The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[red-paladin]

Why Why Whhhyyy would Montreal build a new line and make it LRT instead of part of the existing Metro system?

[Aylmer]

The same reason I don't swat a fly with a jewl-studded sledgehammer. It's tremendously expensive and total overkill.

That's not to say that there's no reason to build a metro (there is), but when you're wanting to build some 30km of it through low density suburbs, it just isn't practical to limit yourself to a technology which can ONLY run in tunnels, which is meant to move several tens of thousands of people per hour and costs hundreds of millions of dollars per km.

LRT is the missing link in Montreal between super-high-capacity and buses and it's sorely needed if we're even going to improve transit and liveability in the suburbs or meet the capacity crunch on urban bus lines (they're honestly like clown cars, some of them).

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

Why Why Whhhyyy would Montreal build a new line and make it LRT instead of part of the existing Metro system?

250 million per km for a 15 km extension in a suburban area=waste of money

Our technology can only go underground contrarily to the Toronto subway.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm a little disappointed with Ottawa's future subway stations. Designs went from big, open, over the top stations with 150-180 meter platforms to very plain, bare bones 120 meter stations. Concourses aren't bad though.

One of the concept stations before the RFP:


http://www.westsideaction.com/lrt-stations-revealled-part-i/

Platform and concourse level as currently designed:


http://ottawa.ca/en/ott-city-online/welcoming-future-transit-city-ottawa


http://www.ibigroup.com/category/general-news/page/9/

That looks pretty awesome, reminds me of Millennium Line style of design, but underground. Can't wait to seeing it in person!

[Innsertnamehere]

The difference for Ottawa is the new station design is much shallower, which makes accessing the subway easier.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by niwell

^The new stations on the University-Spadina line will be pretty epic. Of course people are angry at their scale because of the cost.

One thing that struck me in Montreal was that many of their stations outside downtown are great underground, but have horrible street presence.

I do like epic stations but, my intent is to be in them as little as possible. Seems kind of wasteful. There's some very nice station entrances being built but, a hole in the wall of some larger mixed use development is also preferred. Worst case is the Sheppard Line which attempted epic on a tight budget.

[yaletown_fella]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

Why Why Whhhyyy would Montreal build a new line and make it LRT instead of part of the existing Metro system?

Hopefully the LRTs can average fast speeds (60-80 km/hr)

I think the compromise on capacity to save cost is sensible at this point, but there should be no compromise on speed.

[caltrane74]

Riding on an LRT/Streetcar is a far more pleasant experience to that of riding on a bus.

They also can travel at least as fast as a bus or better if in a ROW / or grade seperated.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

The difference for Ottawa is the new station design is much shallower, which makes accessing the subway easier.

Yep. The original (pre-2011) design was intended to run a route diagonal to the street grid, which required going deep underground. It would have been stupidly deep, something like 10-15 flights of stairs worth of distance underground. The new post-2011 design conforms to the street grid and as such is directly below the utility level. The roof of each concourse is about 3m below the asphalt, and the running tunnel is about 15-20m down.

[SkahHigh]

The AMT confirmed me via email that plans for the new Du Canal commuter rail station in Lachine are being completed and construction will start this year. It'll be located on the Candiac Line between Montreal-West and LaSalle stations as part of the strategy to reduce congestion during the Turcot Interchange reconstruction. 150 park-and-ride spots

Here's where it'll be located:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.439073,-7...3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLhEEFoIJ30E9HDux7dT-1w!2e0

[le calmar]

Since the station is in the middle of nowhere, people will still use their car to get there. And it is located near the Turcot interchange, I fail to see how it will improve the situation.

[franktko]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Since the station is in the middle of nowhere, people will still use their car to get there. And it is located near the Turcot interchange, I fail to see how it will improve the situation.

Well it's actually west of the St-Pierre interchange. Everyone from Lachine/West Lasalle would benefit from this service.

[caltrane74]

ReliefLine.ca

Public Consultations on the preferred route and stations for any new line coming into downtown. At the beginning of next month. Looking at potential corridors and station areas, evaluated and identifying a preferred route and station locations for a relief line with potential benefits and impacts. The final evaluation of the preferred option will follow the requirements of an Ontario Transit Project Assessment Process.

[MalcolmTucker]

I have wondered for a while now, for the relief line, why not make it a continuation of the line from Scarborough, and make the forced transfer be to get to the overloaded interchange.

[WhipperSnapper]

I hope relief line is just an alarmist way of saying King Subway. 504 route is a great route if 80% or more was redirected off the street.

[TorontoDrew]

Mayor Tory is on his way to Ottawa right now to meet with the two opposition leaders and the transportation leader to discuss getting funds for Smart-Track but also to work on getting Canada's large municipalities more steady funding when it comes to transit and social housing funding. This is exactly what I expect of a big city mayor. It's obvious that in Canada's largest cities we have not been able to keep up with our growth since most of the funding for transit and housing was downloaded onto the municipalities years ago. Hopefully next election Canada's large urban population will vote in favour of whichever party will start reallocating some of our tax dollars back into our urban centres. It's funny, years ago when the feds and most provinces stopped funding these items they didn't stop taking the taxes for them.

How much money has been wasted on things like prisons when it could have been used on transit? A 96 bed upgrade at Kingston Pen cost us $60 to build or $625,000 per inmate. That's just one instance of the conservatives $1.7 billion dollar prison spending spree.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jo...k-to-federal-leaders-in-ottawa-1.2959790

[hipster duck]

I'd rather see money go to transit than prisons, but building a heavy rail SmartTrack about 3 km to the east of another heavy rail Scarborough subway line seems like the biggest waste of transit money in Canadian history.

[MalcolmTucker]

And $1.7 billion on prisons over ten years works out to $4 million per year per million in population.

Not that much at all.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I'd rather see money go to transit than prisons, but building a heavy rail SmartTrack about 3 km to the east of another heavy rail Scarborough subway line seems like the biggest waste of transit money in Canadian history.

Not really. There's one critical way that SmartTrack/RER and the Scarborough subway differ: the former does not serve Scarborough Centre (instead going a few km away from it), while the latter does. And given that RER is 15 minute frequency whereas existing service to STC is every 5 or something like that, something beyond RER will be needed for STC.

The cost of the Scarborough subway could possibly be reduced by having it follow the current RT corridor instead. Maybe the savings could then be directed to extending the Eglinton line east to meet up with the Lakeshore RER? Does that work?

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

How much money has been wasted on things like prisons when it could have been used on transit? A 96 bed upgrade at Kingston Pen cost us $60 to build or $625,000 per inmate. That's just one instance of the conservatives $1.7 billion dollar prison spending spree.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jo...k-to-federal-leaders-in-ottawa-1.2959790

Are you sure its Kingston Pen? That place closed down in 2013.