Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[nname]

Originally Posted by cornholio

If I was translinks CEO I would make sure that for the first year of service the trains and stations were full, that means undeserved. That is the critical time period after such a massive project when people decide if its a success or failure. Empty trains look bad and statistics are useless for most people, full trains and stations and calls for increased frequencies and more trains is good, very good, very very good.

The plan is to run 2-cars MkII trains every 3 min since they'll only have 56 cars assigned to Evergreen. This gives about the same capacity as current mix of 4-MkI/6-MkI/4-MkII every 5.4 minutes, and the train now is already quite full during peak hours. With the addition of Douglas-Lougheed, plus 5 years of ridership growth, I don't even want to imagine how full the train will be from Loughed to Commercial after Evergreen opens....

[YVR Bruce]

2016+
It seems logical to design Lougheed Stn so that service can alternate between classic Millennium (Downtown-NW-UBC) and Evergreen / Western. That would see 2 cars on the Coquitlam-Vanc line alternating with 4 cars around the current loop, extended to(wards) UBC. For the next few decades, Lougheed west and NW-Metrotown-Vanc will always have more traffic than Burquitlam east. It would reduce an expanding need for short turning service on Expo (and perhaps UBC-Brentwood), and train length would give Millennium / Western riders a clear visual signal as to which service was pulling into the station.

[nname]

Originally Posted by YVR Bruce

2016+
It seems logical to design Lougheed Stn so that service can alternate between classic Millennium (Downtown-NW-UBC) and Evergreen / Western. That would see 2 cars on the Coquitlam-Vanc line alternating with 4 cars around the current loop, extended to(wards) UBC. For the next few decades, Lougheed west and NW-Metrotown-Vanc will always have more traffic than Burquitlam east. It would reduce an expanding need for short turning service on Expo (and perhaps UBC-Brentwood), and train length would give Millennium / Western riders a clear visual signal as to which service was pulling into the station.

Actually, its pretty much decided now they're going to run these after Evergreen line opens:
Expo: Waterfront <-> King George
Millennium: Waterfront <-> Lougheed
Evergreen: VCC <-> Gulidford

[SpongeG]

Millennium: Waterfront <-> Lougheed
Evergreen: VCC <-> Gulidford

guildford? how?

[nname]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

guildford? how?

I mean Douglas... (I was looking at the RTM document and the station code they had was GU, which stands for Guildford Way)

[SpongeG]

okay makes sense now - i was thinking it would run to surrey...

-----------

24 Avenue bus access to Langley on the way

By Alex Browne - Peace Arch News
Published: February 08, 2012 2:00 PM
Updated: February 08, 2012 3:00 PM

Christine Allen wrote to the Peace Arch News asking that people caught in a ‘no bus zone’ in South Surrey be given a break by TransLink.

She was stunned to learn – the same day her letter was published (Feb. 7) – that her issue is to be addressed with a new bus route that will begin connecting Grandview Heights and the Campbell Heights business park with both White Rock and Langley in late April.

“I sent the letter to TransLink, and the City of Surrey and the mayor (Dianne Watts) and anyone else I could think of,” she said, adding the most she’d hoped for was raising awareness of a long-standing issue.

Allen – who wrote contrasting the $1.4 billion TransLink is projected to spend on the Evergreen Line in Coquitlam with a lack of bus service to the newly populous area south of Highway 10 and east of Highway 99 – said she wasn’t expecting the direct response she received from the City of Surrey.

Transportation planner Don Buchanan emailed her back to say the city has been advocating with TransLink for new services for residents, and giving details of the new bus service, in the middle of the ‘no bus zone’ she referred to.

According to Buchanan, the new route will run from central White Rock up 152 Street, then east on 24 Avenue to 192 Street, where it will travel north to 32 Avenue, then east to 200 Street and north to the Langley Centre exchange.

TransLink representatives did not respond to requests for confirmation of the route by press time.

Ironically Allen, a Peninsula resident since 1975, doesn’t live in the ‘no bus zone.’

“But I have friends in that area and it’s been frustrating,” she said. “When my kids were younger, I was driving them there all the time, and to get to Langley, where they have friends, would take close to two hours by bus with transfers.

“It seems silly, when they’re getting the Evergreen Line in Coquitlam, you look at the transportation maps for down here and there are — holes.”

...

http://www.peacearchnews.com/news/138970324.html

[Xerx]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Looks like the plan is 28 trains for opening and another 28trains 1.5yrs later.



Lots of real great info in the RFOI and well worth saving for the transit junkies.
http://www.translink.ca/~/media/document...lr%20transit%20passenger%20vehicles.ashx

Looking over the specs it seems a given the trains will be from Bombardier.

I'm holding out hope that someone like Kawasaki or Hitachi can win the bid, if only to shut up some of the criticism that Skytrain is proprietary.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by allan_kuan

1) Provincial control over transit doesn't necessarily guarantee that there will be more customer input and accountability. If anything, BC Hydro's suffering quite the rant these days for their smart meters program, and they're holding firm like a rock. So in the end nothing will really improve from the customer's side. There might be more improvements to actually getting things done perhaps if the agency can plan things without municipal and provincial interference but I doubt that'll happen, and we'll most likely end up with some bad pet projects being thrown into the mix.

I don't know if that is a fair analysis and analogy of the situation.

Let me paint it differently. The smart meters are a good investment by BC Hydro. It can save the crown corp and rate payers tens of millions (and more) a year. It will result in faster responses to power outages and faster restoration times. Consumers will be able to get accurate power consumption information online, up to the day (plug in a new appliance and see that your consumption raises 20%, take it back!). However, a fringe element have heard from some small report published somewhere by some people that claim to be experts that claim the the smart meters are dangerous. BC Hydro has done everything possible to show the public that that is not the case. Still people are so up in arms about it that they lock their meters and threaten BC Hydro employees with violence if they attempt to install a smart meter. But the benefits far outweigh any negatives so much so that the crown corp is pushing ahead, straight through the complaints, in an attempt to bring the province a 21st century power grid.

Compare that to....

The province decides that the best course of action is to use Skytrain technology to build the Evergreen line. It has significant operating cost savings over LRT and construction cost savings (using same rolling stock). The automated network can handle higher capacities and more frequent trains. It offers commuters many benefits too, such as integrated travel with fewer transfers and a much faster, safer ride. However, some people out there, read some website written by some crack pot who labels himself an light rail expert, claims that Skytrain is the brain child of neo-nazis that only exists to throw tax payer money down a bottomless bit to be devowered by Bombardier fatcats. The province has done everything possible to convince everyone that Skytrain is the best idea going forward, but still, many people resit the idea and would prefer light rail.

So, sometimes a centralized, strong headed organization is best. An organization that bends to much to the whims of the loudest is easily side tracked and thrown off course (much like your criticisms of city governments). As long as the larger organizations are staffed by knowledgeable people acting in a responsible manor, then sometimes it is best to just ignore the crackpots instead of wasting time trying to create some impossible Utopia where we all agree 100% on everything. Sometimes you just have to trust the people who spend all their time studying a problem and not the fan boy.

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I noticed that too.

4-car articulated trains!

If they were just married pairs, there wouldn't be any "centre cars" - they would all be "end cars".

Good catch.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I noticed that too.

4-car articulated trains!

If they were just married pairs, there wouldn't be any "centre cars" - they would all be "end cars".

Yeah I noticed that too. Looks good, although wouldn't it make more sense to order 10 3-car train sets? 30 cars, that is. Use those on the Expo Line to increase capacity (running as 3+2 trains) and move some 2-car trains to the Evergreen Line?

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by galeforcewinds

Yeah I noticed that too. Looks good, although wouldn't it make more sense to order 10 3-car train sets? 30 cars, that is. Use those on the Expo Line to increase capacity (running as 3+2 trains) and move some 2-car trains to the Evergreen Line?

I'd imagine the 4 car trains would be for Expo, and the displaced trains would be used on the Evergreen Line.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

I'd imagine the 4 car trains would be for Expo, and the displaced trains would be used on the Evergreen Line.

What's the point of that? There's already 4-car trains running, wouldn't translink want to go for 5-car trains to take advantage of the platform length?

[nname]

They still need to make final decision, do structure inspection, upgrade control software, and extend platform for some stations (ie. Broadway, Metrotown) before they can run 5-car trains.

[deasine]

Not necessarily Metro Vancouver transit per say, but Nova Bus has redesigned its interiors as per video:

• Video Link

[bardak]

Suggestion from the the North Shore area plan study are up.

http://www.translink.ca/~/media/document...e%20and%20infrastructure%20projects.ashx

Some things that stand out are a B-Line from Lynn Valley to downtown, Another B-Line from the Dundarave to Pibbs, and concatenating the buses the go to Capilano University to Pibbs Exchange and providing a frequent shuttle between instead.

[TransitSupporter]

Originally Posted by deasine

Not necessarily Metro Vancouver transit per say, but Nova Bus has redesigned its interiors as per video:

• Video Link

Calgary Transit has bought ~80 Nova buses in the past 12 months or so. Initially I thought they were kind of ugly; however, I've found them very comfortable to ride as a passenger - better seating layouts than the New Flyer (CT standard), and ++quieter. CT interior layout is not like in the video though - that doesn't look like the CT "way" haha.

[officedweller]

Of interest -

Article on the Sheppard Line in TO and how job growth waned along the corridor (in part because neighbourhood groups axed plans for office tower TOD nodes, favouring linear residential development instead):

http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhallpoli...r-rob-ford-doesn-t-want-you-to-read?bn=1

[st7860]

What most people on BOTH sides of the SFU Gondola discussion don't know is that Translink doesn't tell people that they don't put snow tires on buses.

[officedweller]

Presumably becuase the additional fuel costs of having knobbier tires aren't cost-effective over the whole season.

[Metro-One]

Just what i was thinking. Not to mention how expensive the tires would be for only a weeks worth of service.