The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[GeneralLea]

The glass atrium has already been built......I'm pretty sure they finished it although it did not make things brighter for the rest of the train docks. The other things have been built....but this video overlooked a good majority of the construction happening now (maybe it wasn't announced at the time of this video.....which is likely 6 years old by now). They're renovating the interior a whole lot......both on the train waiting rooms level and the main hall.

[Innsertnamehere]

The atrium section is more or less done - just some final clean up right now.

The new concourse levels will be completed some time next year, though it is already partially open.

Restoration of the great hall is almost complete, only the floors remain awaiting restoration.

It's all supposed to be done next year. Though after that Metrolinx is looking to start another, less ambitious project to further expand the station for RER.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I don;t know if this is current, it says it was uploaded in 2018 but in the video it says construction starts in 2014?

She said "the restoration won't be done until 2014". I'm guessing that video is about 8 years old, maybe a bit more.

This whole project started in 2010, beginning with some platform restoration, prep for the atrium, and creating the new concourse on the west side (the "York Concourse") which involved digging down to create a lower level; ground level of that has been open a while but the lower one remains to be completed. They closed the original "Bay Concourse" and have been rebuilding it, also with a lower level. The VIA concourse is getting renovated as well, the level that's a ramp down from the Great Hall between the two GO concourses.

Huge project. The timelines were severely underestimated, complications ensued, probably more than a few surprises during construction too. But when it's complete it will be a massive improvement.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Banff couple say they've secured half of $600M needed to build Banff passenger train

Jan Waterous says a private investor has agreed to pony up roughly $300 million

Lucie Edwardson · CBC News · Posted: Jul 12, 2018


This photo of The Canadian train, equipped with new stainless steel cars, was taken at the Banff train station in 1955 by Nicholas Morant, a Banff resident who was legendary as a special photographer for Canadian Pacific. (Nicholas Morant/Town of Banff)

If you don't have the use of a car, chances are Greyhound's announcement this week might have rattled your travel plans.

The bus company announced Monday it's pulling its services out of Western Canada. But if a Banff couple's plan comes through, you may have another option for travelling between Calgary and the mountains.

Jan Waterous owns the Banff train station with her husband, and they're trying to bring back the passenger railway. She chatted with Calgary Eyeopener host David Gray about the project on Thursday.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Please forgive me if I've heard rumour of this for years now. Describe your idea for me. What are you hoping for?

A: We're on a quest to return passenger rail between Calgary and Banff, and as you alluded to, it's a multi-part, complicated process to do so.

And one of the things that we learned very early on is that it's really not feasible to have the passenger rail train run on the existing CP Rail track. Which is really why it discontinued 26 years ago, frankly, because CP Rail, they're about the on-time service, they're really not in the passenger rail business.

And so what what we saw is our chance — you know, Calgary and Banff's chance — to get this back, is [to] actually build a rail within the CP Rail corridor. So to take 25 feet of that [corridor] between Calgary and Banff and actually build our own rail that would be designated for commuter passenger rail.

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/funds-secured-banff-passenger-rail-1.4744603

Awesome. My Grandparents took the train from London, Ontario to Banff around the time of this photo. We have video, somewhere.

[Coldrsx]

Our first LRV arrived in town.

[SpongeG]

Thanks for the info/updates all.

Not much on youtube, or what is there seems outdated now. I remember walking through that place long ago like 1993 or so, it was pretty cool.

[Chadillaccc]

On my way home tonight, thought this was pretty...





Also an update on phase 2 (of 4) of Calgary's 17 Ave SE Transitway, by Surreal Places...

[GeneralLea]

Great update Chad, didn't know about this transitway, sounds great.

[Coldrsx]

Our first LRV.


@citadist

[Aylmer]

I saw it around Kingston on a siding track when I was taking the Toronto-Ottawa train. Glad to see it's made it safe and sound!

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Our first LRV.


@citadist

For which service?

[1overcosc]

Kingston Transit is attracting attention from other smaller cities for its fast growing ridership which has other cities wondering how to replicate its success (the answer is pretty simple: more frequencies and faster routes).

Why Canadian cities are asking Kingston for public-transit advice

Empty buses were once a common sight in the city. Now, thanks to a few simple tactics, ridership is booming

KINGSTON — Not long ago, empty buses were a common sight on Kingston’s main roads. But over the past five years, Kingston Transit has seen a huge increase in ridership, and the city now boasts the fastest-growing public-transit ridership figures in the country.

So what is Kingston’s secret? It’s simple: more frequent service, and express routes between key hubs.

....

The plan has worked so well that the city has had to revise its ridership targets. A few years ago, Kingston announced a goal to surpass 6 million passenger trips by 2021. It hit that mark in 2017 — four years ahead of schedule. (In 2013, passengers took 3.4 million trips on Kingston Transit. In 2017, they took 6.2 million.)

Kingston Transit’s net operating budget has increased modestly over that time, from $10.2 million in 2013 to $15.7 million for 2017. The bus fleet is gradually expanding to accommodate the new reality: Kingston Transit owned 48 vehicles in 2011; by 2021, it expects to own 88.

Inducing commuters to use transit simply by offering more service is not a new concept. As urban planner and transit analyst Christopher Yuen notes, if a city runs more buses, it typically gets more riders. Investing in better service, he says, results in a more “broadly useful” transit network compared to other modes of transportation. “There is simply more of it, so more people ride,” Yuen writes. “So transit is more deeply embedded in the culture and politics.”

https://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/...sking-kingston-for-public-transit-advice

The only real difference between us versus other similarly sized cities that are having trouble attracting new riders is those other cities are too cheap to provide their transit agencies with the funding increases needed to grow. We doubled our transit ridership over the past 5 years but we did so by increasing the operating grant from the city by 50%.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

For which service?

The Valley Line that has its SE portion U/C. The west leg will start in 2019/2020.


http://www.railforthevalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lrt_wse-640x360.gif

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Kingston Transit is attracting attention from other smaller cities for its fast growing ridership which has other cities wondering how to replicate its success (the answer is pretty simple: more frequencies and faster routes).



https://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/...sking-kingston-for-public-transit-advice

The only real difference between us versus other similarly sized cities that are having trouble attracting new riders is those other cities are too cheap to provide their transit agencies with the funding increases needed to grow. We doubled our transit ridership over the past 5 years but we did so by increasing the operating grant from the city by 50%.

Transit in Kingston is generally pretty efficient, in large part due to the express lines. It is one of the rare mid-sized cities where I find that taking the bus is not an unpleasant thing.

[Innsertnamehere]

Brampton has seen similar growth percentages - I believe they saw an 18% increase in ridership last year. Burlington is apparently also eyeing up a similar strategy, though it hasn't yet started.

York Region desperately needs it. Despite growing and intensifying rapidly - services, subsidy, and ridership have more or less flat-lined over the last 5 years. I used to work in Vaughan prior to the subway extension and taking the bus out there was hell - and I was lucky enough that my place of employment was close of one of the highest frequency bus routes in the city, with a whopping 15 minute peak service frequency. Most bus lines are 30-40 minute off peak service and 20-25 minute peak. Even their BRT infrastructure on highway 7 - which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to construct, sees only 15 minute off peak service.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Brampton has seen similar growth percentages - I believe they saw an 18% increase in ridership last year. Burlington is apparently also eyeing up a similar strategy, though it hasn't yet started.

York Region desperately needs it. Despite growing and intensifying rapidly - services, subsidy, and ridership have more or less flat-lined over the last 5 years. I used to work in Vaughan prior to the subway extension and taking the bus out there was hell - and I was lucky enough that my place of employment was close of one of the highest frequency bus routes in the city, with a whopping 15 minute peak service frequency. Most bus lines are 30-40 minute off peak service and 20-25 minute peak. Even their BRT infrastructure on highway 7 - which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to construct, sees only 15 minute off peak service.

From what I remember:

A big problem with York Region is that it's semi-rural. In Markham, for example, north of Major McKenzie, there's basically nothing. In order to retain those dial-a-ride routes in rural communities like Stouffeville, Georgina and Pefferlaw, YRT probably has no choice but to charge more. Alternatively, YRT will need to strike a deal with Go transit so that these places will only be served by Go instead. (Bring back 80 Go! That route used to go from Newmarket Terminal to Beaverton.)

Another one is the sprawl. With that, it's really hard to make transit frequent. I'd think that frequent transit works if ridership is consistently high. Even viva doesn't have that outside of rush hour.

Then, there's the fare. 2 years ago, I was living in Richmond Hill while working a job in Markham. The sad thing was, the daily fare was $3.40 and a monthly pass cost $140; to top it off, after some calculation, I realized that it was actually more economical to drive than to bus to work! From a user's perspective, I'd say that, unless fare comes down, people are actually disincentivized to take public transit. YRT would be better off axing those rural routes and let Go take over. It's a harsh thing to say, but IMO they're really dragging the system down. I'd like to see consistent frequent transit invested on core routes like Jane, Bathurst, Yonge, Bayview, Highway 7 from Highway 50 to Markham Bypass, Rutherford - Carville - 16th and Major Mac.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Kingston Transit is attracting attention from other smaller cities for its fast growing ridership which has other cities wondering how to replicate its success (the answer is pretty simple: more frequencies and faster routes).



https://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/...sking-kingston-for-public-transit-advice

The only real difference between us versus other similarly sized cities that are having trouble attracting new riders is those other cities are too cheap to provide their transit agencies with the funding increases needed to grow. We doubled our transit ridership over the past 5 years but we did so by increasing the operating grant from the city by 50%.

Ottawa took a different approach. They chose optimization, which was essentially a service cut. And then they implemented 'invisible' service cuts on many routes. At the same time, they implemented a prepaid and universal university and college pass system which should have generated significant new users. Despite that, they managed to lose ridership. Well done!

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Burlington is apparently also eyeing up a similar strategy, though it hasn't yet started.

Thank the gods!

Hopefully it goes through. City council is notorious for voting down progressive ideas, heck almost any transportation ideas if they aren't car-focused. Aside from a few routes that are ok, the city's transit service is both woeful and woefully used.

[hipster duck]

Generally, the recipe for suburban transit ridership growth is pretty straightforward. Eliminate the dozens of infrequent routes that meander aimlessly around subdivisions and just run a grid service along the arterials with somewhat decent frequencies.

The worst are those suburban, low frequency bus routes that turn around by making a large loop around a subdivision in a one way direction, ending up where they left off about 10 minutes later. YRT has many of those, and they're ridership kryptonite.

[GeneralLea]

Per the news from today, with Trudeau changing the minister leadership today ...."Trudeau aims to bolster Canada’s bid to diversify its trade interests beyond the United States by moving natural resources minister Jim Carr into the international trade portfolio.That means a new role for Francois-Philippe Champagne, who becomes minister of infrastructure."

Article: http://https://nationalpost.com/news/can...-new-portfolios-and-adding-new-positions
Sounds as though we'll see more transportation projects coming about through the country.