The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[SpongeG]

oops something went wrong

the link doesn't work

[Reecemartin]

Here sorry: https://youtu.be/ACFqxfYCvak

[ClaytonA]

From January 21, 2019 council meeting.

http://sirepub.edmonton.ca/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=2291&doctype=AGENDA

Getting it closer to "shovel ready."

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...crossing-plans-for-future-lrt-extensions

... For the Capital Line [South] extension, among the major changes is an extra station added at Twin Brooks. The changes also formalized the location of a maintenance and operations facility.

Administration wanted council approval on their design suggestions for both lines so it can move ahead with engineering work on the plans, said Brad Smid, director with LRT expansion and renewal.

Smid said the city is committed to finalizing the preliminary design plans by March 2020. But there’s still no firm timeline on when construction could begin. ...

The Metro Line extension updates will see underpasses for the train as it travels north on 113A Street at 137 Avenue and west along 153 Avenue at 127 Street. The transition as the line turns west along 153 Avenue from Castle Downs Road will be at grade. ...

[J.OT13]

3D Tour of Lyon Station in Downtown Ottawa now available.

http://www.octranspo.com/ready4rail/my_station

Along with project update. See "February 2019 FEDCO update".

http://keithegli.ca/ottawas-light-rail-transit-updates/

[p_xavier]

Québec's transportation minister confirmed that the government requested the CDPQi 40km+ of REM extensions to be studied for construction.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by d_jeffrey

Québec's transportation minister confirmed that the government requested the CDPQi 40km+ of REM extensions to be studied for construction.

Now I really hope Quebec and VIA can figure something out regarding the Mount Royal Tunnel.

==========

As for Toronto, here are some photos that I took at Kennedy Station of Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction:
https://imgur.com/a/M3qeko4

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Now I really hope Quebec and VIA can figure something out regarding the Mount Royal Tunnel.

==========

As for Toronto, here are some photos that I took at Kennedy Station of Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction:
https://imgur.com/a/M3qeko4

There is nothing to figure out. It will have to be replaced, or the route entirely different.

[ClaytonA]

https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/.../io-tackle-go-rer-reworked-planning-team

GO RER RPFs (Pkg 2 is Off-Corridor projects) possible this spring and a $13.5b deficit slaying conundrum...

… Toigo said the RER project is not immune from the provincial government’s review of all major projects planned for the province. He said the government is doing its due diligence on the project and if the next phases receive a green light in the provincial budget, expected in late March, both package 2 and OnCorr could go to market with an RFP anticipated in late spring or early summer. ...

[giallo]

A well shot and detailed video of the Skytrain going from Surrey to Vancouver's newly renovated Commercial/Broadway station.

• Video Link

[Reecemartin]

Construction at Kennedy for the ECLRT: https://youtu.be/xbA3uINsSCk

Curious if anyone knows what a future Kennedy without the RT guideway going through it would look like?

Would be a GREAT location for TOD . . .

[J.OT13]

Update on Ottawa's rail projects. It seems the Confederation Line's builder (RTG) will miss a third deadline. Although the system and stations are essentially complete, not all trains have been certified and tested. Two of the trains are supposedly unusable for unspecified reasons and so we are fast-tracking two of the Stage 2 trains in order to have a full fleet upon opening. RTG believes they can meet the March 31 deadline, but the head of OC Transpo and Mayor are highly skeptical.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-buys-light-rail-train-no-track-record-1.5017483
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lrt-ottawa-opening-schedule-1.5014673

A bigger problem is funding availability for Stage 2. Although Doug has promised support for the next phase numerous times since the election campaign, he hasn't come through with the province's $1.1 billion contribution yet. Council is supposed to sign the contracts February 28. That can't happen without guarantees from all three levels of government. Note that the contracts have been delayed twice already; signing was supposed to be Q1 2018 however, the bidders asked for an extension to finalize their submissions. The timeline was pushed to Q4 2018. That did not happen because of the "lame duck" council, where fewer than 75% of the former council returned after the election.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lrt2-contract-delayed-lame-duck-1.4878101
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/funding-for-lrt2-not-confirmed-1.5008971

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by giallo

A well shot and detailed video of the Skytrain going from Surrey to Vancouver's newly renovated Commercial/Broadway station.

• Video Link

from Joyce to Nanaimo there is so much underdeveloped land and some surprisingly large fields of grass, for a city that seems to brag how good they are and in the midst of a housing crisis it is odd to see so much wasted opportunity

[mintzilla]

Questions for the calgary posters. What are your transit plans for using ship cards for fare? I think it is extremely important that the Edmonton system and Calgary system are interchangeable. Maybe one day we can get that high speed rail (pipe dream I know) and would make it easy to take transit in both cities.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by mintzilla

Questions for the calgary posters. What are your transit plans for using ship cards for fare? I think it is extremely important that the Edmonton system and Calgary system are interchangeable. Maybe one day we can get that high speed rail (pipe dream I know) and would make it easy to take transit in both cities.

Is there political will for Alberta as an entire province to implement something equivalent to Ontario’s presto card (although negotiation with the region of Waterloo absolutely failed)?

[MalcolmTucker]

Nah. Edmonton region is spending $50 million trying to implement a smart fare system. https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/smart-fare.aspx

No thoughts to province wide implementation.

After two failed procurements of smart card products, Calgary has abandoned attempts to implement a smart fare product, except for exploring an app based system. With no fare gates, and other systems in the region being super tiny, there isn’t really a reason to try to do smart cards. They just don’t offer features that are better than paper. Current fare vending machines take credit cards, debit, etc. The app will fill the gap for fares for buses.

If Calgary has the choice to implement a smart card or buy 15 more light rail vehicles, it would choose the light rail vehicles.

[Dengler Avenue]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfUKvPdRQIo

$297,616 of taxpayers' money for advertisement...

[WhipperSnapper]

It's not that much for an advertsing campaign. They are provider a customer based service. Makes sense to have a good sized advertising budget. It's just a bit of a stretch to call it taxpayer money.

[rbt]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

It's not that much for an advertsing campaign. They are provider a customer based service. Makes sense to have a good sized advertising budget. It's just a bit of a stretch to call it taxpayer money.

Indeed. At ~$7/trip for a typical GO bus it would take about 12 people to decide to take the bus for their daily commute for this campaign to break even.

If 13 do, will they call it taxpayer profit?

[caltrane74]

Moreso, if they have existing capacity for those 12 extra customers.

If they have to build additional capacity to handle those additional riders the advertising campaign might be a wash.

[J.OT13]

Confederation Line images from last week's update.

Rideau Station West Concourse


https://twitter.com/OttawaPolitico/status/1096030485296398336

Rideau Station Platform


https://twitter.com/ReNewCanada/status/1095410196237746178

Lyon Station Concourse


https://twitter.com/OttawaCritic/status/1095938812902076419