Millennium Line - Evergreen Extension | Completed

[Mininari]

Election's over... they can stop 'preparing' now. I guess the liberals are happy they can cut the ribbon on this project (along with the finished PMH1 SFPR projects)... stretch the photo-op value a bit more... Of course, I'm sure they're WAY happier about a miraculous comeback majority win.

[Metro-One]

You do know that real construction is under way right? Preparing has been over for awhile, they are currently working on the portals. I actually recently met a man who is contracted to handle all the excavation work at those locations.

[Mininari]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

You do know that real construction is under way right? Preparing has been over for awhile, they are currently working on the portals. I actually recently met a man who is contracted to handle all the excavation work at those locations.

Nope, I wouldn't know! Look at my location.
Good to hear though :p

[nname]

There is already a big trench for the guideway beside Barnet Highway in the north portal area.

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by Mininari

Nope, I wouldn't know! Look at my location.
Good to hear though :p

Yeah, construction has been going on for a while now, but it will take a couple more months before any obvious visual evidence is present. Right now, all the actual construction is on hard to reach places, even if we want to take photos, its not easy to just simply go there.

I think once the digging starts in the North Road area, which should be around June, it should be easier to take photos and view the progress.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by Mininari

Nope, I wouldn't know! Look at my location.
Good to hear though :p

Point taken But yes, she is indeed truly underway now!

And unlike many other transit additions in this country, is going to be yet another true metro segment.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Point taken But yes, she is indeed truly underway now!

And unlike many other transit additions in this country, is going to be yet another true metro segment.

Yay! .... and if the UBC Broadway subway gets built, Vancouver will probably have the most developed metro system for any city in its size range in North America.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by MIPS

The last time modern politics got into the development of transportation we saw VCC/Clark become the terminus for the Millenium Line and the Canada Line became single-track for two stations.

*There also might be some bad engineering in there too though..

where should have the terminus station for the millenium line be? vcc/clark is great, very handy to hop on the bus and transfer to the canada line for me anyway

[nname]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Yay! .... and if the UBC Broadway subway gets built, Vancouver will probably have the most developed metro system for any city in its size range in North America.

Depend on how you define "most developed". If you judge by length of grade-separated metro, then we are already on top even without Canada Line. If it is by ridership, then we only need half of the Expo Line to beat everyone else. If you include light rail into the length, then we may never catch up as other cities expand faster.

Here are all North America metros with population between 2M and 3M:

		 HR	HR+LR	Riders	Future
St. Louis		 74km	 53k	 74km
Tampa					  0
Baltimore	 25km	 73km	 76k	 99km
Puebla					  0		
San Juan	 17km	 17km	 44k	 17km
Denver		 	 75km	 69k	101km
San Salvador				  0	
Managua					  0	
Pittsburgh		 42km	 29k	 42km
Vancouver	 69km	 69km	405k	 80km
Portland		 84km	130k	101km
San José				  0	
Sacramento		 62km	 50k	 71km 
San Antonio				  0
Havana					  0
Orlando					  0	
Cincinnati				  0
Cleveland 	 31km	 60km	 30k	 60km
Kansas City				  0

* Future includes projects already or very close to be under construction. If we include Broadway Line to UBC, we only got 92km. We need at least a Fraser Hwy line or both Newton+Guildford lines to push it over 101km.

[queetz@home]

Stay on topic please!!! If you want to discuss Broadway Line or Canada Line, etc, go to the appropriate threads!

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by nname

Depend on how you define "most developed". If you judge by length of grade-separated metro, then we are already on top even without Canada Line. If it is by ridership, then we only need half of the Expo Line to beat everyone else. If you include light rail into the length, then we may never catch up as other cities expand faster.

Here are all North America metros with population between 2M and 3M:

		 HR	HR+LR	Riders	Future
St. Louis		 74km	 53k	 74km
Tampa					  0
Baltimore	 25km	 73km	 76k	 99km
Puebla					  0		
San Juan	 17km	 17km	 44k	 17km
Denver		 	 75km	 69k	101km
San Salvador				  0	
Managua					  0	
Pittsburgh		 42km	 29k	 42km
Vancouver	 69km	 69km	405k	 80km
Portland		 84km	130k	101km
San José				  0	
Sacramento		 62km	 50k	 71km 
San Antonio				  0
Havana					  0
Orlando					  0	
Cincinnati				  0
Cleveland 	 31km	 60km	 30k	 60km
Kansas City				  0

* Future includes projects already or very close to be under construction. If we include Broadway Line to UBC, we only got 92km. We need at least a Fraser Hwy line or both Newton+Guildford lines to push it over 101km.

The ridership is probably the most important, and having full grade separation really does make a system feel more complete and "big city" IMO.

[nname]

The almost-full contract for Evergreen Line is released here (under procurement documents, project agreement/schedule)

For the text part, I only have time to scan through some of them, but haven't found anything interesting yet. Seems like the section I'm most interested in (schedule 4, appendix A, B, J) are not released

Appendix H (dated 2012) are interesting though. Not sure how much the final product will change...

The completed Lougheed station at concourse level:

Note: Sign 21 and 51 says "Platform 3: Evergreen Line to Douglas College"

Look at those advertisement panels (marked purple) at the platform!


For Moody Centre, you have to go through two fare gates to get to the WCE platform??

Note: From reading the document, those gates at the WCE entrance are supposed to be future gates. Only Compass readers is required for now.

Last time, we prebuilt a platform at Lougheed station for the Evergreen Line. This time, the drawing shows that we will be building 2 stub tracks and 2 support columns for future Poco extension that might not happen before the end of this century... Seems like our provincial government is quite committed to build skytrain everywhere



And this is what I gather from Appendix I - the potential track map for the line! This document is even older though (dated 2011) - it still have Cameron station, so I just put it in!

Note: VSF = Vehicle Storage Facility... it is actually just lots of parallel tracks

[deasine]

Thanks for that nname. There's a lot of details about TransLink's signage typologies in Appendix H worth reading about.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by nname

The almost-full contract for Evergreen Line is released here (under procurement documents, project agreement/schedule)

Note: Sign 21 and 51 says "Platform 3: Evergreen Line to Douglas College"

For Moody Centre, you have to go through two fare gates to get to the WCE platform??

Last time, we prebuilt a platform at Lougheed station for the Evergreen Line. This time, the drawing shows that we will be building 2 stub tracks and 2 support columns for future Poco extension that might not happen before the end of this century... Seems like our provincial government is quite committed to build skytrain everywhere

And this is what I gather from Appendix I - the potential track map for the line! This document is even older though (dated 2011) - it still have Cameron station, so I just put it in!

Note: VSF = Vehicle Storage Facility... it is actually just lots of parallel tracks

Thanks!

Platform 3 to Coquitlam is consistent with the original plans posted eons ago by SteelWheels.

The double faregate / tap to WCE makes sense (it registers an entry to WCE) - otherwise the system wouldn't know if you travelled between, say, Moody Centre and Waterfront via SkyTrain or via WCE.

VERY strange that the PoCo switch is west of Coquitlam Central - necessitating two stations (as shown on the track map). The preferred option should be like Bridgeport (centre platform) - otherwise, how would you know which station to go to to catch the next train to Vancouver? Plus transfers from Douglas to PoCo would be more difficult (looks like the PoCo to Douglas platforms are joined).

The track map does not show the crossover east of Lougheed that would replace the "basketweave" that is required to get Coquitlam trains back to the righthand track - unless they run "wrong side" all the way to Burquitlam (but that would not make sense through a marked Cameron station).

JACKPOT!
This confirms the proposed train movements from SteelWheels' circa 1999 PMC Line brochure.
And it does look like the trains will run "wrong side" all the way to Burquitlam (red and green arrows).
You can also see that the Millennium Line terminates at Lougheed (blue and yellow arrows), with an easy cross platform transfer to Vancouver (but not from Vancouver).


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/files-4/project-elrt-schedules/Schedule-4_Part-2_Article-1.pdf

[GeeCee]

Most of the interesting stuff is redacted.. bah!

[Zassk]

Wow, that Lougheed track diagram is a mess. Seems like a huge burden for the track switching hardware, and a very complex safety problem for the control system.

You would think that the blue line could be made to avoid the red line entirely, through the installation of a couple new switches on the old guideway. This would eliminate a point of conflict entirely.

I remember the original concept was for a basketweave in the middle of the curve northward, which would be needlessly complicated to build. I was never a fan of the basketweave concept, but looking at that diagram, I wonder if a cheaper weave could have been built into the guideway along the straight portion on North Road.

[officedweller]

Yeah, it results from the through running of the Millennium Line and the phasing of the Evergreen Line. Had the Evergreen Line been built from the outset, the preferential through movement would probably have been the Evergreen routing.

The 3rd platform is there to allow a train (i.e. M-Line) to short-turn and sit there without blocking through service on the mainline).
They can also short-turn trains from Douglas, or short-turn trains from VCC-Clark.

I think in making the trackage compatible with any and all routing possibilities, none of them is optimal.

We had thought there would be a crossover on the North Rd stretch just after the curve, but it looks like it is gone (since without a Cameron Station there really isn't any need to move over to the right side until Burquitlam Station).

[NucksFanInVan]

Originally Posted by Zassk

You would think that the blue line could be made to avoid the red line entirely, through the installation of a couple new switches on the old guideway. This would eliminate a point of conflict entirely.

Perhaps a dumb question, but why switch the trains back coming into Burquitlam? I know it's not a big deal but operationally it is one more thing that could go wrong and I simply don't understand the benefit. Why not "wrong-rail" the trains all the way to Douglas? Are there any reasons (besides convention) to have the trains running on the right hand side of the paired track?

[xd_1771]

@nname, Appendix A is there (or at least partially visible). EDIT: On page 152 I was confused for a moment what that future station would be, then I realized it was the West Port Moody station. The plan interestingly shows the proposed Murray-Clarke overpass.

I'm also seeing diagrams of that new vehicle storage facility (146).

By the way, at the image of the Port Coquitlam stub... lolwat
A separate station for Port Coquitlam stub then? A separate westbound platform?
That is going to be really interesting in the future, with trains coming perhaps every 3 minutes at one westbound platform and every 3 at another and the movements people might make just to catch the next one in 3 when they miss a train

[rxp]

How does the Blue and Green arrow point towards one another... looks confusing..

ALSO... i might add... there are A LOT of "switch failures".... this will only make the problem worse

Originally Posted by officedweller

This confirms the proposed train movements from SteelWheels' circa 1999 PMC Line brochure.
And it does look like the trains will run "wrong side" all the way to Burquitlam (red and green arrows).
You can also see that the Millennium Line terminates at Lougheed (blue and yellow arrows), with an easy cross platform transfer to Vancouver (but not from Vancouver).


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/files-4/project-elrt-schedules/Schedule-4_Part-2_Article-1.pdf