Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Kisai]

http://www.news1130.com/2016/08/21/engla...a-says-its-time-metro-vancouver-follows/

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – London, England brought in 24-hour subway service over the weekend yesterday, so is it time for Metro Vancouver to consider the same thing?

One local group is calling for round the clock SkyTrain.

Bars and nightclubs have been asking for later trains for a while now, and it came up during last year’s transit plebiscite too.
But Charles Gauthier with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association says they’ve heard a lot of recent demand from young people.

...

I believe the main reason why we can't have 24 hour Skytrain is that the frequency is too high to do the kind of maintenance done in a conventional subway (where they do work between trains, or shutdown parts of the guideway/stations for maintenance.)

[MIPS]

Maintenance is the reason why we do not run a 24 hour service. We barely get five hours a night to do any work. In theory you could play a game of Musical Trains and have them run up and down the line on one side of the track while the other is being worked on but at the end of the day you still have the N19 which travels almost parallel to the Expo Line.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Maintenance is the reason why we do not run a 24 hour service. We barely get five hours a night to do any work. In theory you could play a game of Musical Trains and have them run up and down the line on one side of the track while the other is being worked on but at the end of the day you still have the N19 which travels almost parallel to the Expo Line.

The N19 is garbage and unreliable. It takes forever to get from Downtown Vancouver to New Westminster and Surrey.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Kisai

http://www.news1130.com/2016/08/21/engla...a-says-its-time-metro-vancouver-follows/



I believe the main reason why we can't have 24 hour Skytrain is that the frequency is too high to do the kind of maintenance done in a conventional subway (where they do work between trains, or shutdown parts of the guideway/stations for maintenance.)

The first Night Tube services are now running on the Central and Victoria lines, with services on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines following in autumn. The Night Tube will offer a 24-hour service on Fridays and Saturdays.

https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/tube-improvements/what-we-are-doing/night-tube

[Gordon]

Jus had my first ride on one of the new trains. very nice. the interior destination sign onkt tells you where the train terminates nott each stop as the Canada Line ones do.

[Anorak]

Originally Posted by Kisai

http://www.news1130.com/2016/08/21/engla...a-says-its-time-metro-vancouver-follows/



I believe the main reason why we can't have 24 hour Skytrain is that the frequency is too high to do the kind of maintenance done in a conventional subway (where they do work between trains, or shutdown parts of the guideway/stations for maintenance.)

Another reason is we only have one set of tracks, unlike New York for instance which has two sets on some lines which allow them to do work on one set while the other is in use, facilitating 24 hour service.

[trofirhen]

Even extending evening Skytrain services one hour later than they are now would be good & make a big difference.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Even extending evening Skytrain services one hour later than they are now would be good & make a big difference.

What i don't understand is why they don't have the train run once an hour from 1-5am. With very few trains running they can just single track the trains so they can do maintenance on the parallel track. Make sense?

[dpogue]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

What i don't understand is why they don't have the train run once an hour from 1-5am. With very few trains running they can just single track the trains so they can do maintenance on the parallel track. Make sense?

What would be the cost of having attendants at all the stations for a train that runs once an hour? Do you really want people hanging around on the platform for up to an hour waiting for a train, while people are trying to work at track level?

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by dpogue

What would be the cost of having attendants at all the stations for a train that runs once an hour? Do you really want people hanging around on the platform for up to an hour waiting for a train, while people are trying to work at track level?

Maybe have only main transfer node stations open during those hours (waterfront, granville, main, commercial, metrotown, columbia, lougheed, surrey central etc.) I still think it's worth it even having them staffed. They also could program the faregates to only operate 15 mins before the next train arrives so the attendant or officer can stay where the ticket machines are instead of having to go from one platform to the other; keeping a watch on who goes to the track level in that 15 minute period. If they did this just from friday to sunday it would be better then nothing and greatly beneficial.

[Sheba]

I've often thought that extending the Skytrain by a few more trains running every 30 mins would be good. If they single tracked would it really affect track maintenance that much? The stations could be closed until 10 mins before the train is due, so there wouldn't have to be that many attendants sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

[retro_orange]

IMHO anything to help keep someone who has had too much to drink from driving is well worth it.

[MIPS]

We could go back to shoring up the time to do extra service work by opening the system after 10AM on Sundays like we used to.

[dandor31]

I was pleasantly surprised this morning that I got to ride the new Mark III to work! It was inbound at Main St station at about 8:25am (or at least that was when I tapped in). It was very cool to ride it. I'd have to say it was definitely quieter in the tunnel, but still not quite as quiet as I would have liked. I still had to turn up my headphones, but at least I could hear it in the tunnel!! There was an attendant at the front of the train, but I assume just to watch. It did seem slightly slow in between the chime indicating closing the doors and the second chime to start moving, but not 100% sure.

Anyways, I'm not sure if trains have a set schedule for the week, but it might be worthwhile showing up along the line at that time (adjusted earlier for a station back down the line).

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by MIPS

We could go back to shoring up the time to do extra service work by opening the system after 10AM on Sundays like we used to.

Why not not let the trains run all day & night from Fri AM to Sun PM with no planned track maintenance?
Surely the system can be run with 5 out of 7 days available for late-nite maintenance.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Why not not let the trains run all day & night from Fri AM to Sun PM with no planned track maintenance?
Surely the system can be run with 5 out of 7 days available for late-nite maintenance.

I think this is probably the most reasonable thing. People still mainly do their drunken pub crawls on Friday (payday), and people tend to stay out on the weekend, not weekdays other than friday.

A 24hour service from Friday to Monday morning would not be unreasonable. But then again, you also have people who leave work at 3/4/5am and can't catch the train either, and have to wait an hour for a bus.

Like, if you're going to shut down the train for maintenance, you need to increase the frequency of the bus service to compensate, otherwise people will not use the train to begin with.

[ryanmaccdn]

Taking the N19 is like cancer... its the worst thing ever.

If I take the Skytrain from 22nd station its 24 mins to downtown.

The N19 and walking home takes 1 hour and 30 mins... shoot me in the face

[nname]

Originally Posted by ryanmaccdn

Taking the N19 is like cancer... its the worst thing ever.

If I take the Skytrain from 22nd station its 24 mins to downtown.

The N19 and walking home takes 1 hour and 30 mins... shoot me in the face

And you're just picking one of the few stations that are not directly served by nightbus. Every other ones beside Braid, Sapperton, and maybe 29th Ave are within 10min walk from the closest nightbus stop.

[jollyburger]

So you want to increase operating/maintenance costs when the ridership is lowest? Running trains increased the wear on the trains (might be negligible but it's probably more than sitting in a yard).

[ryanmaccdn]

Fine triple the fare price and reduce to 15 min headway. Still beats paying $70 for a 20 min 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 cab ride to New West