Calgary Public Transit II

[lineman]

Heads up:

7th will be shut down next weekend (Nov. 26-27) for traction power upgrades and transferring of catenary to new poles.

[sim]

Originally Posted by fusili

I would tend to lean your way on many of the rail vs. bus advantages. But BRTs do make sense as crosstown routes, where speed and reliability are needed, but the capacity of a commuter route is not.

Yeah fair enough. I guess something what is in general necessary to clarify is whether true BRT is being talked about - largely ROW B, or what the term has come to mean in Calgary's context.

Actually, as you being creator or partial creator (I believe) of the civic camp route visions, that is a question I have - are those routes mostly running along given steets as is, or is the vision for mostly lane seperation?

[fusili]

Originally Posted by sim

Yeah fair enough. I guess something what is in general necessary to clarify is whether true BRT is being talked about - largely ROW B, or what the term has come to mean in Calgary's context.

Actually, as you being creator or partial creator (I believe) of the civic camp route visions, that is a question I have - are those routes mostly running along given steets as is, or is the vision for mostly lane seperation?

Lane separation for sure on all routes (I share your criticism of what Calgary calls BRT- I mean it has absolutely no elements of any BRT system other than stop spacing and big buses). The only places it wouldn't be would be a few select places on certain routes, and the BRT out to Bowness, which would probably be a lane reversal. So there would be a dedicated transit lane, but only in the peak direction, and would be enforced using cameras and lights.

[DarkKeyo]

Originally Posted by lineman

Heads up:

7th will be shut down next weekend (Nov. 26-27) for traction power upgrades and transferring of catenary to new poles.

The schedules and replacement bus route maps have been posted on CT website now. The NW line will terminate at SAIT again, meaning that the replacement shuttles will terminate at Lions Park. This would be a very good time for Calgary Transit to observe how this setup at Lions Park doesn't function well. It wasn't designed for articulated buses, or for high volumes of foot traffic. As well, Bridgeland is an awkward connection, with the shuttles taking a circuitous route to their stop, and the stop is in a slightly awkward place.

While we will have fewer downtown shutdowns in the future, both Lions Park and Bridgeland will have TOD develop over time, and are two of several stations which would need upgrades to handle increased usage.

[ggopher]

Shane Keating, the alderman for Ward 12 in the SE, has posted this paper on the BRT vs LRT in the SE.

Friday, November 18, 2011
SETWAY - A Comprehensive Analysis of the Southeast Transit Way
http://shanekeating.blogspot.com/2011/11/setway-comprehensive-analysis-of.html

During the election he was a major advocat for the SE-LRT. Now that he is in office, I think he has realized the large cost and lack of funding that is actually available. Now he supports the SETWAY using dedicated roads for the BRT to the SE.

Before we go ahead with this, we need to make sure we know the true cost and timeline for the eventual transition to LRT. As was mentioned here before, I agree that the BRT will delay the ultimate LRT.

It is too bad we can't just save our money and wait till we have enough to do it right. These half solutions just to get something built never works out in the end.

[AB Born]

Saddleridge LRT Station by JordanW.ca, on Flickr


Saddleridge LRT Station by JordanW.ca, on Flickr


Saddleridge LRT Station by JordanW.ca, on Flickr


Martindale LRT Station by JordanW.ca, on Flickr


Martindale LRT Station - Northbound by JordanW.ca, on Flickr


Martindale LRT Station - Southbound by JordanW.ca, on Flickr


Martindale LRT Station - Southbound by JordanW.ca, on Flickr

[J-D]

Great pics - they really put it into perspective just how close the train runs to those houses... I would hate to live THAT close to the train.

[artvandelay]

It really makes you wonder what our city planners were smoking when they decided to zone for single family residential immediately next to a future station site. It's stupidity like this we need to move away from when new suburbs are designed (thankfully this is happening with the plans for the area around the south hospital).

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

It really makes you wonder what our city planners were smoking when they decided to zone for single family residential immediately next to a future station site. It's stupidity like this we need to move away from when new suburbs are designed (thankfully this is happening with the plans for the area around the south hospital).

There is a parcel of townhomes directly beside the outbound platform (the curved one). Enough density for so close to the station? No, but it isn't all single family homes.

[Canadian74]

Umm.. what's wrong with the train close to the houses?

[MichaelS]

My biggest issue would be noise, especially from the crossing lights/bells.

[5seconds]

Originally Posted by MichaelS

My biggest issue would be noise, especially from the crossing lights/bells.

And the people at night, waiting for/getting off the train and making noise.

[armorand93]

Originally Posted by MichaelS

My biggest issue would be noise, especially from the crossing lights/bells.

I'm a Winnipegger who lives with buses running over potholes, 747s over my head (runway) and drunks yelling outside at 2 am within 10 metres of my house. I'd rather have the train and bells over all those three combined

[TransitSupporter]

Originally Posted by MichaelS

My biggest issue would be noise, especially from the crossing lights/bells.

I stayed in a residence close by the Health Sciences Centre station in Edmonton for a couple of weeks one summer, and listened to the crossing bells there. They started about 5:15 in the morning and rang every 10 minutes minimum during the day (more in rush hours), and every 15 in the evening until close to 1 AM - both directions! Believe me it really can get on your nerves, although that said I guess you can get used to anything.

[earl69]

I heard that folks who were waiting to get bussed into the core this morning(several hundred of them) were greeted with small community shuttles at the stations. How fucking pathetic is that.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by earl69

I heard that folks who were waiting to get bussed into the core this morning(several hundred of them) were greeted with small community shuttles at the stations. How fucking pathetic is that.

weird, last night they were using bendy busses to shuttle people.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by earl69

I heard that folks who were waiting to get bussed into the core this morning(several hundred of them) were greeted with small community shuttles at the stations. How fucking pathetic is that.

I transferred at Lion's park. They had a few shuttles, a few regular buses and some articulated buses. There were probably around 800 people waiting at a time. I got a coffee and waited a bit until it cleared up. It could have been handled a bit better, but they did a decent job.

[floobie]

I followed the advice of the train conductor in the morning, got off at Brentwood, and took the 9 bus downtown. It took a while (about 45 minutes later than normal), but after hearing from a few people who had come back from Lions Park after waiting for well over an hour, I'm pretty glad I did what I did.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by floobie

I followed the advice of the train conductor in the morning, got off at Brentwood, and took the 9 bus downtown. It took a while (about 45 minutes later than normal), but after hearing from a few people who had come back from Lions Park after waiting for well over an hour, I'm pretty glad I did what I did.

I got off at Lion's Park as well. Probably around 1000 ppl waiting for shuttle buses, many people taking trains back north, probably for the very reason you did. I went into North Hill, got a coffee, read for about 20 minutes and then went back out, waited for about another 15 minutes and finally got on a shuttle. It sucked, but hey, it was a freak windstorm, so I don't blame Calgary Transit. Some announcements could have been more descriptive (at first, there was no indication where the shuttles were leaving from), and the shuttle operators could have been better at letting passengers know where the stops were to be, but all in all it was handled well.

One thing does come out of this though- a clear demonstration of the differences in capacity between a train and a bus. One train of passengers probably required around 6-8 large buses. Makes the SETWAY (a BRT for the SE), look like a ridiculous idea.

[Northski]

Could the the trains have gone to Sunnyside? Are track there track switches near sunnyside? It seems that a lot of people could have walked downtown from here in 15minutes rather then take a shuttle bus. Also its only a 30 walk from sait to the middle of downtown.