Millennium Line - Evergreen Extension | Completed

[SOSS]

Alice is on the move again. A lovely, muddy slurry was hitting the pit earlier today.

[officedweller]

Good news.
The website said it was at Seaview Dr. on March 5th - that's the location when they reinforced the ground and had to replace cutter heads again
- so all must have gone well this time - without sinkholes.

[dpogue]

There's a power rail disconnect switch installed on the outbound guideway at Lougheed, which confirms that is identified as "outbound" and will be swapping just before Burquitlam.

Still no ATC cable loops in the track area that I could see.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Thanks - didn't know about that one - just the Capilano-Seymour water tunnel problems a few years ago.

The Seymour-Capilano Twin Tunnels are done now. SCTT was a hard rock tunnel vs. a soft ground tunnel like all the other ones on the go in Vancouver currently.

http://www.news1130.com/2015/03/11/major-metro-vancouver-water-project-nears-completion/

Ground freezing is not that uncommon of a technique by the way. It's used in mining once in a while as well.

Seattle's LRT tunnels haven't had any problems that I've heard of yet. They are apparently quite wet though.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by SOSS

Seattle's Big Bertha is having some major problems. Far beyond anything Alice or the water tunnel has had. Its also the largest diameter (i think) TBM ever.

Saw a row of 7 or 8 truck and pups lined up this AM for Alice. All followed by a street sweeper. A lot of sitting labour but I guess that is the cost of doing business.

Some jobs redefine the old phrase "Hurry up ... & wait".

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Some jobs redefine the old phrase "Hurry up ... & wait".

All this tunneling is taking so long that I'm getting quite.... bored.

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

All this tunneling is taking so long that I'm getting quite.... bored.

Don't worry, the end will be quite the spectacle.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by Large Cat

Don't worry, the end will be quite the spectacle.

Well, when that's about to happen, message me so you can awake this sleeper.

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

Well, when that's about to happen, message me so you can awake this sleeper.

This could happen much sooner actually, based on this. I'm guessing they must be in the straight part of the tunnel by now, just after Seaview Drive. Not much turning so moving forward should be straightforward.

On other news, I drove by Pinetree today and the last of the gantry crane components are no longer on the guideway. They are still on the site but on top of those special carrier truck thingies, whatever they are called. It would probably be transported out of site within the next few days, if not sooner.

[GeeCee]

The roof is going up at Lafarge Lake Station. I took this picture earlier today:

[adrianroam95]

Lincoln Station is coming along rather nicely. Note the track ties being laid out on the guideway:

[GeeCee]

I'm curious about Coquitlam Centre's plans for controlling pedestrian traffic to the station. Those side roads are quite busy and there's no dedicated path to get into the closest part of the mall currently for pedestrians.

[TransitJack]

I still find it surreal that Coquitlam will have Skytrain soon.

Growing up in Maple Ridge, it was always such a task to get into Vancouver mid-day (I was a kid after all). Back in the day I would take the 701 to Coquitlam than another 30 min trip on the 169 to Columbia then onwards.

The 791 came long after I had a car, but I wonder now how popular the 791 service is today, and after Evergreen line opens what increase in use the 701 might see.

701 vs 791 with Evergreen, perhaps there is no advantage except in the morning rush when the 791 must be stuck in the log jam that is Mary Hill Bypass mornings.

I really hope that any possible redevelopment of the Coquitlam Centre lot will always include some sort of park and ride. When Braid station opened it was so goofy there was no option to drive and park there (ala Bridgeport Stn) so then take Skytrain further. Even getting people out of their cars for part of the trip is an improvement.

[red-paladin]

Well, Coquitlam Central already has a giant park and ride, I assume that it's sufficient.

As for Lincoln station, as the mall's owners paid for part of the costs, I'm sure that there is a plan to build a new pedestrian route, maybe covered like the one at Lougheed Mall.

[dpogue]

Originally Posted by TransitJack

I still find it surreal that Coquitlam will have Skytrain soon.

Growing up in Maple Ridge, it was always such a task to get into Vancouver mid-day (I was a kid after all). Back in the day I would take the 701 to Coquitlam than another 30 min trip on the 169 to Columbia then onwards.

The 791 came long after I had a car, but I wonder now how popular the 791 service is today, and after Evergreen line opens what increase in use the 701 might see.

701 vs 791 with Evergreen, perhaps there is no advantage except in the morning rush when the 791 must be stuck in the log jam that is Mary Hill Bypass mornings.

I really hope that any possible redevelopment of the Coquitlam Centre lot will always include some sort of park and ride. When Braid station opened it was so goofy there was no option to drive and park there (ala Bridgeport Stn) so then take Skytrain further. Even getting people out of their cars for part of the trip is an improvement.

I take the 791 every day to get to work. It is faster than the 701/169, but the big delay in the mornings tends to be turning from Lougheed onto Brunette. We'll routinely sit at that intersection for up to 20 minutes waiting to turn (which is about 40% of the bus ride duration). The other downside is that the last bus from Braid in the evenings is 7:20 pm, so if I stay even 30 minutes late at work then I have to take the 169/701 (adding another 45 minutes or so to my commute).

701 will be more tempting when Evergreen Line opens, but I always find that it slows to a crawl along Lougheed through PoCo.

That bad news is that none of the "bus changes after Evergreen Line" maps even acknowledged the existance of the 791, so I'm fully expecting it to disappear in the next 2 years

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by TransitJack

I really hope that any possible redevelopment of the Coquitlam Centre lot will always include some sort of park and ride. When Braid station opened it was so goofy there was no option to drive and park there (ala Bridgeport Stn) so then take Skytrain further. Even getting people out of their cars for part of the trip is an improvement.

There is also a new park and ride that will be constructed near the LaFarge Station. I think its the vacant lot beside the Aquatic Centre.

The Braid situation was pure stupidity at its finest, and further proof that Translink is out of touch. There is/was a vacant lot beside the station that had a For Lease sign since...before Millenium went into service. While there is finally going to be a new development for the site being planned, all this time that lot could have been used as a Park and Ride.

Granted that New West may have resisted, but I also remember that ugly little troll Doug McCallum said back in 2004 during one of the town hall meetings the reason why Translink did not bother trying to make that lot a Park and Ride was because they (Translink) *WANTS* people who want to use the Skytrain to take a bus to Braid Station. Such utter bullsh*t, and as dpogue and others pointed out, using the 169 is a nitemare because of the Brunette bottleneck!

[red-paladin]

Well, they wanted to avoid the situation in many US cities, where people would commonly drive to a train station, and then drive home from the station at the end of the day. I say this in Dallas, giant park and rides at the train stations in the suburbs. If you make it easy for people to do that, it makes it far less likely for them to take the bus, it actually disincentivizes it. That's why Translink tries to encourage everyone to take the bus to the Skytrain / WCE stations. I think this is completely reasonable for people that take one bus ride to the station. You need to set up the system so that enough people use those feeder / local buses, or else they will always be empty or only come by once an hour.

I get it when we are talking about people that don't want to wait 25 min for a bus or spend 45 min with a transfer even getting to the station. But everyone in New West for example should be taking the bus to the Skytrain stations, not driving. The buses need to be frequent enough to make that viable. I would be against massive expansion of Translink park and rides because it means less people on the buses and then that makes it more difficult to provide bus service for people that remain taking it.

To tie this in to the Evergreen line topic, I actually hope that most of the Coquitlam Central parking lots can be redeveloped, and for the park and ride functions to be further afield like Maple Ridge, Poco. Once the Evergreen line is up and running, most people in the tri-cities should be able to take a fast and frequent bus to the stations. People in the Port Moody, Coquitlam Centre areas shouldn't be driving to a park and ride.

[Axe]

Originally Posted by queetz@home

There is also a new park and ride that will be constructed near the LaFarge Station. I think its the vacant lot beside the Aquatic Centre.

The Braid situation was pure stupidity at its finest, and further proof that Translink is out of touch. There is/was a vacant lot beside the station that had a For Lease sign since...before Millenium went into service. While there is finally going to be a new development for the site being planned, all this time that lot could have been used as a Park and Ride.

Granted that New West may have resisted, but I also remember that ugly little troll Doug McCallum said back in 2004 during one of the town hall meetings the reason why Translink did not bother trying to make that lot a Park and Ride was because they (Translink) *WANTS* people who want to use the Skytrain to take a bus to Braid Station. Such utter bullsh*t, and as dpogue and others pointed out, using the 169 is a nitemare because of the Brunette bottleneck!

As of right now that is no longer in the plans

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

Well, they wanted to avoid the situation in many US cities, where people would commonly drive to a train station, and then drive home from the station at the end of the day. I say this in Dallas, giant park and rides at the train stations in the suburbs. If you make it easy for people to do that, it makes it far less likely for them to take the bus, it actually disincentivizes it. That's why Translink tries to encourage everyone to take the bus to the Skytrain / WCE stations. I think this is completely reasonable for people that take one bus ride to the station. You need to set up the system so that enough people use those feeder / local buses, or else they will always be empty or only come by once an hour.

I get it when we are talking about people that don't want to wait 25 min for a bus or spend 45 min with a transfer even getting to the station. But everyone in New West for example should be taking the bus to the Skytrain stations, not driving. The buses need to be frequent enough to make that viable. I would be against massive expansion of Translink park and rides because it means less people on the buses and then that makes it more difficult to provide bus service for people that remain taking it.

To tie this in to the Evergreen line topic, I actually hope that most of the Coquitlam Central parking lots can be redeveloped, and for the park and ride functions to be further afield like Maple Ridge, Poco. Once the Evergreen line is up and running, most people in the tri-cities should be able to take a fast and frequent bus to the stations. People in the Port Moody, Coquitlam Centre areas shouldn't be driving to a park and ride.

But at the end of the day, taking a bus to from the far flung suburbs to the Skytrain doesn't really give people incentive to get into transit at all given the unreliable nature of the buses themselves. At least with park and rides, the cars will be left in one place and not clogging up the highways and major routes with SOVs going to work or school. It also increases transit use overall.

The plan to force people into buses to get to a train simply ain't going to work. And this is the type of social engineering decision making that makes people very wary of Translink, and why they cannot be trusted.

Its too bad the park and ride at LaFarge ain't coming, but at least there is still the one at Coquitlam Central and Port Moody. Imagine someone from Westwood Plateau...why should he spend 30 minutes on a C29 shuttle bus to get to the Evergreen Line when he can use a car and be at the Coquitlam Central Park and Ride for as little as 5 to ten minutes by car?

[Kisai]

Park and Rides are meant for rural areas that only have one/two buses that come every hour.

My mother used to take a bus into Downtown Victoria every day for work from the farthest point that BC Transit served, and my Dad still had to drive her to the bus stop or pick her up on the weekends because the bus had a different schedule that would otherwise have her not getting home till 11pm from a shift that ended at 6. I even tried the bus system to get to work there, when I lived out there and it was a horrible.

Riding a bus is just not viable if it doesn't come every 15 minutes. People will take their cars to park-and-rides that serve rapid transit, because the Rapid Transit comes no less than every 5 minutes.

And unfortunately running smaller buses/shuttles are twice as expensive as running larger buses. So it is only cost effective to have sub-15 minute bus routes if they are always full. The transit provider will favor having the large bus come half as often.