Millennium Line - Broadway Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[officedweller]

That would still just be the Federal 1/3, wouldn't it?

[Klazu]

Which one has been the most difficult funding to secure? Federal, provincial or the city one?

[officedweller]

Local, municipal, etc. (i.e. TransLink)

[Metro-One]

So yeah, due to our complete deadlock between the cities and province (and now general public) over local funding we wont being seeing one thin dime of federal money.

it will be a massive wasted opportunity while Alberta and Ontario (Quebec?) will be having unprecedented transit growth.

Maybe the one project we can hope for is finally getting the Victoria LRT off the ground?

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Justin Trudeau was today promising tens of billions of dollars to be spent in the next 10 years in infrastructure project and a lot of it going to fund transit projects. If that would happen, that could secure funding for Broadway Line and possible something else as well.

Anyone buying such promises?

Umm...this is Justin Trudeau we are talking about so even if Translink somehow get its act together, you are asking if I would buy such promise????

[deasine]

Please, no memes or meme-like video responses. This is not a social media platform nor is it a Reddit thread.

[Klazu]

Was he talking about 125 billion dollars in next 10 years. That would be a lot and could fund many other projects than just the federal government portion of the Broadway Line. What other projects in Lower Mainland could budge forward with maybe 10% of that money (still over $10B)?

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Was he talking about 125 billion dollars in next 10 years. That would be a lot and could fund many other projects than just the federal government portion of the Broadway Line. What other projects in Lower Mainland could budge forward with maybe 10% of that money (still over $10B)?

Metro had a great list posted on the Cloverdale Freeway thread, if you can dig back. I thought it was right on.

[TourOdeon]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

It's worth remembering that there are knock-out panels and a roughed in station house at Cambie and Broadway in the Crossroads project. Whole Foods currently uses the station house as a storage room. I've seen photos and it's pretty surreal: roughed in elevator core, stairwell, and escalator right-of-way. They call it the 'subway room'. If and when the platforms are extended to 50 metres, I believe they will be able to do the connect to the knock-out panel of the Whole Foods subway room, but I'm not certain of this.

The approved design for the office building that is planned for the SE corner of Broadway and Oak will have something similar to Crossroads: a roughed-in station house, with the grade-level portion being leased out as retail until the station is built. This station house could access a Broadway or 10th Avenue alignment.

The Pinnacle on Broadway building at Broadway and Maple/railway ROW at Arbutus was designed so that a station house could be built in the plaza area between the building and the railway ROW and there is clear access down below grade, though I'm not sure if that means a roughed-in station or just no structure/parking below grade, meaning that the station house would have to be excavated. This would only easily access a Broadway alignment.



As for Burrard and Broadway, I could see Translink buying the building at the SW corner of Broadway and Burrard, the one where the Spy Store has been forever. That would let them have flexibility for either a Broadway or 10th Avenue alignment. However, I know of no plans for a station at that location.

For Main and Broadway, I think that the best choice location would be the parking lot at the corner of Broadway and Main, however my money is on the Kingsgate Mall site. They could have a whole lot more space to work with by taking the Broadway & Kingsway corner and staging construction from the parking lot. That site is up for redevelopment in the coming years and an announcement of the Broadway Line could be what triggers the School Board to pull the trigger and proceed with parcelization and redevelopment.

Last time I went to Chapters on Broadway, that area has experienced significantly lower foot traffic since the Canada Line. A skytrain on Kingsgate mall will be extremely interesting. It will spur development by Beedie.

[mukmuk64]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Justin Trudeau was today promising tens of billions of dollars to be spent in the next 10 years in infrastructure project and a lot of it going to fund transit projects. If that would happen, that could secure funding for Broadway Line and possible something else as well.

Anyone buying such promises?

Well the problem with this promise is that securing federal funds for transit was not the problem that sunk transit expansion in Metro Vancouver. Transit expansion failed here because of a lack of funding at the municipal level. In Calgary and Ottawa the Conservatives came through with billions for transit expansion. That money is already available.

Presumably future transit projects would continue to follow the 1/3 funded by each level of government system that we see everywhere across the country (ie. Ottawa's new transit expansion) and so the key difficulty remains that municipal governments are incredibly poor, earning just 8 cents for every tax dollar, and cannot afford their share.

The NDP are promising to provide an additional 1 cent from the gas tax to cities. That's not a great deal of money, but it's dependable, reliable money that cities don't have to apply for. We need to be doing a lot more of that, finding ways to give municipalities more steady revenue and restore balance. It makes sense that the notion of moving cash to cities via the gas tax came from Jack Layton originally, as he was a City Councillor and understood cities very well.

[casper]

Originally Posted by mukmuk64

Well the problem with this promise is that securing federal funds for transit was not the problem that sunk transit expansion in Metro Vancouver. Transit expansion failed here because of a lack of funding at the municipal level. In Calgary and Ottawa the Conservatives came through with billions for transit expansion. That money is already available.

Presumably future transit projects would continue to follow the 1/3 funded by each level of government system that we see everywhere across the country (ie. Ottawa's new transit expansion) and so the key difficulty remains that municipal governments are incredibly poor, earning just 8 cents for every tax dollar, and cannot afford their share.

The NDP are promising to provide an additional 1 cent from the gas tax to cities. That's not a great deal of money, but it's dependable, reliable money that cities don't have to apply for. We need to be doing a lot more of that, finding ways to give municipalities more steady revenue and restore balance. It makes sense that the notion of moving cash to cities via the gas tax came from Jack Layton originally, as he was a City Councillor and understood cities very well.

I think the 1/3 funding model is quite reasonable.

Municipalities have quite steady revenue, more so than almost any other level of government. Property tax is the most stable revenue source going.

Income tax and sales tax (Provincial and Federal tax) is the most variable.

[mukmuk64]

Originally Posted by casper

I think the 1/3 funding model is quite reasonable.

Municipalities have quite steady revenue, more so than almost any other level of government. Property tax is the most stable revenue source going.

Income tax and sales tax (Provincial and Federal tax) is the most variable.

Well it may be steady, but as I said before, it doesn't currently bring in a lot. If municipalities are going to be building these infrastructure projects it will mean significant property tax increases or cutbacks to other amenities, such as parks, community centres, and maintenance.

[AMTDGT]

Have they started pre excavation survey work on the Broadway extension?

We were driving on Great Northern way today and crews were core sample drilling on the south side going up the hill (Brunswick St ???) where I understand the line will eventually go to Broadway (or 10th). It also appears that the new residential building across Great Northern Way, is designed with an angle to accommodate the ROW??. There also appeared to be work going on on the North side where the line is allegedly turning south from the Finning lands, the sight I have been told is for the tunnelling marshalling yards.

If so it helps support the rumours I have heard, that the go ahead will be announced as soon as the Fed's and Prov's figure out how to do it without MoonBeam getting any credit
or in alternate, MoonBeam is going to do it on his own, blaming the Fed's and the Prov's for our property tax hikes. Love our broken politics.

[WarrenC12]

Have you been talking to guys in orange vests?

None of what you are saying makes any sense.

[dpogue]

Originally Posted by AMTDGT

Have they started pre excavation survey work on the Broadway extension?

We were driving on Great Northern way today and crews were core sample drilling on the south side going up the hill (Brunswick St ???) where I understand the line will eventually go to Broadway (or 10th). It also appears that the new residential building across Great Northern Way, is designed with an angle to accommodate the ROW??. There also appeared to be work going on on the North side where the line is allegedly turning south from the Finning lands, the sight I have been told is for the tunnelling marshalling yards.

If so it helps support the rumours I have heard, that the go ahead will be announced as soon as the Fed's and Prov's figure out how to do it without MoonBeam getting any credit
or in alternate, MoonBeam is going to do it on his own, blaming the Fed's and the Prov's for our property tax hikes. Love our broken politics.

The construction on the Finning lands at Great Northern Way is for the new Emily Carr campus.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by AMTDGT

Have they started pre excavation survey work on the Broadway extension?

We were driving on Great Northern way today and crews were core sample drilling on the south side going up the hill (Brunswick St ???) where I understand the line will eventually go to Broadway (or 10th). It also appears that the new residential building across Great Northern Way, is designed with an angle to accommodate the ROW??. There also appeared to be work going on on the North side where the line is allegedly turning south from the Finning lands, the sight I have been told is for the tunnelling marshalling yards.

If so it helps support the rumours I have heard, that the go ahead will be announced as soon as the Fed's and Prov's figure out how to do it without MoonBeam getting any credit
or in alternate, MoonBeam is going to do it on his own, blaming the Fed's and the Prov's for our property tax hikes. Love our broken politics.

They were doing some utility work in the area (I think putting in some pipes) along Great Northern way the past few months. It might be part of that work.

[mukmuk64]

Those dudes are extending the neighbourhood energy utility to Emily Carr.

[vanman]

Traffic impacts of Edmonton's new Metro LRT line. Imagine this hell on Broadway.

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

edmonton.ca

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by vanman

Traffic impacts of Edmonton's new Metro LRT line. Imagine this hell on Broadway.

Which is why the CoV is willing to pay extra to put it all underground.

Nothing to fear here.

[14by40]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

They were doing some utility work in the area (I think putting in some pipes) along Great Northern way the past few months. It might be part of that work.

or it could be soil testing as a drilling crew was on brunswick and 2nd the other day and now they are on 7th between scotia and brunswick. pretty much lines up with the proposed route.