The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[caltrane74]

Wow! Didnt know they were building all that out there. I know they built a busway out at York University, which is pretty fast but as I dont go to York that line is useless for me.

This is obviously on a much bigger scale. Must say I am impressed with this here.

[jigglysquishy]

Anyone ridden the train from Stoon to Edmonton? Or throughout any other western city?

I want to go to Edmonton this summer. I hate driving and can't afford flying so I'm looking towards the VIA line.

[ue]

Well, if you can't afford flying, then I don't know how you can afford VIA Rail. It's usually more expensive than flying. If you choose VIA, though, their Edmonton station hardly gives the best first impression.

[feepa]

^ It's about 4 hours of this



Followed by some of this


Before getting to this



Be fore warned - Our VIA station in Edmonton doesn't have transit service to it, and its not downtown, and it's a far walk to anywhere. Have a ride or prepare to pay for a cab.

(WestJet has flights $109 or less each way between Edmonton and Saskatoon. Be fore warned - Our International Airport in Edmonton doesn't have real transit service to it, and its not near downtown, and its much further walk to anywhere. Have a ride or prepare to pay for a cab or shuttle service)

[Coldrsx]

^it has some transit now and as with most airports is 30mins from anywhere.

[caltrane74]

habfanmann will love this... looks like they are installed a double crossover to reduce delays when there are "issues" on the subway on the downtown portion of the line.

Why the Yonge subway is closing again


Wendy Gillis
Staff Reporter
More about
Transportation»
One glance at the disgruntled expressions of TTC riders boarding Yonge St. shuttle buses and it�fs quite clear how they feel about subway closures.

What�fs not quite as obvious is the reason for the two-day closure of a section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

This weekend, more than 50 people will work around the clock beneath College and Yonge Sts., installing a track feature called a double crossover.

A double crossover is a set of switches that link two parallel railway lines. It appears like an X in between two sets of tracks, and will allow northbound trains to cross over to the southbound line, and vice-versa. The system already has 19 double crossovers; the one being installed south of College station will be number 20.

Jim Teeple, Toronto Transit Commission�fs superintendent of the track and structure department, and Danny Nicholson, with TTC corporate communications, broke down the subway closure for the Toronto Star

The TTC is installing a double crossover.

A crossover is a pair of steel switches connecting two parallel tracks, enabling a train on one track to cross to the other. A double crossover connects two tracks to each other, meaning a train can switch tracks in both directions.

�gThink of it like a pair of scissors that will sit between the two existing tracks,�h said Teeple.

The change won�ft be visible from the platform. Trains will only make use of the feature in the tunnel south of the station.

It will come in handy when there�fs a delay or emergency, such as a disabled train, signal problems or a broken rail. Trains will now be able to change tracks at College station and travel in the opposite direction.

Before this installation, there was nowhere for trains to reverse directions on the Yonge line between Bloor and Union, meaning if there was a delay at any of the five stations in between, trains (and passengers) would be forced to sit idle.

Nicholson said a recent broken rail at King station is the kind of incident when the College double crossover would have been useful.

College station was selected instead of Dundas, the midway stop, because the tunnel structure was better suited to the installation.
How will this affect riders?

Teeple says passengers will probably not see big improvements right away. The change is part of a larger project to install an automated train control system, expected to be completed by 2014.

When will the work be done?

There will be one final weekend closure to finish the job, slated for the March 26-27 weekend

http://www.thestar.com/news/transportation/article/945189--why-the-yonge-subway-is-closing-again

[Bassic Lab]

Can someone explain why the Eglinton Crosstown is apparently still going to be an LRT line despite being entirely underground? I was under the impression that the entire point of using LRT vehicles was to allow them to operate on streets outside of grade separated sections.

[caltrane74]

Originally Posted by Bassic Lab

Can someone explain why the Eglinton Crosstown is apparently still going to be an LRT line despite being entirely underground? I was under the impression that the entire point of using LRT vehicles was to allow them to operate on streets outside of grade separated sections.

Because as of yet there is not yet the required ridership for a Subway on this line. - Maybe max this line will have 60,000 - 70,000 riders a day.

The line however can be upgraded to subway down the road, as the tunnels required for LRT are actually bigger than those for subway due to the overhead wires required to power the vehicles.

The line is underground, because Rob Ford doesn't want transit interfering with cars.



TTC Eglinton LRT
Toronto, Ontario
IBI Group is responsible for a conceptual design and environmental assessment for the Toronto’s Eglinton LRT line under the Ontario Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP). This includes the development of horizontal and vertical alignments, evaluation and configuration of stations, constructability analysis, and impact assessment.

This project is being carried out on behalf of the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission. The Eglinton line will be 33 km long from Pearson International Airport in the west to Kennedy Station in the east. The line will connect with three other rapid transit subway lines of the Toronto Transit Commission, and it will be served by trains of up to three articulated cars with a total length of 90 m. These cars will be low floor and double ended with doors on both sides. A considerable consultation program is being conducted, with other agencies, stakeholders, and the general public.

http://www.ibigroup.com:88/sites/ibipubl....aspxxDisciplineID=3ppracticeID=46ppage=

[jigglysquishy]

I flew to Edmonton last year and it wasn't that bad getting downtown. They had a shuttle bus.

And even with flights at $109, VIA's site said I can take the train as a student for $92

[citizen j]

Originally Posted by Wharn

Since 2005 China has had a freehold system of property ownership (for the cities at least). So yes, it can be argued that since the Chinese government holds radical title, it is technically the "owner" of all land. But Canada works in almost exactly the same way; recall that the "crown" is the ultimate owner of land in Canada. The only difference is our government doesn't bully people into giving up their land, but for subway construction using tunnel boring techniques, it's not a huge issue.


I wouldn't want to discard the rights of workers as human beings, but I certainly would want to put a contract out to tender rather than have everything done in-house by overpaid union members. Example: Beijing's subway was funded in a joint venture between BPT and Hong Kong's MTR, and is actually run by the MTR instead of BPT. Quite sad that even communists can teach us something about public-private partnerships.


First population, now car ownership rates. Excuses, Excuses. How do you think we're going to wrestle people from their cars? Ridership numbers prove that they love grade-separated rapid transit, so why not make that a priority?

It's truly heartwarming to see your concern over the lack of adequate investment in transit infrastructure in Toronto. Also encouraging is your use of the first-person plural pronoun "we" in phrases like "we need to build," particularly coming from someone outside the GTA. Please let your local MPP know that you would like to support more provincial funding for Toronto's transit budget.

[manrush]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Because as of yet there is not yet the required ridership for a Subway on this line. - Maybe max this line will have 60,000 - 70,000 riders a day.

The line however can be upgraded to subway down the road, as the tunnels required for LRT are actually bigger than those for subway due to the overhead wires required to power the vehicles.

The line is underground, because Rob Ford doesn't want transit interfering with cars.



TTC Eglinton LRT
Toronto, Ontario
IBI Group is responsible for a conceptual design and environmental assessment for the Toronto’s Eglinton LRT line under the Ontario Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP). This includes the development of horizontal and vertical alignments, evaluation and configuration of stations, constructability analysis, and impact assessment.

This project is being carried out on behalf of the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission. The Eglinton line will be 33 km long from Pearson International Airport in the west to Kennedy Station in the east. The line will connect with three other rapid transit subway lines of the Toronto Transit Commission, and it will be served by trains of up to three articulated cars with a total length of 90 m. These cars will be low floor and double ended with doors on both sides. A considerable consultation program is being conducted, with other agencies, stakeholders, and the general public.

http://www.ibigroup.com:88/sites/ibipubl....aspxxDisciplineID=3ppracticeID=46ppage=

I see that other cities are taking after Barcelona in metro tunnel construction.

Though, the height of the tunnel could be reduced if they used the rigid overhead catenary found in Spain's and Japan's metro systems.

(i.e., something like this)

http://cdn.wn.com/pd/67/8c/8d42501bd86a23c59476d8bfa7b3_grande.jpg

As for an hypothetical future conversion to subway, would it be more cost-effective to purchase off-the-shelf subway trains powered by overhead lines rather than third-railing the system and widening the tracks to host the TTC gauge?

As for another transit question: whatever became of Montreal's tramway plan?

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by citizen j

It's truly heartwarming to see your concern over the lack of adequate investment in transit infrastructure in Toronto. Also encouraging is your use of the first-person plural pronoun "we" in phrases like "we need to build," particularly coming from someone outside the GTA. Please let your local MPP know that you would like to support more provincial funding for Toronto's transit budget.

I'm actually a native Torontonian, and even though it looks like my "temporary" stay in London is going to end up being permanent, I nevertheless get sad when I see my old home suffering from the effects of gross mismanagement. Still, I'd ask my local MPP to request funding for the elusive London Ring Road before I ask for a way more expensive subway line which will see no direct benefits for either me or my adoptive city.

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Because as of yet there is not yet the required ridership for a Subway on this line. - Maybe max this line will have 60,000 - 70,000 riders a day.

The line however can be upgraded to subway down the road, as the tunnels required for LRT are actually bigger than those for subway due to the overhead wires required to power the vehicles.

The line is underground, because Rob Ford doesn't want transit interfering with cars.

I think it's better to have this situated underground; minimizes possibility for delays and makes it much more comfortable to ride in the winter. Also, the solid block of earth between the tracks and the surface means no cell phones, which means a brief respite of peace and quiet. By the way, instead of being negative and thinking of the underground line as "Rob Ford doesn't want to have his car blocked by trams", think of it as "We don't want to have our trams blocked by cars (or other petty surface shit)"

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^it has some transit now and as with most airports is 30mins from anywhere.

execpt winnipegs witch is only 4 miles from downtown and has multiple bus lines that go downtown. and our train station is right downtown and if one watches vias website u can ketch seat sales for like $65 from winnipeg to edmonton not joking...

[caltrane74]

Subway Tunnel boring machines for the spadina extention on site.

photo by vz64 at UT

[Biff]

^^^ Those don't look very big though. Just by looking at the 2x4 in the front and the timbers for bracing. I would think to fit train cars they would need to be significantly larger.

Either way it is pretty cool.

[SteelTown]

Have they named the boring yet?

I know we have Big Becky at Niagara, boring machine.

[caltrane74]

"The new machines will build a 5.4-metre tunnel to accommodate a sharper curve on Spadina and new fire protection standards that require wider train walkways, he said."

Toronto Star

These machines are actually larger than those that were used on the Sheppard line.. which was only 5.2 Meters. That is why they ordered new machines from Lovat to handle this construction. The tunnel boring machines that were used on Sheppard were sold to Russia for 2.5 million dollars each.

These machines cost 55 Million dollars.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/669861


Here we see TBM parts located near the future Downsview Park station, where "Torkie" and "Yorkie" will be lowered down a vertical shaft into the ground. The machines are built by Toronto-based Lovat Corporation, a world leader in tunnelling technology.

[caltrane74]

oh an awesome read on another bonehead at Toronto city hall

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/08/...-to-the-airport-that-could-take-a-while/

Chris Selley: The next train to the airport? That could take a while

Chris Selley March 8, 2011 – 7:30 am

Toronto has never been closer to having a rail link from Union Station to Pearson airport. Metrolinx has awarded a contract worth up to $53-million for 12 two-car trains from Sumitomo, piggybacking on an order from Marin County, Calif.


They would run every quarter hour, stop at Bloor and Weston GO stations along the way, and deposit you 25 minutes later on the roof of the parking garage at Terminal 1. And they’d start running in time for the Pan Am Games, in the summer of 2015. By the standards of infrastructure development in this city, that’s practically yesterday.

Alas, in a quintessentially Torontonian combination of legitimate concern, NIMBY-ism and the perfect triumphing over the good, many of us remain dead set against this plan because the trains will be so-called “clean diesels,” not electric.

The good news is that the Sumitomo trains are convertible to electric, should Metrolinx’s plan to electrify the line come to pass — a 10-year project at least, according to a study it released in January.

But that’s not good news to councillor Frances Nunziata (York South-Weston). To her, the cost of converting the trains is a waste of money. “Why not [electrify] now rather than later?” she asks.

She’s tabled a motion, which city council will consider this week, asking the provincial Ministry of Transportation to “consult with international rail electrification experts” to see if the line could in fact be opened, electrified, by 2015. If the answer is no, the motion recommends that “alternative transportation plans be made” for the Pan American hordes. It is, as she says, a pro-electrification motion rather than an anti-rail link motion. But in the near term, the effect would likely be the same.

RELATED
12 clean diesel trains bought to link Pearson airport to Union Station
Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig objects to the premise of Ms. Nunziata’s motion. “We did have international experts working with us over the past year to come up with the electrification study and the proposed implementation plan,” he says.

And the conclusion was, it can’t be done by 2015. Due respect to Ms. Nunziata’s hunch to the contrary, but I’m with the experts. For one thing, Metrolinx doesn’t have the $440-million it expects electrification to cost, and who knows if it ever will? It does have the money to conduct an environmental assessment for the electrification project, but neither that nor the community consultation process is likely to be smooth, quick sailing.

Which of the Weston residents who fought the diesel trains so passionately do you suppose will volunteer to have a power substation located just behind his backyard fence? Asked why electrification takes so long, Mr. McCuaig explains that all land within 200 metres of the right of way will have to be surveyed “for everything from garden sheds to other metal objects in people’s back yards … to make sure everything is properly grounded, so that there’s no stray current that transfers from the electrified corridor into an adjacent area.”

Stray current? Yikes. I can see the petitions now. Ms. Nunziata convincingly argues that the city needn’t feel obliged to deliver the rail link in time for the Pan Am Games (despite having committed to it in its bid), and I agree it’s an arbitrary deadline.

Far more appropriate deadlines included the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, Ed Mirvish’s 80th birthday, the opening of SkyDome and (at latest) the dawn of the new millennium. We are so disastrously behind the times on this that every day a rail link — any rail link — doesn’t get built constitutes wretched failure.

Ms. Nunziata laments that if we’d just built the Eglinton subway to the airport, or committed to an electrified link five years ago, we wouldn’t be in this fix. I agree. But if we’d insisted on electric trains in the 1960s, when they were already all the rage in Europe, there might still be no such thing as GO Transit.

If we continue to insist on adopting the absolute latest in fare-payment technology, we’ll never adopt anything. We’ll be stuck with tokens until global nuclear war destroys humankind and the apes conquer the planet. The rail link is funded. The contract is out. Once it’s built, it can be electrified. If it’s not built now, there’s no guarantee it ever will be. Our grandchildren could be heading to the airport in diesel-powered buses and gasoline-powered cars. Please, councillors. Ignore the perfect for once, and let this good thing happen.

[caltrane74]

New Subway Station in North Toronto -

Since the planning of the extension began, the working name for the first station north of Downsview has been Sheppard West. It makes some sense: it fits with the Spadina line practice of adding "West" to stations serving the same east-west arterials as the Yonge line.

The name doesn't make everyone happy however. The TTC expects that some people riding the Spadina line in the future and looking for Downsview Park, or the new neighbourhood developing around it, might get off at Downsview only to find they are not too close to their destination. GO Transit, which will also serve the new station with a new stop on their Barrie line, does not have a Sheppard station themselves, so they do not want to call this one Sheppard West.

The plan, not yet with final approved, calls for a bit of a swap: before the new station opens, the existing terminus at Downsview will be renamed Sheppard West. That will free up the name, allowing the new station to be named Downsview Park. Even though TTC online references to the new station still call it Sheppard West, for the purposes of this article, we'll go with the name change plan.

So, to start, the station, with the same team that is putting Highway 407 Station together - AECOM as Prime Consultant – Engineering & Architecture : Project Management, Aedas as Design Architect, and PB (Parsons Brinckerhoff) as Design Engineers - from the air:

From UT : interchange42

[caltrane74]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Bombardier+build+railcars+Transit/4436216/story.html

MONTREAL GAZETTE MARCH 14, 2011 12:03 PM


MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc. said Monday its rail equipment unit will build 50 more double-decker commuter railcars for Metrolinx's GO Transit system in Toronto. The order is worth $125 million and deliveries are to start in November,

Bombardier designed the original 152-seater bi-level cars in co-operation with GO Transit; the cars have been in service since 1978. They have since become North America's leading multi-level commuter-rail cars, operating in 13 major cities, including Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Bombardier's Thunder Bay, Ont., plant, now working on Toronto's new-generation subway cars and light rail vehicles, will manufacture the new bi-levels.

As well, Bombardier's Flexjet named J. Bruce Peddle as vice-president of marketing. He was previously a senior marketing executive with Bombardier competitor Embraer of Brazil, with experience in the Asia-Pacific region. Earlier, he worked for Bombardier Aerospace in international sales and marketing.

Bombardier Flexjet provides fractional ownership of business jets



Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/...Transit/4436216/story.html#ixzz1GaxQEqQ8



A Win for Montreal?