Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Firebrand]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Didn't someone just say that unaffordable housing is pushing everybody out into the suburbs?

I believe Klazu was the one who mentioned it. However, most people who moved east from my neighbourhood went to Calgary because of (relatively) low house prices and high salaries, especially if they’re professional engineers. The suburbs here are now feeling the heat of high real estate prices.

I knew a teacher who goes to a high school I went to in Surrey lived in Abbotsford. He had a daughter to look after, so he didn’t stay in the school for too long, usually less than five o’clock because of the crawling traffic between 216th and 264th on Hwy 1. He used to live in Vancouver way back before house prices went through the roof. He loved riding the old Flyer E901A and E902 trolleybuses.

[Firebrand]

I found something that caught my eye on The Buzzer.

https://buzzer.translink.ca/2018/09/new-skytrain-cars-are-on-their-way-to-vancouver/

The 56 cars will continue using the 400s series numbers like the first 28 cars back in 2016.

[dpogue]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

From that document it sounds like we are getting 101 train-cars not 56. So when will the 45 (ordered) arrive? and it seems that they will be 5-car based on that 4 doesn't go into 45 evenly.

No idea what document you're pulling that from...

There are 56 Mark III vehicles arriving this year and next year, to expand the fleet by 14 4-car trains. These have already been ordered on an extension to an existing contract, and the first of them just left Kingston on its way here.
These will be identical to the existing Mark III fleet (but hopefully with more reliable software), which is why the numbering continues from the previous order.

There is a Request for Proposals posted for a new contract for additional trains to replace the Mark I vehicles, with a mix of 4-car and 5-car trains. These have not been ordered, and it doesn't look like the RFP has closed yet.

[kxl]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

Would be pretty interesting to see BC Transit start intercity routes between disconnected BC Transit systems.

There is an example on Vancouver Island, the Duncan commuter, a cost-shared service by Victoria and Cowichan Valley.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by kxl

There is an example on Vancouver Island, the Duncan commuter, a cost-shared service by Victoria and Cowichan Valley.

(Digression) Then those two cities should run it more frequently to ease congestion through Malahat.

[Mac Write]

Will we see new Bombardier SkyTrain cards in 2020? Would be nice to see new trains every month through 2026.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Firebrand

I found something that caught my eye on The Buzzer.

https://buzzer.translink.ca/2018/09/new-skytrain-cars-are-on-their-way-to-vancouver/

The 56 cars will continue using the 400s series numbers like the first 28 cars back in 2016.

not a surprise to me, since these are considered an extension option of the original mk III contract

[TransitJack]

Originally Posted by Express691

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnao41tlFBe/?taken-by=yvr_transit_kid

My friend was walking by BTC along Ingleton and noticed this bus with an odd scheme... Rumour has it that this is a test scheme in preparation of the phasing out of the B-Lines.

Personally not a huge fan. Especially with B-Lines becoming a massive cultural icon, within the last 20 years, they could have just expanded from there - I mean they still got 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 199, 299, 399, 499, 599, 699, 799, 899, 909, 919, 929, 939, 949, 959, 969, 979, and possibly 198, 298, 398, 498, 598, 698, 798, 898.

Next thing you know, they start re-branding SkyTrain and SeaBus and every transit-related cultural icon

Skytrain -> Metro
Seabus -> Ferry
Expo -> Blue Line
Millennium -> Yellow Line
Canada Line -> Teal Line
CMBC -> Buses for Vancouver
TransLink -> Vancouver Transit System or Vancouver Metro

I mean, I'm all in for the service, but where's the special "Vancouver" part of it we can click with?

-sheesh-

I don't really agree about a "cultural icon" but I am surprised to see a possible name change to RapidBus. The colour scheme shown is pretty bad and really is a break from current livery. I'm surprised they didn't go for an updated Gen 2 B Line livery (blue and yellow) if they really wanted to differentiate the fleet but still maintain existing CMBC scheme.

The con of having unique livery for BLine (errr Rapid Bus) routes is does this limit the interchangeability of fleet on non-BLine routes (44, 49, 480, 640, etc).

I think you can rest assured that "Seabus" and "SkyTrain" are not going to disappear. They are quite entrenched and established branding in the network.

[MIPS]

Slightly related to transit, but a little bird told me that Vancouver's last remaining E902 series bus (yes, there is still one around, however read on) is about to be scrapped. Supposedly a number of people have offered their money and time to fund people travelling to Argentina to salvage parts from the remaining fleet we shipped them a while back but the TRAMS society keeps finding excuses to say it's too far gone or it's not worth the time or it's too expensive.

IMHO, if the TRAMS society wants to keep kicking years from now it might be advisable to possibly restore a bus that WE remember riding when we were young and not just something THEY remember as a kid.

[Firebrand]

Originally Posted by TransitJack

I don't really agree about a "cultural icon" but I am surprised to see a possible name change to RapidBus. The colour scheme shown is pretty bad and really is a break from current livery. I'm surprised they didn't go for an updated Gen 2 B Line livery (blue and yellow) if they really wanted to differentiate the fleet but still maintain existing CMBC scheme.

The con of having unique livery for BLine (errr Rapid Bus) routes is does this limit the interchangeability of fleet on non-BLine routes (44, 49, 480, 640, etc).

I think you can rest assured that "Seabus" and "SkyTrain" are not going to disappear. They are quite entrenched and established branding in the network.

They should do a survey on this whitewashed B-Line livery, giving the people the option of keeping it or discard it (I'm betting on the former since it's so horrible to look at). It boggles my mind that they threw fleet consistency out of the window. It looks like they're trying to copy King County Metro's RapidRide but with Canucks colours.

[Mac Write]

We have the 1990 and 1994 Mark I trains (36 cars) that haven't been refurbished. That is what the 45-replacement cars must be referring to. So they will be the first to be retired.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Firebrand

They should do a survey on this whitewashed B-Line livery, giving the people the option of keeping it or discard it (I'm betting on the former since it's so horrible to look at). It boggles my mind that they threw fleet consistency out of the window. It looks like they're trying to copy King County Metro's RapidRide but with Canucks colours.

TransLink did do a survey on creating/strengthening the branding for the B-Line system, since they decided to start taking it seriously, with all door boarding on all lines, working with municipalities to establish service priority, fancy stops, etc.

I've always been skeptical of alternate liveries because of possible scheduling challenges, but if it's possible, I think it's awesome. Legitimize it more as a higher-level service, and I think it looks great too.

I'll say I prefer B-Line to RapidBus, but we'll see what happens with it all. I'm not gonna jump to judgments from one photo.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

TransLink did do a survey on creating/strengthening the branding for the B-Line system, since they decided to start taking it seriously, with all door boarding on all lines, working with municipalities to establish service priority, fancy stops, etc.

I've always been skeptical of alternate liveries because of possible scheduling challenges, but if it's possible, I think it's awesome. Legitimize it more as a higher-level service, and I think it looks great too.

Exactly. "Okay, so people supposedly like trams because they look more appealing? There you go."

[SpongeG]

Not sure where else to put this so will put it here. The lights are now on along the skytrain on North Road. They go from about where the white spot is to the tunnel entrance. At the intersections they have fancier lighting with projections. They go from light white to bright pink to green back to pink as you go along.

2018-09-10_12-13-34 by snub_you, on Flickr

2018-09-10_12-13-43 by snub_you, on Flickr

2018-09-10_12-13-52 by snub_you, on Flickr

[WarrenC12]

First new Skytrain cars on the way. Can't see a difference from the last batch from this video.

https://t.co/9jwwNml3kn

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

We have the 1990 and 1994 Mark I trains (36 cars) that haven't been refurbished. That is what the 45-replacement cars must be referring to. So they will be the first to be retired.

they might still be useful in retirement as parts donors to keep the rest of the mk I fleet going

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

We have the 1990 and 1994 Mark I trains (36 cars) that haven't been refurbished. That is what the 45-replacement cars must be referring to. So they will be the first to be retired.

Odd that they'd retire the newer cars and not some number of the original ones. Perhaps there's something about the newer cars that makes them more problematic? Or perhaps they wanted to retire a certain number of cars and it made the most sense to retire an entire series of like cars of close to that number in order to simplify maintenance?

[dpogue]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

Odd that they'd retire the newer cars and not some number of the original ones. Perhaps there's something about the newer cars that makes them more problematic? Or perhaps they wanted to retire a certain number of cars and it made the most sense to retire an entire series of like cars of close to that number in order to simplify maintenance?

Neither TransLink nor BCRTC have said specifically which Mark I cars they intend to retire first. It's speculation on our part that they'll retire the newer-but-not-refurbished ones first to avoid needing to spend any money on refurbishing them. The timeline is such that it's about when those trains would be due for refurbishment anyways.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by dpogue

Neither TransLink nor BCRTC have said specifically which Mark I cars they intend to retire first. It's speculation on our part that they'll retire the newer-but-not-refurbished ones first to avoid needing to spend any money on refurbishing them. The timeline is such that it's about when those trains would be due for refurbishment anyways.

Exactly.

They refurbished some of the trains to keep them going. It would make sense to start replacements on the next set that would need to be refurbished.

From Wiki:

ICTS Mark I (1984–1986) - 114 cars: 001 to 056; 061 to 118
ICTS Mark I (1990–1991) - 16 cars: 121 to 136
ICTS Mark I (1994–1995) - 20 cars: 137 to 156

[Waders]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Exactly.

They refurbished some of the trains to keep them going. It would make sense to start replacements on the next set that would need to be refurbished.

From Wiki:

ICTS Mark I (1984–1986) - 114 cars: 001 to 056; 061 to 118
ICTS Mark I (1990–1991) - 16 cars: 121 to 136
ICTS Mark I (1994–1995) - 20 cars: 137 to 156

The original 114 Expo-era cars were the one that were refurbished.
Source

Looks like some of the refurbished cars will still be replaced by Mark III cars starting in 2024.

These cars have a lifespan of 25 years, and the refurbishment is designed to extend the useful life of these vehicles by about 15 years.

The new order of Mark III trains over the next few years will allow TransLink to retire the oldest of the Mark I cars – the first batch that went into service in time for the World’s Fair. Newer models of the Mark I will be gradually retired after 2026.

Source