millennium line. Is the interlining frequency 8 minutes or 4 minutes at night?

Combined service is every 4 minutes late night according to Translinks site.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Combined service is every 4 minutes late night according to Translinks site.

...and trains to Surrey every 8 minutes.

[invisibleairwaves]

Well, there must have been some kind of delay, because it was not less than 10 minutes. Either way, it's pretty irritating.

[Whalleyboy]

i really cant wait to hear how canada line does with the fireworks tonight

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Whalleyboy

i really cant wait to hear how canada line does with the fireworks tonight

1) It'll likely be free.

2) They did a pretty good job with the Olympics, so I would expect anything less.

[SpongeG]

first year for the Canada Line and the fireworks - will be interesting to see what sort of impact it has - will more people come from richmond and south vancouver? will it clear out fast etc

[go_leafs_go02]

Was hoping to go tonight, but my girlfriend couldn't make it, so maybe Saturday. We'll see how that goes. Went twice last year, had absolutely not problems.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

first year for the Canada Line and the fireworks - will be interesting to see what sort of impact it has - will more people come from richmond and south vancouver? will it clear out fast etc

I think Canada Line will see the highest ridership its seen outside the Olympics.

I think it will make Yaletown and the South side of English Bay much more popular than in years past. Last year I remember it being quite deserted in Yaletown right after the Fireworks last year, the easiest I've ever been able to get a table there ever. This year thousands will flock to the Yaletown station after the show, see a line forming, and stop in somewhere for a beer. It should be good for business there (if they stay open late enough which a lot don't on a weeknight).

I'm thinking the Park and Ride at Bridgeport will be quite popular tonight. I hope they don't over react and over control access to the stations and make needless lines. I'm sure it will be crazy busy at Olympic and Yaletown for an hour after the show, but I think it will handle it well.

And I do think we'll see much larger than normal crowds coming from Richmond for the show. Probably enough that it would make sense to temporarily reassign trains from YVR to Richmond so that immediately after the show, 3 or 4 trains in a row go to Brighouse. It would be worth the money it would save the VPD to have the city pick up the bill to run extra trains out of downtown right after the show.

It's too bad we still don't have a Bombardier Flexity in town to shuttle people between Granville Island and Olympic station, it would probably be just as busy as during the Olympics.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

New SkyTrain cars

When oh when? Expo line is still too crowded! Any chance the option for 24 more cars will be exercised? They should also go to 6-car Mark I's only to increase capacity per train. Maybe order 52 cars when the order for 28 Mark II's for Evergreen line is put in (one can only hope).

As for side seating, it is so unconfortable, and hard for people who have to sit with balance issues to sit straight up.

Wow... if you are complaining about the Expo Line, you would be rioting about the Canada Line then. There are some 6-car MK Is train sets now.

I'm not a huge fan of side seating either though I have to say it definitely increases capacity of standees on a train, and thus, increases capacity. That being said, I don't think side seating should be implemented on MK II vehicles. The current configuration on the newer generation MK IIs work well: 2 seats on one side (2 units of space), and one seat on the other (1 unit of space). This configuration allows two rows of passengers in the open alley area. With side seating, you have a seat on both sides, but if you consider the leg room and the fact that the seat itself is slightly slanted, it's really 1.75 units on both sides. That doesn't leave much more standing area than the 2 and 1 seating configuration currently used on the MK IIs. This means side seating would still only yield two rows of passengers.

On the Canada Line, side seating would be beneficial because cars are much wider, and thus, can potentially fit three rows of passengers instead.

[Mac Write]

As I can't balance well (even holding a hand rail) I require a seat, if we only had side seating, I would be sliding into people all the time due to my balance issue, as well as it being extremely cramped.

[huenthar]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

New SkyTrain cars

When oh when? Expo line is still too crowded! Any chance the option for 24 more cars will be exercised? They should also go to 6-car Mark I's only to increase capacity per train. Maybe order 52 cars when the order for 28 Mark II's for Evergreen line is put in (one can only hope).

I've actually been wondering something. We're never going to be running 2-car Mark II trainsets with the new cars, so... why are we still ordering A-B cars? As opposed to A-C-C-B, or A-C-C-C-B or something? Otherwise the space between the car sets in the middle is wasted (might fit an extra 20+ people there) and the gap creates a safety hazard.

Are current cars able to be reconfigured with C-cars?

[nname]

Originally Posted by huenthar

I've actually been wondering something. We're never going to be running 2-car Mark II trainsets with the new cars, so... why are we still ordering A-B cars? As opposed to A-C-C-B, or A-C-C-C-B or something? Otherwise the space between the car sets in the middle is wasted (might fit an extra 20+ people there) and the gap creates a safety hazard.

Are current cars able to be reconfigured with C-cars?

I think they're going to run A-B on Evergreen.. at least in the beginning.

If Millennium line becomes a shuttle between Lougheed and Columbia, most likely it would be A-B as well.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by nname

I think they're going to run A-B on Evergreen.. at least in the beginning.

If Millennium line becomes a shuttle between Lougheed and Columbia, most likely it would be A-B as well.

Right, but we already have those.

Current stock can be separated into 2 car trains for use on Evergreen or the shuttle run. But Expo line from now on will be 4 cars or more forever. Why not buy a bunch of C cars, which I imagine would be a bit cheaper than A-B pairs, and insert them into the new MK II trains we have. It might be cheaper to buy middle cars, and it would increase capacity that's wasted between joined trainsets now (slightly more passengers for slightly less money seems like a win-win).

There will never be no need for 4 or 5 car trains to/from Surrey. Having trains composed of joined 2 car sets does make the system flexible, but going forward do we still need that flexibility? We would still have lots of 2 car sets (all the original MKII) to flush out the system if we need lower capacity but high frequency.

And personally, I think Millennium line is getting busier all the time and even 4 car MK II trains seem to be mostly full most of the day, and trains leave Commercial bound of Lougheed jam packed in the afternoon rush.

[Mac Write]

Why not order the new 28 cars as C cars? This would be us the following fleet

• Current A-B-A-B
• 15 4-car Mark II 2002's
• 12 4-car Mark II 2009's
  2014
• 14 4-car A-C-C-B 2009's/2014's
• 10 2-car A-B-A-B 2009 Mark II's
• 15 4-car A-B-A-B 2002 Mark IIs
• 29 4-car Trains
• 10 2-car Trains

Now would should there be 14 2-car Mark II's or will 10 be enough? if 14 then it would look like this:
2014[*]14 4-car A-C-C-B 2009's/2014's[*]14 2-car A-B-A-B 2009 Mark II's[*]13 4-car A-B-A-B 2002 Mark IIs[*]27 4-car Trains[*]14 2-car Trains[/LIST]

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by huenthar

why are we still ordering A-B cars? As opposed to A-C-C-B, or A-C-C-C-B or something?

Are there any restrictions in the OMC that would prohibit the longer trainsets?

[DKaz]

Would you people please have mercy on this horse, it died over a year ago yet we keep on beating it with a stick. Other than a small fleet expansion for the Evergreen Line, t's going to be ten years minimum before we see any significant fleet expansion including C cars.

[officedweller]

Agreed - it's been discussed to death before (several times).

- OMC can't fit longer trains
- A-B married pairs would require extensive work to "insert" a C-car including new software and maybe onboard computers. Full length trains A-C-B trains would have to be ordered as an integral "unit".

[officedweller]

1958 bus map linked over at the Buzzer Blog:

http://www.whatthehelvetica.ca/2010/07/15/vancouver-transit-map-from-1958/

Note:
No Trans-Canada Highway
(I don't think there's a Second Narrows Bridge on the map)
No Knight Street Bridge (there's the Fraser St.-No.5 Rd. Bridge)