Calgary's $8 BILLION Transit Plan - The RouteAhead

[fusili]

Originally Posted by ByeByeBaby

I just checked again using today's schedule; there are 27 trains crammed in the peak direction.

And for a fun comparison, Sprawling Calgary vs the Urbanist Utopia Of Portland:

Awesome, thanks so much for this. 27 trains in an hour, per direction is crazy.

[ByeByeBaby]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Out of curiosity, is there any data out there which would indicate which lines where a downtown bypass would be most useful? My guess would be that there are more people coming up from the south and hitting the NW vs any other half-line to half line.
Of course with a stephen avenue subway that route may get so much more capacity than others, the current 2nd place candidate route might actually end up being more deserving.

A downtown bypass - if you mean going past the downtown without stopping - would be most useful built in any other jurisdiction with anybody else's money. The across-downtown traffic on any pair of LRT lines you care to envision is negligible compared to traffic to and connecting in the downtown.

[CrossedTheTracks]

Originally Posted by MasterG

I would support any measure that gave the LRT doors more aggressiveness when closing and instant locking so that someone can't reset the timer to reopen the door.

I am sure this is a problem elsewhere too, how do other agencies deal with door holders?

TTC (and I think New York) handle it by having an operator close the doors. They still have safeties -- if the door bumps someone, it retracts, but then it closes again right away. No resetting of timers, and no infrared sensor that people can intentionally block.

[CTrainDude]

Originally Posted by CrossedTheTracks

TTC (and I think New York) handle it by having an operator close the doors. They still have safeties -- if the door bumps someone, it retracts, but then it closes again right away. No resetting of timers, and no infrared sensor that people can intentionally block.

Thankfully, all SD160 vehicles have been updated this year to eliminate the infrared beam from the door process once the operator has cancelled the door banks - blocking the beam doesn't work anymore unless you're on a U2.

[ClaytonA]

http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/2015/09/03/route-ahead-boost-expected-for-calgary-transit.html

The City of Calgary's transit system may be in for an upgrade as the province is positioning an announcement Friday on the 2014 Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP) requests.

...

A laundry list of asks from the GreenTRIP submission amounting to more than $162.66 million is on the line for Calgary, alongside projects in Airdrie, Banff and Canmore.

Calgary's six projects tied to Route Ahead included the 17 Avenue Southeast Transitway, Southwest Transitway, North and South Crosstown BRT, West LRT land costs and four-car train traction power upgrades.

The CRP submission called the 17 Avenue transitway, which was the city's biggest ask at $65.33 million, a "high priority" and identified it as one of the "backbones of the primary transit network."

...

As Green Trip Phase 2, does this confirm 17 Ave SE transitway from 26th St SE to Hubalta Rd is officially partially funded, or was extra money provided to fully fund it? Or is this an official announcement of the rest (already listed as funded) and the partial funding of 17 Ave SE previously budgeted for - i.e. no acceleration of RouteAhead?

[ClaytonA]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/City+a...ven+rapid+routes+2021/9454443/story.html

... The other five projects — including bus-only lanes down 17th Avenue S.E. and 14th Street S.W. — cost much less, and the city has past provincial grant dollars set aside for that. It’s also banking on $167 million from the provincial Green Trip transit program to finish these projects. ...

OK - officially funded and part of money counted on in the transportation action plan 2015-2018 from January 2015. No acceleration, but not set back either given the budget deficit this year is very good.

[Spring2008]

Are these all under construction/starting this yr? I clicked this link and ended up with this list on the bottom under transit projects. Pretty incredible, if so.

City of Calgary ‏@cityofcalgary Feb 24
We're starting construction on a series of transit projects this year. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/1KL5mdp

Transit construction projects

Green Line
17 Avenue S.E. Transitway
Southwest Transitway
Stoney CNG Bus Storage and Transit Facility
North Crosstown Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
South Crosstown Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TI/Pages/Transit-projects/Transit-projects.aspx

[MalcolmTucker]

All fully funded save for the GreenLine.

[ClaytonA]

March 16, 2016 SPC on Transpo & Transit

http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sirepub/...vhcbn5zzobcq/41547404092016052323455.PDF

Capital investment is lumpy, the BRTs and LRTs will greatly help reach targets and hopefully the cost recovery ratio, population growth and operating costs have been greater than forecast, providing coverage to suburban growth at city edges is projected to cause issues with respect to the cost recovery ratio floor of 50%.

Interestingly "offers from land developers to fund introductory service in new communities should be explored and accepted where feasible." How would that work for coverage routes that would never in a million years break even? Some good graphics in there.

By 2021 with the funded BRTs, a further 112km of PTN will be added to the 76km existing, boosting the actual to 38.3% from 19.6% (386km PTN planned in RouteAhead). With the full Green Line, 40km, it'll be 48.7% of the 2040 goal.

[ClaytonA]

Interesting;

Green Line timeline for delivery estimated in 2013/14 was n/a (just transitways). Now it's 2024.

17 Avenue SE Transitway timeline was 2021, now 2018.

SW Transitway timeline was 2021, now 2018.

South and North Crosstown BRTs' timeline was 2017, now back to 2018.


http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sirepub/...vhcbn5zzobcq/41547304092016051747743.PDF

[MalcolmTucker]

Well, they wouldn't fund to break even. This has happened in the past, basically the developers fund the difference between actual revenue and revenue needed by transit to not cut a route.

[ClaytonA]

Utility relocations starting this summer for 17 Ave SE

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TI/Pages/Transit-projects/17-Avenue-SE-BRT.aspx

[ClaytonA]

Hopefully the SWBRT and South Crosstown proceed despite the controversy.

Without the controversy, and just as important as those two, I was looking forward to seeing more info about the North Crosstown, but nothing new yet. This route will be really usefull. It'd be great to see queue jumper lanes (none planned just signal priority), like the Centre St BRT has at Mcknight, especially along 36 St NE, at 19 St NE, Deerfoot Trail, Edmonton Trail, Centre St, 14 St NW, and 19 St NW.

This route will be well used since planned in 2011 new developments include Calgary Cancer Centre getting moved back to Foothills, Stadium Shopping Centre approved, Brentwood Intercare Centre expansion, University District approved, and Green Line at Centre St, along with the existing destinations like:

Brentwood LRT/University Research Business Park/University City/Brentwood Mall

U of C

Foothills Hospital/Boardwalk multi-family/Stadium/office/care homes

McMahon Stadium/Motel Village/park and ride

North Hill Centre/office/residential (and potential Concert Property's plans for Sears)

SAIT/ACAD/Jubilee

5 St NW on 16 Ave (needs more)

Centre Street BRT/Safeway and residential/commercial

Calgary CO-OP/Carewest Fanning/hotels/Renfrew Arena & Rec Centre/St Alphonsus Junior High

19 St NE office parks and hotels (needs more)

Calgary Casino/Franklin Business Park/Superstore/Sunridge Business Park

NE LRT Rundle Station/Peter Lougheed Hospital/Sunridge Mall

Temple Dr/Whitehorn Dr at 52 St NE (needs more)

McKnight Village/Bishop McNally High School

64 Ave CO-OP needs more

Genesis Recreation Centre/Library and Saddletown Commercial

[outoftheice]

One aspect that should help the north crosstown BRT is the fact that the Green Line will be tunneled under 16th Ave N. Giving transit signal priority to the BRTs along Centre Street is one of the main reasons traffic backs up so much along 16th Ave in rush hour so this should be a big help in eliminating a major choke point for their north crosstown

[ClaytonA]

From what I remember the lights give N-S priority at both Edmonton Trail and Centre St. At 10 St and 14 St with all the lights it used to get stuffed up with multiple light waits too.

[ClaytonA]

http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/2016/09/01/southeast-brt-to-get-deerfoot-overpass.html

Federal and provincial funding announced Thursday will eventually have transit users in the southeast sailing over Deerfoot Trail.

Representatives from the federal and provincial governments were with city officials Tuesday announcing $85 million for transit projects in Calgary.

Those project include an expansion to the transitway on 17 Avenue SE, upgrades to LRT stations and money for new LRT cars.

Doug Morgan director of Calgary Transit said the expansion to the transitway will specifically be over the Deerfoot Trail.

“It will be a connection for buses as well as other pathway users like bikes and pedestrians, to be able to connect into 9 Avenue without waiting in those queues that happen on 17 Avenue.” ...

[ClaytonA]

Web cams for this project's phase 2:

https://app.oxblue.com/open/cityofcalgary/bowriverbridge

https://app.oxblue.com/open/cityofcalgary/deerfoottrail

The bridge abutments are getting their for the Bow River; IIRC the schedule called for bridge girder installation to start in February 2018.

Piling appears done on the west and east sides of Deerfoot even possibly the abutment on the west side. The piling rig is in the WID Canal. Looks like the pier spacing is going to mirror that of 17 Ave SE just to the north in the canal. It will be dark under there. Albert Park/Radisson Heights is going to be one of the best transit served neighbourhoods in the city outside of the downtown core.

[ClaytonA]

http://saitjournalism.ca/thepress/2017/1...brt-welcomed-by-students-at-sait-u-of-c/

Interesting as IIRC the MRU students were involved with the SW BRT, but there appeared little or no engagement/advocacy from the U of C SU or SAITSA.

... The BRT will be a limited stop bus service that operates in regular traffic lanes but will include transit priority measures such as queue jumps and priority signals at intersections, which will keep the buses running on time, said Stevens. ...

Once completed, the North Crosstown BRT will operate seven days a week with buses running every 10 minutes during peak hours. ...

It's an express bus, not a BRT - limited stops, nicer stations. From the second quote, is this only going to be a rush hour service? This makes it much less useful for students and shift workers at Foothills who wouldn't necessarily have travel demand during rush hour. Is rush hour only service the result of the North Crosstown's budget getting halved? My impression was that the 90 Ave SW overpass for the SW BRT/S Crosstown budget impacted the two crosstown services. Community demanded more, city delivered more, other parts of city get less, community elements remain opposed. Funds are scarce resources.

Also a tweet out there mentioning significant bus route changes due to service cut backs and primary transit network expansion. It'll be interesting to see how it changes by 2019/2020.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by ClaytonA

http://saitjournalism.ca/thepress/2017/1...brt-welcomed-by-students-at-sait-u-of-c/

Interesting as IIRC the MRU students were involved with the SW BRT, but there appeared little or no engagement/advocacy from the U of C SU or SAITSA.



It's an express bus, not a BRT - limited stops, nicer stations. From the second quote, is this only going to be a rush hour service? This makes it much less useful for students and shift workers at Foothills who wouldn't necessarily have travel demand during rush hour. Is rush hour only service the result of the North Crosstown's budget getting halved? My impression was that the 90 Ave SW overpass for the SW BRT/S Crosstown budget impacted the two crosstown services. Community demanded more, city delivered more, other parts of city get less, community elements remain opposed. Funds are scarce resources.

Also a tweet out there mentioning significant bus route changes due to service cut backs and primary transit network expansion. It'll be interesting to see how it changes by 2019/2020.

It's not going to be rush hour only service. Buses will run every 10 minutes during peak times and less often otherwise. How less often will probably determine how successful the route is. Well, that and how congested 16 Avenue is. As far as I'm concerned trying to run an express bus on that road is a big mistake even with priority signals.

[ClaytonA]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

It's not going to be rush hour only service. Buses will run every 10 minutes during peak times and less often otherwise. How less often will probably determine how successful the route is. Well, that and how congested 16 Avenue is. As far as I'm concerned trying to run an express bus on that road is a big mistake even with priority signals.

99 has very good throughput (ridership) even with limited priority in Vancouver. Do you think they should have built sections of transit way along 16 Ave? 16 Ave could be a really well used route, but I agree this is not enough. Right direction though. Freeway-ification pressures will build on 16 Ave as interchanges happen on the east and west ends of 16 Ave. McKnight's busy. Beddington Trail's busy. Crowchild/Glenmore too.

The east-west travel issue in Calgary is really land use; there is an undersupply of employment in the NW and slightly lesser extent SW. In another post, someone pointed out that despite that (maybe because the market's small) employment, for example office space like at Brentwood's University City, is really hard to get built in the NW while there's lots downtown, south of downtown, and east of Deerfoot.