The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[ssiguy]

Looks very similar to York's VIVA BRT.

I guess the format certainly increases reliability and faster boarding with POP but I don't see how bus lines {or at grade LRT built along these lines for that matter} really make much difference.

Where possible I think the Ottawa/Mississauga Transitways and LA Orange Line are far superior.

[Aylmer]

The problem is that as soon as a corridor has enough ridership potential to justify that kind of infrastructure, it's often already above what BRT can handle.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Looks very similar to York's VIVA BRT.

I guess the format certainly increases reliability and faster boarding with POP but I don't see how bus lines {or at grade LRT built along these lines for that matter} really make much difference.

Where possible I think the Ottawa/Mississauga Transitways and LA Orange Line are far superior.

30% gain in travel time, which is considerable. I personally think it's good to see Laval do their own transit improvements without waiting or following Montreal.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

The problem is that as soon as a corridor has enough ridership potential to justify that kind of infrastructure, it's often already above what BRT can handle.

Which is exactly the issue I have with BRT. If it's just express buses with perhaps some bus lanes and traffic signal preemption, then fine. But beyond that, not so much...

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Which is exactly the issue I have with BRT. If it's just express buses with perhaps some bus lanes and traffic signal preemption, then fine. But beyond that, not so much...

Simple, bare bones limited stop buses with traffic signal co-ordination, which I call "BRT-lite", can cut travel times by as much as 30% even in mixed traffic. However, you can get even higher than that with true BRT.

Ottawa is planning two new Viva-style (ie. busway in median) BRT routes along two suburban corridors (Baseline Rd & March Rd) whose numbers are nowhere near justifying LRT, but whose importance to the city as a whole justifies some sort of improved manner of quick access to the rest of the city.

March Road is a major suburban employment area (containing a massive business park) with an increasing amount of mixed use; Baseline Road serves as a useful crosstown link for intra-suburban travel. As such, fast transit on these roads will be very useful and a great complement to the rail network. Given that these BRT routes are going to be cheap (a total cost of about $300M, as opposed to the ~$5B spent on the Confederation Line), I think it's a good investment.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Which is exactly the issue I have with BRT. If it's just express buses with perhaps some bus lanes and traffic signal preemption, then fine. But beyond that, not so much...

I agree. Vancouver's 99 B-Line has exclusive shoulder lanes (and even then only at rush hour), limited stops, frequencies as high as every 2-3 minutes and all-door-boarding and it carries over 55,000 people a day. Add in signal priority and it could be even faster and carry more people. At this many passengers, you could probably go straight to metro once you upgrade, which is what we're planning. If this bare bones service can carry that many people, I don't think the big investment into median lanes and high quality stations like what VIVA does is really necessary from a service perspective, and seems to be done more for visibility and removing "bus stigma"

[ssiguy]

BRT has very high capacity. Many BRT system in SA and Asia carry over 1 million passengers a day.

[1overcosc]

All day two way GO trains coming to Brampton and Markham this fall, according to sources the Toronto Star found. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transpor...vice-on-kitchener-stouffville-lines.html

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

The STL in Laval will start building BRT from Montmorency Metro to Carrefour Laval (two of the city's busiest hubs) starting next year, with 12 stations.

Here's the video (in french sorry):
http://youtu.be/JC6uNjD1HUM

They should extend the METRO to Carrefour Laval. That would be a logical terminal for the METRO.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

They should extend the METRO to Carrefour Laval. That would be a logical terminal for the METRO.

Very expensive, they would have to close the loop (logically) and that implicates tunnelling under the Rivière-des-Prairies again. Plus, the Metro should be expanded to dense, unserved areas of Montreal (Saint-Léonard, Anjou) before Laval IMO. It is planned long term but that means not before another 20 years lol:


http://images.lpcdn.ca/924x615/201305/30/696183-prolongement-ligne-orange.jpg

On another note, here's the progress on the Champlain Bridge construction this week. The jetty should be completed next month.


From Nameless_1 on mtlurb

[SkahHigh]

Crews demolishing the Bonaventure Expressway to transform it into Robert-Bourassa Blvd:


From Projet Bonaventure's Fb page

[hipster duck]

^Good to see a downtown freeway come down. Toronto voted to reconstruct the elevated eastern portion of Gardiner at great cost, and Vancouver is constantly dithering about whether to tear down the Georgia Viaduct.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

They should extend the METRO to Carrefour Laval. That would be a logical terminal for the METRO.

That's something I would be very reluctant to endorse. I believe that underground transit is a worthwhile investment in city centres and other dense urban areas where it would be impossible or impractical to use less expensive alternatives to serve the large passenger volumes. But out on the fringes where more surface space is available and passenger traffic is lower, I don't think such investments can be justified. There should be a certain minimum threshold required for something that high in cost.

A lowish density area like that is the perfect opportunity for feeder buses combined with park and ride opportunities. Maybe they could build a big park and ride garage around the shopping centre that could be connected to the metro station by a shuttle/feeder bus. Or in this case the BRT.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

Crews demolishing the Bonaventure Expressway to transform it into Robert-Bourassa Blvd:

I'm a bit stunned to see this moving along at what seems like quite a rapid pace. I've come to expect these types of plans and "visions" to be tossed around for ages before anything actually happens to the point where I see the rendering and just think, "Oh that would be nice" and then kind of forget about it.

[1overcosc]

Kingston Transit just announced that effective September 8, weekday midday frequencies on two express routes will be boosted, resulting in the following frequency increases:
-Princess Street going from 4 to 5 buses per hour
-King Street/Front Road going from 4 to 5 buses per hour
-Bayridge Drive going from 2 to 3 buses per hour

Transit here is really taking off, it's making me quite happy.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Kingston Transit just announced that effective September 8, weekday midday frequencies on two express routes will be boosted, resulting in the following frequency increases:
-Princess Street going from 4 to 5 buses per hour
-King Street/Front Road going from 4 to 5 buses per hour
-Bayridge Drive going from 2 to 3 buses per hour

Transit here is really taking off, it's making me quite happy.

Wow, that's great. When I had first moved to Kingston I bought a car because of how awful their transit was back then. If I moved there now, I wouldn't bother with a car.

[1overcosc]

^ When was this? KT was basically completely unutilizable as a real and practical form of transportation until around 2008 or so, by which point it was tolerable, and then it became good in 2013.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I'm a bit stunned to see this moving along at what seems like quite a rapid pace. I've come to expect these types of plans and "visions" to be tossed around for ages before anything actually happens to the point where I see the rendering and just think, "Oh that would be nice" and then kind of forget about it.

True, but I think the fact that Montreal's 375th anniversary is in 2017 gave the project an ultimatum, given that there are a few projects destined to be completed by that year.

The Bonaventure project is great, Montreal will now be highway-free in it's Downtown (except the A720 which is mostly underground).

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

^ When was this? KT was basically completely unutilizable as a real and practical form of transportation until around 2008 or so, by which point it was tolerable, and then it became good in 2013.

I can agree with that; at least as far as the unutilizableness of KT Transit.

I went to Waterloo from '96 to '01, and generally found that KT's service of the Universities was face palmingly bad for what should have been a no brainer. (No direct routes to Conestoga Mall, no handy service to the Columbia Lake Townhouses, etc...). It looks like things have really stepped up after I graduated; and the LRT is going to be a huge boon.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I can agree with that; at least as far as the unutilizableness of KT Transit.

I went to Waterloo from '96 to '01, and generally found that KT's service of the Universities was face palmingly bad for what should have been a no brainer. (No direct routes to Conestoga Mall, no handy service to the Columbia Lake Townhouses, etc...). It looks like things have really stepped up after I graduated; and the LRT is going to be a huge boon.

Oops, I was talking about Kingston. My bad.