Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[csbvan]

Agreement reached between the Feds, Province and cities for the first $750 million in transit funding over the next 3 years. This is phase one funding.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/brit...ements-over-three-years/article30482822/

[Metro-One]

Good news. Not the best written news piece ever though.

Also, don't like hearing "Surrey's three light rail ines."

The one to Langley better become an extension of the Expo Line.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

hahaha, that I would indeed pay to see.

Also, that train yard petition is pretty darn funny.

A better idea is to not restrict the existing rail yards, and instead have condos built next to such facilities be lower in price, allowing first time buyers, families, and low middle income people the chance to own their own condos! This is what happens in most areas of the world where reality exists.

Also, I heard that "to be green" Translink is going to reduce how often they wash their buses in half during the summer to save water.

I don't know, these are the type of "green" activities that I don't like. Keep our transit clean.

Well i think the best solution would be to cover the rail yards completely with a large podium with enough condo/apartments/offices or whatever to cover to cost. To be fair there will be more development in the north east part of Vancouver near the train facilities where the port will be expanding and increase the amount of train traffic. Also you can hear the trains throughout downtown New West, not just the Quay and its not too unreasonable to expect them to play fair with new neighbors instead of being hostile and just stating "i was here first" like a child. Is East Van or New West not part of Metro Vancouver?

On another note, subjecting someone to excessive train noise just to keep a value of a condo lower for poor people is a terrible way of thinking. They deserve silence and a decent nights sleep just like everyone else.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

They deserve silence and a decent nights sleep just like everyone else.

That's the same kind of logic that the International Village residents used to force both stadiums to turn off their billboards, and that the new residents of the Rogers Arena Complex used to dial back the number of events and concerts - defeating two of the main purposes of having stadiums. Ditto Sea Island residents complaining about YVR late-night flights, or residents elsewhere downtown regarding sirens and loud construction equipment.

Downtown cores, stadiums and transport centres are inherently loud, because that's what it takes to make them run. The residents knew that they were moving into a loud district; if they want peace and quiet, they might want to consider moving to a peaceful, quiet district, instead of forcing said loud district to stop doing the job that it was built to do.

[Mac Write]

New Bombardier Skytrain cars!!! YAY!!! How many is Translink going to order? 28, 52 (to cover the last option we missed)? 100+ (one can dream).

How many new Mark III cars/trains will be ordered? (macwrite is foaming at the mouth with excitement).

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

That's the same kind of logic that the International Village residents used to force both stadiums to turn off their billboards, and that the new residents of the Rogers Arena Complex used to dial back the number of events and concerts - defeating two of the main purposes of having stadiums. Ditto Sea Island residents complaining about YVR late-night flights, or residents elsewhere downtown regarding sirens and loud construction equipment.

Did that actually happen?

[Caliplanner1]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Good news. Not the best written news piece ever though.

Also, don't like hearing "Surrey's three light rail ines."

The one to Langley better become an extension of the Expo Line.

Sounds to me that Surrey is dictating the level/nature of mass transit rail service/infrastructure that is to reach Langley. If so,......how fair is that?

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by Caliplanner1

Sounds to me that Surrey is dictating the level/nature of mass rail service/infrastructure that is to reach Langley. If so,......how fair is that?

The Langley part is phase 2, so we may never even find out until we see the business case.

Here's what I think though.

The business case for all-LRT will never work, but we know Surrey is going to ignore it. I think pressure from Langley, Green Timbers and the Province would push the Skytrain business case forward, and if that is what is selected, the "L" LRT no longer has a business case at all, and there would be pressure to roll that back to just BRT or build the Langley segment as Skytrain first while trying to acquire the land needed for LRT.

Mayor Hepner probably sabotaged the LRT business case as soon as it was announced "2018" as the date. That was probably based on Ottawa's LRT time table. So that likely made all the speculators pile-in on the proposed corridors. Did you see how the developers all chimed in on wanting LRT? Had it been Skytrain, which has a longer construction timeline, their return on investment is delayed by a few years.

[xd_1771]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Also, don't like hearing "Surrey's three light rail ines."

That's just what the media is used to saying these days (LRT is what was presented in the Mayors' plan and referendum, after all)

Regardless, TransLink confirmed last week that dual business cases are being worked on for SkyTrain and LRT options. So it's going to be either-or.

Originally Posted by Caliplanner1

Sounds to me that Surrey is dictating the level/nature of mass transit rail service/infrastructure that is to reach Langley. If so,......how fair is that?

Well... if you're concerned about the unfairness, Langley dropped a huge bomb on the pro-LRT movement earlier this week by letting everyone know that they aren't happy with Surrey trying to dictate the technology... and that they're going to launch an independent SkyTrain vs LRT study. Very big news for anyone holding their breath right now.

Langley City councillor 'ticked off' by Surrey mayor's comments - Surrey Leader

A Langley City councillor said she is “ticked off” about comments made by Surrey’s Mayor Linda Hepner.

Coun. Gayle Martin responded during a council meeting on Monday June 13, to comments she read in a Black Press story.

"I think the Langleys are quite prepared to accept anything as long as a system gets going and they have a system," said Hepner, in a story last week about transit options in the region.

Martin referred to the quotation and said: "That really ticked me off because I don’t know who she has been talking to, but we're not prepared to accept anything. We're prepared to accept what's best for our community.”

Martin made these comments before making a motion for City staff to study both SkyTrain and light rail and report back to council with a recommendation on which to support. The study will compare capital and operation costs, as well as passenger carrying capacity, travel time and the effects on traffic....

[READ MORE]

[xd_1771]

So I'm watching the Periscope video of the transit funding announcement and it looks like it's doubling as the official Mark III SkyTrain reveal!!!!

Trudeau, Clark and Mayor Robertson just stepped out of a Mark III car at SkyTrain depot

All I can say is dangit cause I would've loved an invite to the Mark III launch event, but I have a class this morning so ah well

https://twitter.com/jwaldag/status/743497018245451776

[xd_1771]

Announcement details...

[WarrenC12]

22 new Canada Line cars is a yuuuuuge expansion.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

22 new Canada Line cars is a yuuuuuge expansion.

11 more trains or a 55% improvement. Does the OMC have that space?

[xd_1771]

Originally Posted by Kisai

11 more trains or a 55% improvement. Does the OMC have that space?

I would think so, but this being a driverless system there's nothing preventing train storage on either sidings or on the main line during overnight/off-service hours - as is already done on the E/M lines.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Kisai

11 more trains or a 55% improvement. Does the OMC have that space?

Hard to say, although an OMC expansion was factored in for the Skytrain car increase, so I'm sure it was looked at for Canada Line.

Since there is no mention of station expansions, I have to imagine this is 11 new trainsets and not any C-car addons.

[nname]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Hard to say, although an OMC expansion was factored in for the Skytrain car increase, so I'm sure it was looked at for Canada Line.

Since there is no mention of station expansions, I have to imagine this is 11 new trainsets and not any C-car addons.

55% increase of 3m10s headway = 2m headway

The Canada Line will be running close to the max designed frequency, but no C-car or platform expansion needed yet.

[city-dweller]

What Canada Line stations improvements are expected?

1) expanding the stations with knock-down walls?
2) major change to circulation (such as Oakridge)?
3)....

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Agreement reached between the Feds, Province and cities for the first $750 million in transit funding over the next 3 years. This is phase one funding.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/brit...ements-over-three-years/article30482822/

Not to contradict in any way, pleae, but I got this that says 900m$ and not 740m$ as in the G&M article.
Or am I getting it wrong? If I am please tell me how. Thanks.
http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2016/06/16/prim...nfrastructure-agreement-british-columbia

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Hard to say, although an OMC expansion was factored in for the Skytrain car increase, so I'm sure it was looked at for Canada Line.

Since there is no mention of station expansions, I have to imagine this is 11 new trainsets and not any C-car addons.

There as mention of station upgrades to Canada Line Stations.

Wouldn't rule out C-Cars just yet.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Since this is federal stimulus, you have to wonder if there's any pressure for Canadian rolling stock to be used for the Canada Line. Perhaps we might see some Movia rolling stock.