UBC/UEL Updates Discussion

[Millennium2002]

Actually I wonder... would it be more cost effective to have one of the two theoretical tubes of the Millennium Line extension to UBC larger to accommodate a standard freight car, and have a switch station beside VCC-Clark where the load gets transferred between CN / CP and the electric railway?

[dubsH]

I'm surprised at how much construction's still going on at UBC. There are two highrises (1 almost topping out, another in what appears to be excavation), and numerous low-rise buildings. There must be at least 6 or 7 cranes on campus.

[agrant]

Originally Posted by galeforcewinds

Im curious, how much of pacific spirit park can be torn down for new developments. I used to live in UBC and I'm really sad theyve gotten rid d so much forest across from Hampton Place

Good question. I remember when the park extended right up to Wesbrook Mall, both north and south of 16th. That whole Hampton Place area used to be trees not too long ago.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by allan_kuan

Actually I wonder... would it be more cost effective to have one of the two theoretical tubes of the Millennium Line extension to UBC larger to accommodate a standard freight car, and have a switch station beside VCC-Clark where the load gets transferred between CN / CP and the electric railway?

The problem is that the standard freight car still needs a locomotive (electric of course) to pull it (or them) around.

If you build only one tube large enough for standard railway cars, it could be used for both EB and WB freight traffic. If the freight traffic and passenger traffic in the tube are in the same direction (ie: to UBC), there might not be a problem. However, when the the freight traffic is 'wrong railing' (ie: from UBC) the tube will have to be cleared of passenger traffic while the standard railway cars are 'wrong railing' in the tube from UBC to False Creek Flats. If both EB and WB tubes are built to handle larger freight cars this becomes less of an issue.

However, the extra cost of building larger-diameter tubes to accommodate standard freight cars is likely to be greater than the cost of rebuilding rebuilding some of the end-of-life original Expo86 passenger cars as freight cars. By reusing the original Expo86 cars as freight cars, every car already has the LIM motors and automated controls needed to move it on the SkyTrain tracks without needing an operator. It may be possible to get by with only a dozen or so SkyTrain freight cars, and the rest of the original Expo86 cars can be retired (scrapped) at the end of their shelf life.

It may be possible to have a trans-shipping centre at UBC so the automated freight cars can come & go whenever they can be slotted in between the passenger trains. The trans-shipping centre would be a branch off the main SkyTrain line so the freight cars can be unloaded & loaded without interfering with the passenger car traffic. Because they are automated, when a freight car is ready to go, it can be sent over the SkyTrain line at any time of day (excepting the rush hours).

I should do some more thinking about this.

[Millennium2002]

Would it be possible to do shipping at night then?

The more I think about it though it seems like the most cost-effective method would be to use a trans-shipment station near VCC-Clark where the load gets transferred between the two different types of railway cars.

[jlousa]

Why bother with skytrain? Why not just barge the fuel to ubc and transport it the last mile by truck.

[Millennium2002]

The problem I see with that is how all the people at Wreck Beach would be complaining about the loss of privacy... and in addition I don't know how easy it is to build a new port facility on the coastline with the current environmental opposition.

EDIT: So I decided to find some measurements... The width and height of a Bombardier Mark I car is 2.5 M wide by 3.1 M high. I assume the Mark II car is slightly wider than that with a possible width of 2.75 M and a heigh of 3.25 M or something like that?

In comparison, the normal width of a car used for wood chip storage is 3.25 M wide by 4.86 M high.

Hmm... that's quite a significant difference. So a railway tunnel would have to be 0.5 M wider and 1.61 M higher... Best to stick with custom cars I guess then.

[squeezied]

This was posted in the Videography thread, but I think this deserves a repost here:

• Video Link

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Waders

That's why I said the condo residents used the wrong strategy.
Using the "culture difference" card only managed to stir up controversy.
It would have been more convincing to follow student's approach and use the "proper resident life" card.
Anyway all these reasons are just excuse for NIMBYism.

The "proper resident life card" ? Did you make that up, is it a snide joke, or does it really exist? I'd love to know more. Thank you.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

old news / old idea / already being done

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarGoTram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram#Cargo_trams

Thank you for these links. Looked at 'em and they both focus on Dresden, as it happens. But it looked reasonable enough, and "doable" enough to me.

But if you could elaborate, just what is being transported, where, and for what. For example, I don't get the wood-chips part.

[Alex Mackinnon]

This is a bizarre discussion in my opinion.

To make a bigger tunnel cross section would probably cost a few hundred million. The rails and all load bearing infrastructure would probably have to be upgraded to handle the potentially heavier rolling stock, or custom rolling stock would have to be made to deliver the wood chips without exceeding the axle loads on the tracks. The problem with nonstandard rolling stock is that you would need to rehandle the wood chips for the last 10km of delivery.

Then at UBC's end you would need a shunt line to wherever this bio energy plant is. I'll assume its near the student union building, say 500m. Another $40-$50 million.

At the VCC end you need either a tie in to the existing rail yard, or another shunt line with some form of silo to load the skytrain rolling stock. Say $20mil.

I don't think theres a remote chance of other companies wanting to use this service since all the branch lines in Vancouver seem to be in some state of dying. They would also need custom rolling stock, and the cost of making a branch to use this service.

So we've taken a $20mil generating station and added $60-160mil on to the price tag... to replace a truck or two of wood chips every day?

I've been fairly conservative with my guesses and they are just guesses. But honestly, that could buy enough wind turbines to produce 30MW of peak load or about 6MW of averaged load or a hell of a lot of geothermal heating pipes and a few wind turbines to offset your local electrical load. Or heck, just make some trolley bus frankenstein of a hopper truck. $3mil, tops.

/rant over

[Millennium2002]

well it was just following the green discussion and how to address the slightly less environmentally method that they'll pick that'll look out of place with the sort of infrastructure that they're building...

[entheosfog]

I don't usually follow this thread so I'm a little unaware of what this is going to be but it's located at Wesbrook and Agronomy:

[djun]

That's the new UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences building.

A picture of what it will look like in 2012 from the Ubyssey site:

[hollywoodnorth]

thanks for the pics and render nice looking building for sure

[Millennium2002]

Hmm interesting. Looks unusual to say the least. I guess the necessity to enclose the building entirely is to make it secure and protect the drugs and other substances from sunlight and other environmental variables?

[officedweller]

Looks like Library Square with a building within a building.
You wouldn't think that that much screening would be required.
Laboratory buildings on campus usually have half height windows - so that's normally sufficient to allow temperature control.

[Zassk]

The facade matches many of the older buildings in the medical section of the campus.

I doubt the motivation is any more complicated than that.

[entheosfog]

Sitka, located on Wesbrook, still below grade so not much to see anyway. I didn't feel like parking to take a better pic:

[Dylan Leblanc]

Is this the location of Sitka? http://www.google.com/maps?q=%34%39%2e%3...d%31%32%33%2e%32%34%31%38%35%32&z=17&t=h

I want to make sure it's correct in the database.