The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by lake of the nations

Great news: Laval mayor is now working on an aerial tramway project!


By Vincent1927 on 07/02/08

(On the picture, you can see the one in New York)

aerial tramway??!! Why can't laval, a city twice the size of Burnaby, build a light rail? Laval is pathetic in that respect.

[caltrane74]

Glass Atrium Train Shed is taking shape at Union Station

Steel Bars that will hold the glass in place being installed now


Picture from Atlantis at UT

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread....ck-Upgrades-(Zeidler-Partnership)/page28

Finished Product will look like this


City of Toronto
toronto.ca

[Canadian74]

Originally Posted by The Chemist

Are there still New Looks running with Calgary Transit? I don't recall seeing any in service when I was back in Calgary last summer.

Only 30 or so left. Mainly used for School runs and rush hours.

[lake of the nations]

• Video Link

Originally Posted by Rotax

Source : http://www.stl.laval.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Communique-Tramway-aerien-v.-finale.pdf

Rapport de l'étude : http://www.stl.laval.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Transport-par-cable-introduction-et-etude.pdf

[ssiguy]

Cable trams certainly can't be used as "mass" transit as their capacity is simply too low but I think they can be used very effectively in niche applications. Vancouver is considering it for the main SFU campus in Burnaby. SFU sits on a tall mini-mountain all by itself and is steep and high enough that the only 2 roads fetting there are often shut down due to snow and steep inclines. The 3 km cable tram line would connect the campus with the nearby SFU Millenium SkyTrain Station.
They can be used well for accessing difficult areas suchas getting to Toronto Islands from the city like New York has.
They can also have good practicality in "last mile trips"...........the ones where good, free flowing transit is needed to connect to nearby subway/commuter rail stations but LRT is not optional due to the area's layout, density, or high costs.

[Rico Rommheim]

I said it before and I'll say it again. What Laval needs is a Burnaby-style elevated LRT. This flying tramway operation is a waste of time.

[Rotax]

An aerial tramway can carry up to 8000 people per hour in each direction. That is more than a fully loaded articulated bus every two minutes.

Besides, it's cheap and quick to build and you don't have to wait very long for your cable car, because there is one every 12 seconds. Also, some technologies (3S, for example) allows a commercial speed of more than 25 km/h, which is pretty interesting.

And if the metro gets built in that area a few years later, you can still easily dismantle the aerial tramway and put it somewhere else... just like ski resorts do with chairlifts...

[Coldrsx]

Good news for Edmonton!


(http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/5752212.bin?size=620x400s)

City fast-tracks LRT expansion with push for $800M


BY GORDON KENT, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM NOVEMBER 23, 2011 6:31 AM



STORYPHOTOS ( 4 )



More Images »

Four-car LRT trains are shown in Edmonton on March 21, 2011. They will deal with heavy commuter volume and help alleviate congestion.
Photograph by: Ed Kaiser, edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON - City councillors pushed ahead with LRT expansion plans Tuesday by asking staff to find $800 million for the project in hopes of starting construction within three years.

The proposal would see LRT trains running to Mill Woods from downtown by 2018, including a maintenance yard at Whitemud Drive and 75th Street that might be built as a public-private partnership, Coun. Amarjeet Sohi said.

“What we have done is we have put money on the table … and shown the provincial and federal governments that we’re serious about it,” he said.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/City+fast+tracks+expansion+with+push+800M/5752104/story.html

[lake of the nations]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

I said it before and I'll say it again. What Laval needs is a Burnaby-style elevated LRT. This flying tramway operation is a waste of time.

Don't worry about that, Mr. Vaillancourt as plenty of time! If he has been able to stay there for 38 years, I don't see why he wouldn't be able to do another decade (or even more)!

[espalorius]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Good news for Edmonton!


(http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/5752212.bin?size=620x400s)

City fast-tracks LRT expansion with push for $800M


BY GORDON KENT, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM NOVEMBER 23, 2011 6:31 AM



STORYPHOTOS ( 4 )



More Images »

Four-car LRT trains are shown in Edmonton on March 21, 2011. They will deal with heavy commuter volume and help alleviate congestion.
Photograph by: Ed Kaiser, edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON - City councillors pushed ahead with LRT expansion plans Tuesday by asking staff to find $800 million for the project in hopes of starting construction within three years.

The proposal would see LRT trains running to Mill Woods from downtown by 2018, including a maintenance yard at Whitemud Drive and 75th Street that might be built as a public-private partnership, Coun. Amarjeet Sohi said.

“What we have done is we have put money on the table … and shown the provincial and federal governments that we’re serious about it,” he said.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/City+fast+tracks+expansion+with+push+800M/5752104/story.html

That's good for Edmonton but like councillor Karen said..."round me up some cattle and get that there west LRT done"

[Chadillaccc]

I love the Union Station revitalization!

[ssiguy]

I hope the Edmonton Millwoods line will be a true rapid transit LRT line and not just a street running ROW line like Toronto's now dead TransitCity.
Also................will this line interline with the current downtown tunnel and then head north to the currently under construction Grant McQueon {sp?} extention or simply terminate at Churchill? I hope they interline the route........the fewer the transfers one has to make, the higher the ridership and transit experience.

[Coldrsx]

^neither really. It will link up with a 'downtown connector' and eventually continue to the west end. The SELRT and WLRT will run a new style euro low floor LRT.

[feepa]

The plans for the WLRT/SELRT are a big joke, and strays far from how current LRT is setup in Edmonton (and Calgary for that matter) It's a suburban commuter train in reality, but its being pitched as a "new style euro low floor LRT ohhh ahhh euro" with streetcar like service. It will be severely under capacity, have little to no segregated ROW with many level crossings. What Edmonton should be doing is building streetcar service where it makes sense (downtown/Oliver/Old Strathcona) and commuter LRT to the suburbs. Trying to kill too many birds with too few stones.

[Wharn]

So I heard instead of just removing the least used routes, or the ones that make the least sense, the TTC has decided to make cuts to the busiest routes instead. All that can be said, really, is... BRILLIANT! Absolute sheer brilliance! London Transit should adopt the same logic, and cut the main routes to run every half hour, ending at 9:00pm, so that all routes across the city appeal to the communist ideal by being equally underfunded.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/24/...reetcar-bus-routes-affected-by-cutbacks/

[caltrane74]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

I love the Union Station revitalization!

In less than 20 years Union Station will become 24/7. It's almost at capacity now, but these renovations will bring capacity to 850,000 people a day. Triple it's current capacity.

There was some talk today that Metrolinx might build a secondary commuter train hub east or west of union station.

[Chadillaccc]

That sounds pretty ambitious! Where would they find the land for such a project?

and I thought Union already was a 24/7 transit hub? and especially with the airport line, that should definitely help.

I'm glad they're keeping the classic "Grand Hall", it is definitely one of Canada's architectural masterpiece's, but I feel like they could do more with the west wing of the station. I saw a proposal a while back as part of the revitalization to convert the west wing into a hotel with a clear, curved glass roof over the atrium of the existing wing. The hotel rooms would be where the offices currently are.

[caltrane74]

Yes it's 24/7 - but not for GO Trains. Once upgrades are made to electrify the tracks, GO Trains will be able to run both ways all day, this plus the new platforms at Union Subway, and the Air Rail link will increase capacity to 300 million per year. Or at least Union is being built to handle the expected 225 million passangers a year that will go through the station.

Metrolinx is looking at building a second train hub at the foot of Bathurst near King. Along with a DRL.

[Alexcaban]

http://www.stm.info/english/info/comm-11/a-co111125.htm

The results we achieved these last years clearly show that our combined efforts have produced results. From 2007 to 2011, the STM achieved exceptional growth in its offer of service, thanks to considerable financial support by the Agglomeration of Montréal and Government of Québec, who shared equally in funding PASTEC, the STM’s public transit service improvement program. By the end of 2011, we expect to reach an historic ridership level of 405 million passenger rides, a 4.2% increase over 2010. With such results, the STM can end the current five-year period with an 11.5% increase in ridership, surpassing the 8% target outlined in PASTEC, ” declared Board Chairman Michel Labrecque.

Among the service improvements planned for 2012, the STM will introduce four express bus lines, the first serving Rosemont Boulevard before heading downtown, and three others in the West Island area, as part of traffic mitigating measures related to work on the Turcot Interchange. The STM will acquire 32 buses to carry out these measures. Over 100 km of new reserved lanes will be added along ten other corridors in 2012, bringing the total to more than 240 km. The STM will also initiate the first phase of service improvements in the Côte-des-Neiges district, as part of construction work on Sainte-Justine hospital, and will introduce the 71 – Centre bus line into service in Sud-Ouest Borough.

[Coldrsx]

Edmonton NLRT Progress courtesy of 'Edmcowboy11' on C2E


(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hph...59983_683109982_8480752_2065078807_n.jpg)