Millennium Line - Evergreen Extension | Completed

[GeeCee]

Glad to hear that they'll be making progress again soon.

[Express691]

Originally Posted by Spork

Does anybody know when the new trains will start arriving? I'm guessing 3-4 months of testing before we see them in full service, just like with the Mk2.5s.

They were supposed to arrive in August, but I have no word on anything thus far.

[Gordon]

what is the capacity of the new mark 3 cars?

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Gordon

what is the capacity of the new mark 3 cars?

I'm guessing they would be quite similar to the MkII cars.
Roughly 135 people per car (up to 185 in crush-hour); or 550 people (up to 750 in crush-hour) per 4-car train.

Perhaps a few more can be squeezed into the bendy section between cars.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Express691

They were supposed to arrive in August, but I have no word on anything thus far.

The official Translink line is "The anticipated service dates for the initial Vehicles is approximately January 2016" for the first MkIII cars (28 cars makes 7 four-car trains in service)

There is an option for another 28 MkIII cars, but I can't tell if Translink has taken this option. Likely they won't until they have evaluated the quality of the first few train sets in the initial order. If they take the option order, the second set of MkIII cars could be in service starting June 2017.

[st7860]

wonder where the Mk3 are made. i remember with the mk 2.5 people were all excited(in a not so good way) that they were made in Mexico

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by st7860

wonder where the Mk3 are made. i remember with the mk 2.5 people were all excited(in a not so good way) that they were made in Mexico

Some of the components may be from Mexico, but the trains are built in Thunder Bay, ON, where they have an assembly plant and testing facility.

[Mac Write]

First, isn't final assembly at OMC2 and where will they be serviced, as OMC1 can't handle 4-car train sets (and I've seen no expansion), will OMC3 handle that (which is for light maintenance and cleaning).

BTW what OMC# is Canada Line? #3 or no number. (OMC1 Edmonds West, OMC2 Edmonds East, OMC3 Canada Line, OMC4 Evergreen line)

[MIPS]

Why exactly can't OMC1 not handle MK III trains for maintenance? They can handle everything else fine. The reactivation of line to OMC2 is not designed for casual use. Only assembly, commissioning and final rollout.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Why exactly can't OMC1 not handle MK III trains for maintenance? They can handle everything else fine. The reactivation of line to OMC2 is not designed for casual use. Only assembly, commissioning and final rollout.

So once the MkIII trains are in service it will be shut down again?

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by Jebby

So once the MkIII trains are in service it will be shut down again?

It's being used for the refurb of the Mk I trains also.

[dharper]

Originally Posted by AMTDGT

You can pretty much guarantee the story on Global, CBC, CKNW, the Province, etc will not be the weeks of warnings from translink, but will be focus on finding a few of the idiots who don't have passes and having those winers discredit the project...just saying

I second that.

[Gordon]

as far as I know Translink owns that property and intends to use it after the Mark 1 re hab project is done.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Gordon

as far as I know Translink owns that property and intends to use it after the Mark 1 re hab project is done.

Yeah, it was in the news a few months ago that TransLink purchased the property - so that means long term use.

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Some of the components may be from Mexico, but the trains are built in Thunder Bay, ON, where they have an assembly plant and testing facility.

The Thunder Bay plant is screwing up big time on Toronto's Flexcity streetcars - hopefully that won't delay our MKIIIs.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

First, isn't final assembly at OMC2 and where will they be serviced, as OMC1 can't handle 4-car train sets (and I've seen no expansion), will OMC3 handle that (which is for light maintenance and cleaning).

BTW what OMC# is Canada Line? #3 or no number. (OMC1 Edmonds West, OMC2 Edmonds East, OMC3 Canada Line, OMC4 Evergreen line)

Since the Canada Line is independent of Expo / Millennium /Evergreen lines, it can have a different naming scheme for all of its physical plant.

More than likely it is just "the OMC" or "the Canada Line OMC"

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

It's being used for the refurb of the Mk I trains also.

The MkIII cars are arriving this year, and scheduled to start running in service January 2016.

The OMC2 is in use to refurb the original MkI cars, which is scheduled to be done in December 2016.

With the year-long overlap in 2016, I'm not sure how the MkI refurb and MkIII standard maintenance can be done in that building.

Perhaps they will break the 4-car trains (A-C-C-B) into 2-car subsets (A-C and C-B) for maintenance IN OMC1 and then re-connect them into 4-car trains again.
That will be a real pain to do every time a MkIII train comes in for service or repairs.

The weird shunting track for OMC2 suggests to me that cars can be moved in to or out of the OMC2 only one car at a time. This would make maintenance on the MkIII trains even more problematic if the entire train has to be broken into individual cars just to get them into OMC2.

However, it appears to me that the OMC2 shunting track isn't long enough to hold a 4-car train while it is being separated into single cars for maintenance or re-assembled afterward.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Why exactly can't OMC1 not handle MK III trains for maintenance? They can handle everything else fine. The reactivation of line to OMC2 is not designed for casual use. Only assembly, commissioning and final rollout.

The building was only built big enough to have 2-car trains (aka 'a married pair') brought indoors for maintenance.
The 4-car MkIII trains are too long to fit in the building.

[Ridgerunner]

I have been off this site for a while.

Has someone got some pics of the TBM in action ?

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

First, isn't final assembly at OMC2 and where will they be serviced, as OMC1 can't handle 4-car train sets (and I've seen no expansion), will OMC3 handle that (which is for light maintenance and cleaning).

BTW what OMC# is Canada Line? #3 or no number. (OMC1 Edmonds West, OMC2 Edmonds East, OMC3 Canada Line, OMC4 Evergreen line)

OMC2 was built by the NDP BC Gov't to allow Bombardier to have a 'factory' in BC. They wanted trains that would be mostly built in Thunder Bay, then shipped to BC for final assembly in OMC2. When the Translink MkII order was filled, Bombardier expected to be selling MkII trains overseas, with most of the work done in Thunder bay, final finishes in BC, and then shipping to overseas buyers of Bombardier trains.

However, the overseas gov'ts did the same trick - build their own local 'final assembly factory' to sweeten the deal for purchasing Bombardier trains.

When the Skytrain order was complete, Bombardier didn't have any pending sales overseas and didn't need the space so they moved out. NDP BC Govt was stuck with a space that wasn't useful for anything else so they sold the site (at a loss).

A few years -a few land sales- later, Translink purchases OMC2 (at a nice profit for the previous owner) so it can become a Skytrain factory again to be used to refurb the original MkI cars.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

I have been off this site for a while.

Has someone got some pics of the TBM in action ?

Kinda tough unless you've got X-Ray Vision.

Youtube has TBM animations.