Calgary Public Transit II

[Fuzz]

Aprox $250 million in today's dollars. The more we kick the can down the road, the more it costs....Have their been any recent estimates?

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Aprox $250 million in today's dollars. The more we kick the can down the road, the more it costs....Have their been any recent estimates?

At the end of the Bronconnier era, there was all sorts of talk around the feasibility / engineering study for the 8th Avenue subway being published within the next year or so. It was supposed to be substantial, supposed to be a few million dollars they had budgeted to create the study. I think this was 2010 or so and I don't think anything came out of it.

Quickly after the West LRT the conversation shifted the SE LRT instead and no more mention of downtown subway plans or this study were ever made again, AFAIK.

Anyone else remember this? Does this study actually exist or was it shelved?

[joe498]

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/live-city-budget-talks-resume

Good news:

The transit spending converts what was going to be a 10,000 service hour cut next year to a 70,000-hour increase, which will benefit new suburbs and major routes. Managers will decide whether sidewalk snow clearing or boosts to Access Calgary are what can best improve mobility for people in the winter.

[MasterG]

Interesting report on the 8th Avenue Subway study circa ~2008. Sounds like this study was a real thing. I wonder what ever happened to it.

• Video Link

[*Stardust*]

Originally Posted by MasterG

Interesting report on the 8th Avenue Subway study circa ~2008. Sounds like this study was a real thing. I wonder what ever happened to it.

• Video Link

If this ever went through? Would it be possible to bury 7th avenue to have all the LRT underground?

[suburbia]

Any update on the university / foothills gondola report?

[fusili]

Originally Posted by joe498

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/live-city-budget-talks-resume

Good news:

Definitely awesome news. There is a clear link between ridership and service hours, as you can see in the transitcamp post here: http://transitcamp.ca/

I am very glad council made this choice and decided to up the operating hours for transit. It's the direction this city should be going in.

[Fuzz]

I was on the 301 northbound up centre yesterday at 4:15pm. 2 bendy buses, back to back, crush loaded. I'd say this route needs more capacity! Something like an LRT, perhaps? Hopefully some of these service hours hit that route.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Any update on the university / foothills gondola report?

Will be awhile. This isn't like a normal study, I think they still might be in terms of reference definition stage between all the different parties.

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by *Stardust*

If this ever went through? Would it be possible to bury 7th avenue to have all the LRT underground?

Anything is possible, you would have to make some sort of accommodation to have all trains running on 8th Avenue, which would not be easy/cheap to build temporary connections from the West-NE into the hypothetical 8th Ave tunnel so that you could remove the 7th Ave part during construction.

I thought that the reason 8th Ave has been designated for the subway was that the long-term utility development there was done to minimize the amount of disruption from a subway project. 7th Ave would face more of these issues I would think?

I really would like the 8th Ave Subway study to confirm some of these details!

[para transit fellow]

Slightly off topic but possibly of interest to some of the transit - nuts around here...


Lawrence Hong, Calgary stabbing victim, receives posthumous leadership award

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/la...es-posthumous-leadership-award-1.2853719

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I was on the 301 northbound up centre yesterday at 4:15pm. 2 bendy buses, back to back, crush loaded. I'd say this route needs more capacity! Something like an LRT, perhaps? Hopefully some of these service hours hit that route.

Tell me about it!

Way more demand up in this corridor than the 'louder' SE. Their argument is that if the SE gets a line, maybe more people will use transit. The NC argument is, don't penalize us for already being supporters of public transit!

[You Need A Thneed]

Both are needed, for different reasons.

SE - current bussing takes so long that ridership is low. LRT makes the travel time quicker, thus encouraging more riders. More new riders

NC - current ridership so high, busses barely able to handle the load. Doesn't covert many non transit riders to being transit riders. Operational costs go way down with having to run fewer busses (though most existing bus routes would still have to run)

[andasen]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Both are needed, for different reasons.

SE - current bussing takes so long that ridership is low. LRT makes the travel time quicker, thus encouraging more riders. More new riders

Rail is incidental to improving travel times. Conflating those is a major mistake. The biggest time savers will be from creating a more direct, dedicated ROW. Rail is just a technology which is particularly well suited for high capacity loads and demonstrating permanency of transit service.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by andasen

Rail is incidental to improving travel times. Conflating those is a major mistake. The biggest time savers will be from creating a more direct, dedicated ROW. Rail is just a technology which is particularly well suited for high capacity loads and demonstrating permanency of transit service.

QFT, this is by far the most important point that needs to be made WRT the SE.

[ByeByeBaby]

Yonah Freemark over at Transport Politic has a pretty good summary of how and why transit works in Calgary:

Calgary’s soaring transit use suggests high ridership is possible even in sprawling cities

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

QFT, this is by far the most important point that needs to be made WRT the SE.

I would agree with that.

NC on the other hand is more densely developed and thus needs higher bandwidth limited available land (so a transit way doesn't make sense in that case).

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by suburbia

I would agree with that.

NC on the other hand is more densely developed and thus needs higher bandwidth limited available land (so a transit way doesn't make sense in that case).

NC has the demand current to reach capacity of a dedicated ROW BRT now, the only way to increase capacity beyond that is LRT. That said I'd still like to see the dedicated ROW go in to provide more consistent service.

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by MasterG

At the end of the Bronconnier era, there was all sorts of talk around the feasibility / engineering study for the 8th Avenue subway being published within the next year or so. It was supposed to be substantial, supposed to be a few million dollars they had budgeted to create the study. I think this was 2010 or so and I don't think anything came out of it.

Quickly after the West LRT the conversation shifted the SE LRT instead and no more mention of downtown subway plans or this study were ever made again, AFAIK.

Anyone else remember this? Does this study actually exist or was it shelved?

The news of this report along with the announcement of the West LRT was one of the biggest factors that led me to start stalking ssp Calgary forums. As far as I know the report was unreleased and never heard of again. Hopefully I am wrong.

[MalcolmTucker]

One could always confirm whether it exists using a foip request. Does Transit Camp have $25 sitting around? Does someone remember when abouts the motion would have been? November 2007?