Calgary Public Transit II

[outoftheice]

And in news that is related to the new LRVs....

Calgary Transit launches four-car CTrain service early
Calgary Herald

After the success of a three-week training period for four-car CTrains, the city has pushed the longer trains into service immediately, weeks ahead of a scheduled December launch.

The city announced Friday that two four-car trains would continue to operate on the Tuscany-Somerset line. The longer trains can carry an additional 200 riders per trip in a bid to reduce overcrowding on the train.

“Four-car train service will be a dramatic improvement to our public transit service; we are literally adding 33 per cent capacity when it’s needed most,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in a news release...

Full article: http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary-transit-launches-four-car-ctrain-service

[Trans Canada]

Originally Posted by srperrycgy

Posted by @coltonium on Twitter this morning:


S200.jpg-large by Steve Perry, on Flickr

There were some discrepancies a few pages back but looks like these interior renders match the real product, NYC style seating:

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Didn't realize the city added 3 more LRVs to our order for a total of 63. I wonder why the city didn't add 4 to our order and just make it one more full train for a total of 16.


Here is the interior...

Deets:

Performance and Capacity
Maximum operational speed - 80 km/h / 50 mph
Maximum allowable speed - 80 km/h / 50 mph
Service acceleration - 0.95 m/s² / 2.13 mphps
Service deceleration - 1.32 m/s² / 2.95 mphps
Emergency braking rate - 2.75 m/s² / 6.15 mphps
Passenger capacity - 60 seats
Approx. 247 total passengers @ 6 p/m2
2 wheelchair spaces
2 multi-purpose spaces
Maximum operational gradient - 7%
Motor power rating - 145 kW x 4 194 hp x 4
Catenary supply voltage - 600 Vdc

From the Siemens fact sheet - https://web.archive.org/web/201506060106...ments/Calgary_S200_DataSheet_2014_LR.pdf

[CTrainDude]

Originally Posted by outoftheice

Great news about the arrival of the new LRVs. Not a fan of how the red and gold stripes look on the side though.

Just to be clear, the LRV hasn't "arrived", it's still in Sacramento at the plant.

[*Stardust*]

Anyone going to the event on Monday at the central library hosted by Druh Farrell about the green line?

[dazzlingdave88]

Originally Posted by *Stardust*

Anyone going to the event on Monday at the central library hosted by Druh Farrell about the green line?

I am planning on it.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by *Stardust*

Anyone going to the event on Monday at the central library hosted by Druh Farrell about the green line?

I'll be there.

[UofC.engineer]

So the residents believe that when provided with a real transit system and allowing people to choose an alternative mode other than the car, the result will generate gridlock, even without reducing the number of auto lanes.

The logic is quite sound...

[artvandelay]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

The City has the SW Transitway maps and boards from the open houses up on their site now:

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TI/...t-Transitway.aspx?redirect=/swtransitway

Unfortunately they didn't include the much more detailed plan of the 14th street SW portion of the plan, showing how the new transitway interacted with the intersections and the trenched section near 90th ave.

These plans look fine, but I'm wondering why they wouldn't make use of the former 14 Street bridge over the Glenmore Dam. The infrastructure is in place and the route could use 50 Ave to cut back over to MRC. I imagine it would be a fairly cheap way of improving travel time by cutting out the mixed traffic portion of the transitway over the causeway.

[MalcolmTucker]

Can the dam handle heavy vehicles and the full water pipe?

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

And the reaction from 14th street residents (Presumably largely headed by residents from Eagle Ridge?) regarding the SW Transitway begins:

http://www.readytoengage.ca/

https://twitter.com/Ready2EngageYYC


Not sure where the 'Total Gridlock' statement is coming from, especially as the City's look at the SWCRR impacts suggest a reduction of traffic on 14th street...

Also this:

What a bunch of silly people! This is an example of a project with very few negatives, other than disruption during construction. Once complete, there will be the same number of car lanes on 14th but less demand - what more could you ask for!

I know I'm overly critical of transit in Calgary sometimes, but it finally seems like we have a project which is somewhat close to real BRT, and a good compromise of bang for buck. I hope that there are plans to add further improvements over time, as there are still many sections of the whole route which are non optimal.

Originally Posted by artvandelay

These plans look fine, but I'm wondering why they wouldn't make use of the former 14 Street bridge over the Glenmore Dam. The infrastructure is in place and the route could use 50 Ave to cut back over to MRC. I imagine it would be a fairly cheap way of improving travel time by cutting out the mixed traffic portion of the transitway over the causeway.

This being a great example. If the dam can't handle it, I think building a parallel bridge could be a great investment. I presume that plant to the north is city owned, so a transitway could be routed through there to 50th, to avoid NIMBYs on 19th St SW.

[CrossedTheTracks]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

Would a single lane be available without reworking the water lines on the top of the dam? And would a single lane provide enough capacity for the BRT? Presumably the use of that lane would also mean the removal of a key cycle link. Still, an interesting idea.

I'd be very surprised if there was enough room there for a bus (without reworking the water line). There's just enough room for two bikes to pass at the narrowest spot...

Also, crossing over the lanes from the Glenmore/14th ramp to 14 St South to the 75 Ave exit could be ugly in heavy traffic.

[artvandelay]

Doing a little further research on this, it appears the City is currently spending $82m on upgrades to the Glenmore Dam, including replacement of the bridge deck and relocation of the pipe along the top of the dam. Perhaps provision of a transit route could've been worked into the design. Although that would require different City departments to co-ordinate projects, so probably not .

[Socguy]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

And the reaction from 14th street residents (Presumably largely headed by residents from Eagle Ridge?) regarding the SW Transitway begins:

http://www.readytoengage.ca/

https://twitter.com/Ready2EngageYYC


Not sure where the 'Total Gridlock' statement is coming from, especially as the City's look at the SWCRR impacts suggest a reduction of traffic on 14th street...

Also this:

I just died a little bit on the inside.

As someone who lives in the SW and puts up with horrible connections and lack of quality transit on a daily basis. I propose we bulldoze Eagle Ridge and run the bus lines through there. We can then widen 14th to 10 lanes in each direction eliminating any possibility of gridlock. As a bonus, the sudden lack of houses removes any chance of a crime wave.

[*Stardust*]

The presentation by Druh Farrell at the Library was pretty good. It showed all the pros and cons of all the transit systems in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. A few things that noted were...

-Druh Farrell was gushing over the Seattle transit system. Everything from the use of public art and all the way to the construction quality and how they planned for the future.

-Even though she was pushing for the Low floor at grade model we are introducing now, she also seemed to like some of the underground stations and that it surprised her how well they worked. One station in Seattle (Beacon Hill I believe it was called) is 16 stories underground, but she loved the attention to detail and how easily it moved people from outside to the underground train

-She does not seem like a fan of the elevated lines. She kept mentioning it and how Vancouver didn't do the best job of planning its Skytrain at the pedestrian level and it's an architectural level.

I don't know how the rest of council feels about the alignment options, but sounds like Druh is not a fan of the elevated track and she might also like the whole underground alignment option for downtown.

At the end somebody had asked about underground tunnels downtown. One of the Transit representatives had answered that the downtown LRT was only suppose to be at grade for the interim and they wanted to switch over to underground eventually and it never happened. If they do N-S underground and then add a 8th avenue subway, I don't see why they wouldn't eventually put the existing tracks ground as well?

Anyone else go?

[dazzlingdave88]

Originally Posted by *Stardust*

The presentation by Druh Farrell at the Library was pretty good. It showed all the pros and cons of all the transit systems in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. A few things that noted were...

-Druh Farrell was gushing over the Seattle transit system. Everything from the use of public art and all the way to the construction quality and how they planned for the future.

-Even though she was pushing for the Low floor at grade model we are introducing now, she also seemed to like some of the underground stations and that it surprised her how well they worked. One station in Seattle (Beacon Hill I believe it was called) is 16 stories underground, but she loved the attention to detail and how easily it moved people from outside to the underground train

-She does not seem like a fan of the elevated lines. She kept mentioning it and how Vancouver didn't do the best job of planning its Skytrain at the pedestrian level and it's an architectural level.

I don't know how the rest of council feels about the alignment options, but sounds like Druh is not a fan of the elevated track and she might also like the whole underground alignment option for downtown.

At the end somebody had asked about underground tunnels downtown. One of the Transit representatives had answered that the downtown LRT was only suppose to be at grade for the interim and they wanted to switch over to underground eventually and it never happened. If they do N-S underground and then add a 8th avenue subway, I don't see why they wouldn't eventually put the existing tracks ground as well?

Anyone else go?

I went....You did a good job of summarizing....I hate open houses like this with Q and A's after....people get on there soap boxes and end up commenting, not really asking questions.

One other interesting thing Druh did share is there is a proposal for a development that spans the whole block on 16 ave. She didn't give details as it was a response to a question.

[*Stardust*]

Originally Posted by dazzlingdave88

I went....You did a good job of summarizing....I hate open houses like this with Q and A's after....people get on there soap boxes and end up commenting, not really asking questions.

One other interesting thing Druh did share is there is a proposal for a development that spans the whole block on 16 ave. She didn't give details as it was a response to a question.

That guy at the end about his Condominium and being compensated was the biggest facepalm moment of the night

I'm wanting to go to another open house for the downtown station alignment when it comes up. I'm going to try and push for the 10th avenue line to stay underground until the Inglewood station.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by dazzlingdave88

I went....You did a good job of summarizing....I hate open houses like this with Q and A's after....people get on there soap boxes and end up commenting, not really asking questions.

One other interesting thing Druh did share is there is a proposal for a development that spans the whole block on 16 ave. She didn't give details as it was a response to a question.

This block?

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by 5seconds

And the reaction from 14th street residents (Presumably largely headed by residents from Eagle Ridge?) regarding the SW Transitway begins:

http://www.readytoengage.ca/

https://twitter.com/Ready2EngageYYC


Not sure where the 'Total Gridlock' statement is coming from, especially as the City's look at the SWCRR impacts suggest a reduction of traffic on 14th street...

Also this:

God, I hate NIMBYs.

[H.E.Pennypacker]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

This block?

Seems to be the most logical choice ... I've often thought that piece of land is ideal for a bigger C-train station for the area. Could really boost development around that major intersection.

[dazzlingdave88]

Originally Posted by H.E.Pennypacker

Seems to be the most logical choice ... I've often thought that piece of land is ideal for a bigger C-train station for the area. Could really boost development around that major intersection.

She didn't say where....that block seems most likely or one of these three:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0661596,-114.0523236,231m/data=!3m1!1e3