Calgary Public Transit II

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Shanghai built 424.8 km of metro in 15 years...it gonna take Calgary 5 years(09-14) to upgrade to 4 car platforms. Now thats embarassing.

China's labour laws (or lack-of), average earnings for labour occupations and human rights violations are embarrassing.

Calgary having a few more months of winter than Shanghai isn't embarrassing, but it is embittering, especially on days like today.

[kw5150]

Originally Posted by srperrycgy

A slow ticket machine makes you embarassed? Ummm....ok.

It's just a machine.

lol......no, just embarrassing in terms of how far other cities have gotten with transit ticket machines.

Thanks for the update frink! If you almost miss a train because of those slow machines it kind of sucks.

Overall though, no complaints about our transit system. Time to go catch it now actually..............

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

China's labour laws (or lack-of), average earnings for labour occupations and human rights violations are embarrassing.

Calgary having a few more months of winter than Shanghai isn't embarrassing, but it is embittering, especially on days like today.

haha, I know, you can't really compare the two. I was trying to make the point that the four car station upgrades are moving pretty slow...in my opinion.

[srperrycgy]

The system still has to be operational while the upgrades are being done.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

I saw some sections of Southland station fenced off today! There was a PCL trailer in the parking lot. Hopefully this station gets renovated to accomodate 4-car trains

It is. New larger level crossing at the south end too.

[fusili]

What the F-Balls is this thing?

[Wooster]

^ A series of tubes!

[MalcolmTucker]

Not the worst revolutionary rail technology pitch I have seen. Much better than those crazy meglev, hydrogen super rail projects that crop up every once in a while. At least is it possible with today's technology.

Whether it would be cheaper to maintain overbuilt movable bridges and propel overweight trains than buying and grade separating a ROW would be an interesting business case analysis. Especially when each support column has to have electric motors connected to the grid that are as if not more capable than a locomotive.

I would guess not, but ROW is really expensive so it might be possible it would make sense.

[mersar]

LRV 2254 now has two inside LCD display screens installed on either end similar to the new Series 8 LRV's (but no side mounted ones yet)

[frinkprof]

Car vs. C-Train at 4th Avenue level crossing this morning. Possible fatality and huge backups on the 201 line.

Hopefully everyone's okay.

[freeweed]

Soooo... I wonder if this city will ever realize just how important the C-Train is when it's -24 outside, and figure out a way to clear accident scenes just a smidge quicker.

When hundreds of people are milling about OUTSIDE of a rather large station because there's simply no more room inside, and the frequency of inbound trains is about 1/3 normal, and it's the peak of rush hour, and an announcement comes saying there will be shuttle buses from Sunnyside into downtown (ie: you might as well walk into downtown unless you want to stand around for another hour in the bitter cold)... maybe, just maybe it's time to say fuck it, when a vehicle-train accident occurs it's the car's fault. Take the passengers to hospital, tow the car off the rails, and get the fucking train moving again within minutes.

Tens of thousands of people should not have to risk frostbite so that we can conduct a multi-hour investigation. Whatever happened is already done and regardless of level of tragedy, we're not going to fix anyone by putting the rest of the city on hold in the cold.

We're a big city now, it's time we started acting like one.

Update: the news is reporting zero injuries and the car is FINALLY off the tracks. Based on when my cow-orkers normally come in and who managed to actually make it, this took well over an hour to tow a freaking car (might be closer to 2). Completely unacceptable.

[You Need A Thneed]

Whitehorn Station Pictures:

Platform view:



Escalator being removed:



New Windows cut in:



New Canopy:



 

[Stang]

Originally Posted by freeweed

... maybe, just maybe it's time to say fuck it, when a vehicle-train accident occurs it's the car's fault. Take the passengers to hospital, tow the car off the rails, and get the fucking train moving again within minutes.

I agree with this. I'm not aware of an instance where the C-Train was at fault in a collision with another vehicle (or pedestrian for that matter). Get the injured parties to hospital, tow the debris from the track, and get people on their way. One person's blunder shouldn't hold up the commute of thousands of others.

I know that it sounds harsh, but whether the driver skidded onto the track, was talking on their cell phone, didn't see the lights, or tried to beat the train is irrelevant. They screwed up, get their stuff out of they way, and let them explain it to the police, their insurance company, etc. from somewhere other than in the middle of the tracks.

[DarkKeyo]

Originally Posted by mersar

LRV 2254 now has two inside LCD display screens installed on either end similar to the new Series 8 LRV's (but no side mounted ones yet)

I was hoping they would be able to do this to the older SD160's. I like having those displays, they make our trains feel that much more modern and useful. Maybe the side ones will be installed when they replace the now-locked side windows with ones that are a single sheet of glass?

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Car vs. C-Train at 4th Avenue level crossing this morning. Possible fatality and huge backups on the 201 line.

Hopefully everyone's okay.

Weren't we just discussing whether we would have to leave that level crossing in place for a downtown subway to work? It seems to me that more accidents happen there than any other one place in the train system.

[93JC]

Originally Posted by Stang

I know that it sounds harsh, but whether the driver skidded onto the track, was talking on their cell phone, didn't see the lights, or tried to beat the train is irrelevant. They screwed up, get their stuff out of they way, and let them explain it to the police, their insurance company, etc. from somewhere other than in the middle of the tracks.

It's the cops' job to investigate, not to have what happened 'explained' to them after the fact.

What if a train hit a pedestrian? Should we just scrape their entrails off to the side and let the cops and the coroner figure it out from there?

[MalcolmTucker]

Holding for an excessive amount of investigation doesn't make the victim any less dead. That being said, I would bet there are federal regulations that require a certain amount of investigation of any rail incident.

[sim]

I'm curious if there has ever been a study done or research on how much these accidents downtown or for that matter at any at grade crossing have truely cost.

I wonder if taking into account lost time, injury/death, damage etc, would approach the costs of what it would have cost to put it underground initially?

Add to that congestion of effected intersections, train delays etc, on normal running days due to the at grade alignment and I'm sure that decision all those years ago probably looks pretty silly [not putting it underground initially.]

It would be interesting to see it in numbers, but it might be pretty tricky as it's rather difficult to determine how much (or if any) benefit putting it at grade then instigated. Ah transportation planning.

[MichaelS]

The problem is all those "benefits" don't really come back to the city in any sort of way. If people saved time, and got to work quicker and became more productive, and the company made more money, the City would not see any extra tax revenue. Income tax and business taxes are not collected at the municipal level.

Some could be justified, like cost of repairs to train cars that have been hit. But unless the local government saw direct financial pay back for that greater expense, it would not be any more favourable to them.

[MasterG]

Im so happy we got the c-train. Ive been reading the Toronto threads and newsfeeds and the mess that is their public transit is crazy! Albeit the TTC has great inner city routes, the subway is quick all times a day, the street cars are great but their planning system is broken. the suburbs are worse served than calgary's.

Im just happy that every day I can go by the West LRT and see progress in action. Bring on the 21st Century Calgary Transit!!!!

[TETT2]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

That lot at the corner of 16th and Centre MUST be kept open for a potential station entrance. If a subway is ever going to go up that way, the presence of open lots like that one along the way will make or break the budget. Some open space to use during construction will make a large difference in the final project cost.

Other than that lot, and maybe a similar lot by Edmonton Trail (in case it works better to build the subway up that route), build mixed use with retail frontage along 16th, it shouldn't be too hard.

I havent read up super far yet... BUT, it's hard to reserve this for a station entrance when the Council APPROVED alignment runs up Nose Creek. Council needs approve a new alignment so that lots like this can be saved or protected for entrances.