The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[1overcosc]

One of the biggest things we're overlooking with the whole interlining debate is the effect on stations themselves. Interlining considerably increases congestion on station platforms, because with multiple trains running on the same track, people have to wait for their specific train. Whereas, if there's no interlining, the entire platform empties with each train.

One of the key reasons Ottawa abandoned interlining was because they found out through studies that interlining would require much larger underground stations, which would make the stations significantly more expensive to build and would require them to be much deeper underground, creating a substantial time penalty for riders... which at rush hour would be enough to completely negate any benefit from eliminating the transfer penalty.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

One of the biggest things we're overlooking with the whole interlining debate is the effect on stations themselves. Interlining considerably increases congestion on station platforms, because with multiple trains running on the same track, people have to wait for their specific train. Whereas, if there's no interlining, the entire platform empties with each train.

One of the key reasons Ottawa abandoned interlining was because they found out through studies that interlining would require much larger underground stations, which would make the stations significantly more expensive to build and would require them to be much deeper underground, creating a substantial time penalty for riders... which at rush hour would be enough to completely negate any benefit from eliminating the transfer penalty.

On the contrary, I did point that out.

What we accomplish is a lack of coverage. This saving that you refer to in making platforms smaller is a loss in the long run as the only way to increase coverage is to build another line through downtown at a much higher cost. This will not likely happen until after 2050.

This obsession with introducing a system requiring multiple transfers even on trunk transit lines is going to limit ridership growth and not encourage people to go downtown on transit in off-peak hours. We already know that all the stations east of downtown are not easily accessible from residential areas.

[eemy]

It is worth pointing out that the Confederation Line is going to have two branches in the west end already with Baseline and Bayshore.

[Martin Mtl]

Great news for booming Griffintown!


Three REM train stations added to proposed route through downtown Montreal

Montreal Gazette

Builders of the new Réseau électrique métropolitain announced it will add three new stations in the city centre to its proposed route.

Announced last April, the $5.5-billion project is being built by the Caisse du dépôt et placement du Québec, but depends on federal and provincial funding to become a reality. The electric, driverless train — to be built by 2020 — would go from Brossard in the south and Deux-Montagnes in the north, passing through Central Station downtown. It would extend Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue in the west and the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Airport.

The proposed route, using most of the existing Deux-Montagnes train line, would cut through Mount Royal tunnel.

On Friday, CDPQ Infra, the infrastructure arm of the province’s largest pension fund, announced it would build stations underneath and beside the existing Édouard-Montpetit and McGill métro stations, linking the train to the métro. The REM will also have a stop at the Peel Basin, to serve the Griffintown and Point-St-Charles areas.

The Édouard-Montpetit and McGill stations were considered to be provisional in the original proposal because of the technical difficulties in building them.

But on Friday, the CDPQ unveiled its plans to build the station. For Édouard-Montpetit, because the tracks would sit 70 metres below the métro station, the equivalent of 20 storeys, it would not be feasible to build escalators to get to the métro station. For that reason, four high-capacity elevators would be built that can transport 5,000 people per hour, and take 20 seconds to make the trip each way.
The McGill station would be built in the city’s underground between the Eaton Centre and Place Montréal Trust, next to the existing McGill métro station.

Building both stations would mean a significant time saver for many people travelling between the two stations. CDPQ estimates it will take two to three minutes to travel between McGill and Édouard-Montpetit. To get there now, it takes about 30 minutes, because McGill is on the métro’s Green Line and Édouard-Montpetit is on the Blue Line; users must transfer to the Orange line to get from one station to the other.

The work would require closing part of McGill College Ave. for about eight months to build the McGill station, but minimal traffic disruptions for the construction of the Édouard-Montpetit station.

Macky Tall, the president of CDPQ Infra, said the new stations would cost about $400 million and result in a projected 15-per-cent increase in passengers.

[McC]

That's great REM news: way to be investing in better connectivity. The only thing missing from my perspective is a Wilderton* Van Horne Station (that would have been so useful to me back in my days living in C-d-N and studying at McGoogle).

*I always thought that the tunnel ran under the Wilderton Centre, but double checking, I see now that it's a couple of blocks further east

[p_xavier]

Video of the 3 new stations.

https://youtu.be/DFYEV4aW3eU

[Martin Mtl]

Image capture from that video:

The Griffintown station will be underwater (bassin Peel), with exits on each side of the bassin.

[Acajack]

Hopefully there won't be a station called Bassin Peel. There is already a Peel métro station, so why confuse out-of-towners this way? I hate it when cities do that (give two stations similar names).

There are plenty of other potential names: Griffintown, Pointe-St-Charles, Du Bassin, etc.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Hopefully there won't be a station called Bassin Peel. There is already a Peel métro station, so why confuse out-of-towners this way? I hate it when cities do that (give two stations similar names).

There are plenty of other potential names: Griffintown, Pointe-St-Charles, Du Bassin, etc.

Names are not final, Peel could also be renamed to Sir Robert Peel.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Hopefully there won't be a station called Bassin Peel. There is already a Peel métro station, so why confuse out-of-towners this way? I hate it when cities do that (give two stations similar names).

There are plenty of other potential names: Griffintown, Pointe-St-Charles, Du Bassin, etc.

I think Griffintown station is a no-brainer, but we'll see.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by d_jeffrey

Names are not final, Peel could also be renamed to Sir Robert Peel.

Still don't like it, but I am a scrognogneux.

[McC]

It's right by Habitat, why not name it after Safdie?

[Innsertnamehere]

4 high capacity elevators for Edouard-Montpetit? that will be interesting.. is there any real precedent for that globally?

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

4 high capacity elevators for Edouard-Montpetit? that will be interesting.. is there any real precedent for that globally?

Montparnasse metro station in Paris ? But the E-M will be much bigger.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by McC

It's right by Habitat, why not name it after Safdie?

I like his work but what are his credentials as a Montrealer? (I know he lived there for some of his formative years.)

Also he is still alive which is generally a no-no under the international toponymic standards followed rather rigidly by Quebec.

[Aylmer]

Yep - Forest Glen station in the Washington Metro is 60m deep with similar high-speed elevators.

• Video Link

[TorontoDrew]

I love how the vast majority of drivers in the GTA are up in arms over tolls one the Gardiner and DVP and don't seem to see a connection in transit funding and traffic congestion relief. People are saying businesses will move out of the core, retailers will lose out on 905 shoppers, or 905'ers shouldn't have to pay for TTC upgrades with tolls. Ridiculous. Unless the province and feds cough up more cash which they never do for Toronto the city needs to find a constant source of revenue. We should have been tolling those two hwy's for revenue the day after Mike Harris off loaded them onto the city.

[p_xavier]

Here is the technical briefing for the new REM underground stations. https://www.cdpqinfra.com/sites/all/files/document/rem_cdpqinfra_bref_tech_en_161125.pdf Notice that tne stations are wider and new pics shows trains at 100m length (5 cars).

[Rico Rommheim]

I'm very happy with this. It currently takes me up to 45 minutes to get from Acadie on the blue line to McGill. With the REM connection at Ed-Mont, it'll be 20 minutes tops. I could be in Griffintown in under 30 from Parc-Ex, an area of the city that is currently "out of the way" for many, despite being (one of) the country's densest neighbourhood.


Of course though, having lived on the blue line for a year now, I noticed that it is extremely underserved. Its trains are jam-packed at peak hours, and the frequency is shite. I'm worried that a connection with the REM will only make matters worst. The blue line extension needs to happen, and they need to build that damn garage near snowdon so they can make the trains at a regular 9-car length.

[franktko]

Originally Posted by McC

That's great REM news: way to be investing in better connectivity. The only thing missing from my perspective is a Wilderton* Van Horne Station (that would have been so useful to me back in my days living in C-d-N and studying at McGoogle).

*I always thought that the tunnel ran under the Wilderton Centre, but double checking, I see now that it's a couple of blocks further east

That wouldn't be as deep as EM but probably too deep to be worth doing...

Originally Posted by McC

It's right by Habitat, why not name it after Safdie?

Well, it's 1.2 km straight line from the station, not exactly right-by

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

4 high capacity elevators for Edouard-Montpetit? that will be interesting.. is there any real precedent for that globally?

I took one this summer in NYC, just can't remember which station it was. We were a bit surprised and looked for another way out of the station but realised that everybody was lining up for the elevator...