Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[ilikeredheads]

That right turn lane at F will probably be "right turns only except buses" so they don't have to change 2 lanes.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

(DailyHive, unfortunately)

For anybody who doesn't like to read sideways:

F) Reassign the westbound curb lane to a right-turn lane and lengthen the existing westbound left-turn bay.
Why? To help prevent through-moving vehicles from getting stuck behind left- or right-turning vehicles which improves traffic.

Originally Posted by ilikeredheads

That right turn lane at F will probably be "right turns only except buses" so they don't have to change 2 lanes.

then that negates the point of F, since they'll get stuck behind cars turning right... also, assuming they really do build the curbs like that at E. Blvd, those buses will need to pull out into the 2nd lane to go around that sharp curb.

[waves]

Mayors Council Finished.

3.2 Funding of the 10 year Vision
> The full set of new train cars will be ready for implementation on completion of the Broadway Subway to Arbutus in 2025.
> A new fuel tax + development charges will be approved by the Provincial government thereby securing most all funding for Phase 2 of the 10 year vision.
> "Phase 3 is not funded at all"
> Investment Plans in 2020 and 2023
> 7% Bus increase could be accelerated but major road/bike/capital infrastructure will require senior government funding.
> The 7% is probably only enough to maintain status quo of overcrowding.

3.3 Green Infrastructure Fund
> Burnaby Mountain Gondola could be funded by the GIF
> It may go to buses instead

4.2 Rail to UBC
> Mike Little wants to know the vertical alignment cost differences before approval, cut & cover, bored tunnel, elevated, etc.
> Geoff Cross: Fastest start to construction is 2025.
> Jonathon Cote and others: Negotiations with the community over "enhancements" that they want beyond the base case (maybe Vancouver pays for the extra cost for bored tunnel vs cut & cover?). Coquitlam didn't pay the extra amount to have the last part of the Evergreen Line underground even though it wanted it. The Coquitlam mayor's emphasis was on the same fairness being provided here.
> General comments from mayors about the need to communicate to the public that Skytrain technology is not proprietary/owned by SNC Lavalin.
> Surrey: Fully supports the Skytrain all the way to UBC.
> Kennedy: Yes Vote would trigger $3 million will go towards a study? Cross: Yes. No vote we would have B-Line for decades? Cross: Yes. We already at the stage where we need it.
> Question asked about who has been the engineering contractor in the past, which Geoff Cross answered as only SNC Lavalin, Bombardier and then commented that the Canada Line is different (Hyundai Rotem). Kevin Desmond then stepped in to comment that the project is massive and there are many many companies that will be involved and there is a lot of interest worldwide. It will be a consortium of companies. There will be a public bid and it will be competitive with many companies worldwide not just SNC Lavalin.
> A number of mayors sympathized with the problems on the North Shore and questioned the need of it and the benefit to the region
> Mike Little is supportive but not supportive. He wants the solution for Broadway to be as cheap as possible so that other regions get their share.
> Rob Vagramov was not supportive.

The motion was called, and all but two supported the motion!
Skytrain is coming to UBC!

5.1-5.2 Ride Hailing Discussions
> Linda Buchanan bringing forward potential impacts to Transit Ridership. Same regulations should apply to taxi as ride sharing.
> Mike Little: Taxi doesn't meet our needs because of regulation and we need deregulation. We need to stop artificially inflating prices.
> Kevin Desmond: If too much deregulation to prices then people will start taking short trips and greatly increase congestion. Minimum prices are generally based to stop people leaving transit for ride hailing.
> Doug McCallum: Does not support ride hailing because the current government has continually denied Surrey increased number of taxi licenses. He believes that Surrey needs more taxi services. He generally supports Translink but will be voting against the motion.
> Jonathon Cote: We need to move forward and get our head out of the sand.
> Motion carried. McCallum was the the only dissenting vote

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Millennium2002

I'm not sure how I feel about those improvements. As VancouverOfTheFuture pointed out, the westbound B-Line stop is oddly placed and forces buses to cross a few lanes. And besides that, West 41st Avenue has so little room in that area that adding turn lanes might not really alleviate all the congestion.

Here are my suggestions to the CoV proposal:

-snip-

Basically the idea is to shift the left turn movement from eastbound W 41st Ave to northbound West Blvd to W 42nd Ave, as well as a dedicated pullout bay for the westbound B-Line stop. It costs somewhat more, but I think it'll be worth the trouble for this problem spot.

Cities Skylines, right? Nice work.

That said (if I'm reading that correctly), the westbound buses are going to have a hell of a time getting back onto 41st... and that's assuming the City even allows the Greenway to be split up like that.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by waves

4.2 Rail to UBC
> Mike Little wants to know the vertical alignment cost differences before approval, cut & cover, bored tunnel, elevated, etc.
> Geoff Cross: Fastest start to construction is 2025.
> Jonathon Cote and others: Negotiations with the community over "enhancements" that they want beyond the base case (maybe Vancouver pays for the extra cost for bored tunnel vs cut & cover?). Coquitlam didn't pay the extra amount to have the last part of the Evergreen Line underground even though it wanted it. The Coquitlam mayor's emphasis was on the same fairness being provided here.
> General comments from mayors about the need to communicate to the public that Skytrain technology is not proprietary/owned by SNC Lavalin.
> Surrey: Fully supports the Skytrain all the way to UBC.
> Kennedy: Yes Vote would trigger $3 million will go towards a study? Cross: Yes. No vote we would have B-Line for decades? Cross: Yes. We already at the stage where we need it.
> Question asked about who has been the engineering contractor in the past, which Geoff Cross answered as only SNC Lavalin, Bombardier and then commented that the Canada Line is different (Hyundai Rotem). Kevin Desmond then stepped in to comment that the project is massive and there are many many companies that will be involved and there is a lot of interest worldwide. It will be a consortium of companies. There will be a public bid and it will be competitive with many companies worldwide not just SNC Lavalin.
> A number of mayors sympathized with the problems on the North Shore and questioned the need of it and the benefit to the region
> Mike Little is supportive but not supportive. He wants the solution for Broadway to be as cheap as possible so that other regions get their share.
> Rob Vagramov was not supportive.

The motion was called, and all but two supported the motion!
Skytrain is coming to UBC!

About muthaphuckin' time.

[SFUVancouver]

This is very, very good news for Metro Vancouver. What a relief to finally have the question of if and when SkyTrain would extend to UBC be resolved. 2030 still sounds like a long way away, and we lost a decade already from what was promised in the 2008 Provincial Transit Plan, but at least it is finally on the books. Not to make light of the cost, but the "missing billion" between the $2.83B of approved funding for Phase 1 and the estimated $3.8B needed for the full VCC-Clark to UBC line is a surmountable obstacle. Breaking it into two chunks is still madness but admittedly pragmatic from a funding perspective.

[officedweller]

Another solution for the westbound on 41st B-Line problem of the bus getting to the middle lane is to move the bus stop to the intersection (the tail of the bus will block the East Blvd right turn lane while stopped) and implement a "bus only" traffic signal (vertical white bar) at West Boulevard so the bus can move from the curb lane to the middle lane while other traffic is stopped.
There's been one in operation at eastbound Marine Drive at Taylor Way for years, allowing the bus to cut diagonally across the intersection from the curb lane to the left lane to North Vancouver.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

This is very, very good news for Metro Vancouver. What a relief to finally have the question of if and when SkyTrain would extend to UBC be resolved. 2030 still sounds like a long way away, and we lost a decade already from what was promised in the 2008 Provincial Transit Plan, but at least it is finally on the books. Not to make light of the cost, but the "missing billion" between the $2.83B of approved funding for Phase 1 and the estimated $3.8B needed for the full VCC-Clark to UBC line is a surmountable obstacle. Breaking it into two chunks is still madness but admittedly pragmatic from a funding perspective.

The extension from Arbutus to UBC is estimated at between $3.3B and $3.8B (in 2018 dollars), so the full VCC-Clark to UBC SkyTrain would cost between $6.13B and $6.63B. TransLink also made an estimate assuming the Arbutus-UBC extension starts procurement in 2025 of between $4.1B and $4.8B in 2025 dollars.

[waves]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

The extension from Arbutus to UBC is estimated at between $3.3B and $3.8B (in 2018 dollars), so the full VCC-Clark to UBC SkyTrain would cost between $6.13B and $6.63B. TransLink also made an estimate assuming the Arbutus-UBC extension starts procurement in 2025 of between $4.1B and $4.8B in 2025 dollars.

This was actually a question asked to Geoff Cross by Mike Little. Geoff confirmed that the total overall VCC to UBC costs were a minimum $7 billion.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by waves

This was actually a question asked to Geoff Cross by Mike Little. Geoff confirmed that the total overall VCC to UBC costs were a minimum $7 billion.

Yep, and it was in the report to the Mayors Council too, which is where I got the numbers from.

[GeeCee]

• Video Link

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Another solution for the westbound on 41st B-Line problem of the bus getting to the middle lane is to move the bus stop to the intersection (the tail of the bus will block the East Blvd right turn lane while stopped) and implement a "bus only" traffic signal (vertical white bar) at West Boulevard so the bus can move from the curb lane to the middle lane while other traffic is stopped.
There's been one in operation at eastbound Marine Drive at Taylor Way for years, allowing the bus to cut diagonally across the intersection from the curb lane to the left lane to North Vancouver.

Then you have the problem of all median bus stops- it's inconvenient since everyone has to cross the street to get to the bus stop.

[Aroundtheworld]

Originally Posted by fredinno

Then you have the problem of all median bus stops- it's inconvenient since everyone has to cross the street to get to the bus stop.

Yes, but everybody is also only crossing half the distance.

This got me thinking that what might be good for the B-Lines is gradually upgrading them to BRT level. The good thing about BRT instead of LRT is you could implement it gradually. You could start adding median stations and dedicated corridors in areas where it speeds up efficiently and it is easy to implement.

The stations would have payment before boarding and could accommodate local services as well by being long enough to accommodate both buses at the same time. It would provide a level of service similar to LRT at a fraction of the cost.

[waves]

Hey All, does anyone have information on the station depths or an elevation profile view of the Canada Line? I am curious as to the maximum grades present on the line currently. I have old pre-bid preliminary drawings (that have been posted on the forum before) but I haven't been able to find anything definitive in terms of what was actually built. Some of the stations I can find the depths on Wikipedia, but its very very hit and miss, as in Yaletown (17) and Granville (25) are listed but no others are.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by waves

Hey All, does anyone have information on the station depths or an elevation profile view of the Canada Line? I am curious as to the maximum grades present on the line currently. I have old pre-bid preliminary drawings (that have been posted on the forum before) but I haven't been able to find anything definitive in terms of what was actually built. Some of the stations I can find the depths on Wikipedia, but its very very hit and miss, as in Yaletown (17) and Granville (25) are listed but no others are.

You can use http://www.heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html for an elevation profile.

[waves]

Originally Posted by fredinno

You can use http://www.heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html for an elevation profile.

I need an elevation profile of the track itself, not the surface elevation.

[SpongeG]

did it get discussed here about people being trapped on the train for over 3 hours last week in richmond?

what exactly caused it?

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

did it get discussed here about people being trapped on the train for over 3 hours last week in richmond?

what exactly caused it?

The usual problems. Upwards-facing power rails can't handle the ice and snow and creates dead spots if not cleared quickly enough.

[jollyburger]

Sorry wrong thread.

[Xerx]

Victoria transit to move to smartphone fare purchasing
Commuters in Victoria, B.C., might soon be able to use their smartphones to pay for bus fare.

Right now, the city's bus system operates on cash or paper tickets, but a $21-million upgrade to the fare system could change that.

Christy Ridout, vice-president of business development for B.C. Transit, said the idea is for transit users to buy their fares on a mobile phone application, then scan their phone when entering the bus — similar to checking in at an airport.

"The payment industry has come a long way in the last few years and I think we're really able to take advantage of some of the innovation that has occurred," said Ridout.

If the smart phone platform is successful, Ridout said the ultimate goal will be moving to fares being paid via debit or credit card, similar to Vancouver's TransLink system.

In Metro Vancouver, TransLink offers reloadable Compass cards. Ridout said Victoria will not be exploring a Compass card option because the infrastructure for such a system is costly.

She said Compass cards require expensive vending machines to load the cards, and a comprehensive database on the back end to avoid fraud.

Ridout noted some riders won't have a smartphone, and she doesn't want this new system to be seen as a barrier to customers. To that end, she said buses will not remove their cash boxes, and cash will always be acceptable when buying fare.

Ridout said B.C. Transit is looking for a company to partner with in the endeavour, and estimates the new technology will come online in late 2019 or early 2020.

CBC News

Looks like we'll never have an integrated provincial smartcard/ticket for transit.