Calgary Public Transit II

[Bassic Lab]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Tunnel diameter would be a small savings, holes are holes - and when they say ART, they don't mean necessarily SkyTrain, Canada Line is counted in the example.

Big savings comes from being able to build shorter stations - underground station boxes are expensive! To figure out the ART cost you need to do way more than a back of the envelope, you need grade profiles and system capabilities because depending on the ROW, you might still be able to run much of it at ground level.

Just checking the math here

You have 54,000 riders saving $0.87. Using capacity at 50 weeks of working days, and half loads at other times, (307.5 'days') you have 16,605,000 trips with a savings of $14,446,350 a year. That is, the operational cost differential takes 138.44 years to pay for, without interest costs.

I think a decimal point must of been misplaced in the calculation above.

Also, the display boards capital cost per rider while they might be proportionally correct, do not really reflect any real value it seems.

I know that they don't necessarily mean skytrain. In fact, I can't see us going linear induction but driverless means grade separated. With grade separated we can go third rail and the tunnels can be a couple of feet shorter.

I thought costs increase exponentially with tunnel diameter. Laying utility pipe is a hole... Moving all of that extra dirt costs money; going deeper costs money.

[frinkprof]

Went to the McKenzie Towne open house this evening. Took the 302 bus there, departing downtown at about 4:50. What an utterly soul-destroying experience that was.

If I ever move anywhere in that vicinity (Copperfield, McKenzie Towne, etc.), someone please shoot me in the face.

[srperrycgy]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Went to the McKenzie Towne open house this evening. Took the 302 bus there, departing downtown at about 4:50. What an utterly soul-destroying experience that was.

If I ever move anywhere in that vicinity (Copperfield, McKenzie Towne, etc.), someone please shoot me in the face.

And Ald. Shane Keating was annoyed when I tweeted to him that his ward was "soulless" a while back. Truth-hurts.

[suburb]

Broken train on NW line - all at a stand still. Impact also on NE line.

[suburb]

Now Calgary Transit is tweeting:

The outbound train at Marlb Stn still not moving, mechanic's are now working on the train. Will keep patrons updated as things progress....

[kw5150]

Loving the train system in Calgary. So reliable!

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Went to the McKenzie Towne open house this evening. Took the 302 bus there, departing downtown at about 4:50. What an utterly soul-destroying experience that was.

If I ever move anywhere in that vicinity (Copperfield, McKenzie Towne, etc.), someone please shoot me in the face.

McKenzie Towne is a nice neighbourhood, but it's so damn far away! The LRT will be really nice for the area when it's done in 30 years. lol

[DizzyEdge]

McKenzie town is weird. At first glance it has nice aesthetics, like a section of just-built 1912 Calgary residential was teleported to the new millennium . Then you look closer and realize that much of it is plastic, and the "brick" houses have 1/2 inch "brick" siding just on the fronts.. weird.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

McKenzie town is weird. At first glance it has nice aesthetics, like a section of just-built 1912 Calgary residential was teleported to the new millennium . Then you look closer and realize that much of it is plastic, and the "brick" houses have 1/2 inch "brick" siding just on the fronts.. weird.

Exactly. This is part of what I had noticed about the place. It's got that weird Truman Show trying-to-be-authentic-but-ultimately-fake quality to it. Oh yeah, and it's separated from the rest of the city (let alone downtown and anything resembling an authentic urbanity) by a huge freeway. And a river. And miles upon miles of industrial parks. The hour-long express bus ride highlights all of that too.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Exactly. This is part of what I had noticed about the place. It's got that weird Truman Show trying-to-be-authentic-but-ultimately-fake quality to it. Oh yeah, and it's separated from the rest of the city (let alone downtown and anything resembling an authentic urbanity) by a huge freeway. And a river. And miles upon miles of industrial parks. The hour-long express bus ride highlights all of that too.

That is because both were designed by Andres Duany. Good project, wrong location. Like pretty much everything else Duany does.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Oh yeah, and it's separated from the rest of the city (let alone downtown and anything resembling an authentic urbanity) by a huge freeway. And a river. And miles upon miles of industrial parks. The hour-long express bus ride highlights all of that too.

Well, it *is* a suburb. That seemed clear the first time I looked at a map.

Plus, it's got a multi-lane roundabout which should almost be illegal in this country.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

McKenzie town is weird. At first glance it has nice aesthetics, like a section of just-built 1912 Calgary residential was teleported to the new millennium . Then you look closer and realize that much of it is plastic, and the "brick" houses have 1/2 inch "brick" siding just on the fronts.. weird.

I currently have company in from England, and he's envious of our use of wood. He has all sorts of issues with renos on his brick house, and he just wishes they'd build with more wood (for cost, simplicity of certain renos, and get this - so it's easier to tear down old shit for re-development).

I swear to god. It was like the twilight zone. Thankfully they also use the phrase "the grass is always greener..."

[suburb]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Oh yeah, and it's separated from the rest of the city (let alone downtown and anything resembling an authentic urbanity) by a huge freeway. And a river. And miles upon miles of industrial parks. The hour-long express bus ride highlights all of that too.

Originally Posted by freeweed

Well, it *is* a suburb. That seemed clear the first time I looked at a map.

Most Calgary suburbs don't hit most of those notes. MT is closer to a commuter community (like Cochrane) than a suburb. When the LRT gets there in 30 years, they should charge $10/trip as is appropriate for a commuter community.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by suburb

Most Calgary suburbs don't hit most of those notes. MT is closer to a commuter community (like Cochrane) than a suburb. When the LRT gets there in 30 years, they should charge $10/trip as is appropriate for a commuter community.

It might be up to that price by then across the board anyway.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Exactly. This is part of what I had noticed about the place. It's got that weird Truman Show trying-to-be-authentic-but-ultimately-fake quality to it. Oh yeah, and it's separated from the rest of the city (let alone downtown and anything resembling an authentic urbanity) by a huge freeway. And a river. And miles upon miles of industrial parks. The hour-long express bus ride highlights all of that too.

That's the thing, I almost never have to worry about finding fake historicism that I like, because it's always done so badly (and usually in a cheaper way than what it's trying to mimic). If those houses in McKenzie Towne were made of wood with actual stone and brick, then perhaps I would be in a bit of a quandry, but that rarely happens.

[MasterG]

Does anyone know where to find specific bus route ridership data? I remember seeing something a few years back but I can't seem to find it now.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Exactly. This is part of what I had noticed about the place. It's got that weird Truman Show trying-to-be-authentic-but-ultimately-fake quality to it. Oh yeah, and it's separated from the rest of the city (let alone downtown and anything resembling an authentic urbanity) by a huge freeway. And a river. And miles upon miles of industrial parks. The hour-long express bus ride highlights all of that too.

That part I actually don't care about since it's sort of trying to pretend it's a small town away from the city. It's just the pretend isn't done convincingly.

[Bassic Lab]

Originally Posted by MasterG

Does anyone know where to find specific bus route ridership data? I remember seeing something a few years back but I can't seem to find it now.

I don't think they've ever publicly released that data. From time to time, the information for certain routes gets released in reports or even by the media but I've certainly never seen an entire list.

The release from a couple of years ago that you might be thinking of involved the Centre Street corridor. It was reported in the media that it was the busiest bus corridor in the city with more than 30,000 riders a day.

[frinkprof]

It was reported on CPTDB that there was a pile driver at the Tuscany Station site today.

[You Need A Thneed]

Yup, On my way to Cochrane yesterday afternoon, I saw it there.