The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Dengler Avenue]

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

Fare evasion cost TTC $64M last year.

[GeneralLea]

Presto issues also cost the TTC some money as well, a paltry amount in comparison mind you. Still, Presto needs some work....I'm very skeptical of it.

[Reecemartin]

Went to Waterloo to check out the soon to be opening ION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hk34WAchd8

A very nice system and actually very impressed with what I saw.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeeTPHLS

Presto issues also cost the TTC some money as well, a paltry amount in comparison mind you. Still, Presto needs some work....I'm very skeptical of it.

I'm not skeptical of the PRESTO system per se, but I am skeptical about the terminals being used at some transit stations. It's been fine for me at GO stations, and local Burlington transit when I've used it, but tapping at TTC subway entries is a mixed experience -- the new gates are a pain in the ass, and the readers on them haven't always recorded my payments... yay for me, but for funding the service not so much.

[ClaytonA]

STM's Blue Line Extension;

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1153829/montreal-bureau-de-projet-ligne-bleue-metro

via google translate;

... The call for tenders to find one or more prime contractors should take place at the end of 2020 or early 2021. Work could begin as early as 2021. The full opening of the blue line is planned for 2026, ...

The construction of the five stations and the 5.8 km tunnel will be as in the past, that is to say, it will be necessary to excavate the stations and connect them by digging a tunnel whose depth will vary from 25 to 30 meters. Jean-Talon Street will not be disemboweled along its entire length. ...

The location of four of the five future stations is known. They will be on Jean-Talon Street at the intersections of Pie-IX Boulevard, Viau Street, Lacordaire Boulevard and Langelier Boulevard. The location of the last station remains unknown and will be announced at a later date. ...

[ClaytonA]

BC Transit is filling that smartphone fare purchasing gap MalcolmTrucker was talking about for Calgary above;

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-bus-service-1.5022406

... 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. ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also Victoria has identified most of the funding for youth transit passes similar to Kingston, Ontario.

https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/victo...treet-parking-starting-may-1st-1.4305129

... Downtown businesses have spoken out in favour of the plan, noting the majority of spots on Sunday are often taken by people who work downtown, or have left their vehicle overnight. The downtown business association was also leaning in favour, expecting the move could increase turnover in prime street spaces. ... Parking would still be free in city parkades on Sunday and holidays. ...

Based on the mayor’s rough estimates funding youth transit would cost roughly a million dollars a year. Using census data the mayor believes there are around 6,300 youth in Victoria. ...

It appears to be like the university U-Pass whereby a sticker/etc is added to highschool/middleschool student cards.

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

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

Most of the "open fields" you mentioned are parks, but a large part of the problem with the under-developed area between Joyce and Commercial Drive along the City of Vancouver portion of the line is the grossly outdated land-use plans dating back to the original SkyTrain era. That plan sought a political compromise that brought SkyTrain to fruition but simultaneously purposefully protected existing single family home neighbourhoods and directed growth elsewhere. That redirection was successful, but it's a false dichotomy for it to be either-or. It's madness, and until more rational station precinct plans are adopted, there's no real point in redeveloping those sites, including the odd vacant lot, with low-rise development when high-density redevelopment potential exists on the horizon. A new city-wide land use plan for the City of Vancouver will be created in the coming years and I fully expect major changes to station area redevelopment potential.

[casper]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Most of the "open fields" you mentioned are parks, but a large part of the problem with under-developed area between Joyce and Commercial Drive along the City of Vancouver portion of the line is the grossly outdated land-use plans dating back to the original SkyTrain era. That plan sought a political compromise that brought SkyTrain to fruition but simultaneously purposefully protected existing single family home neighbourhoods and directed growth elsewhere. That redirection was successful, but it's a false dichotomy for it to be either-or. It's madness, and until more rational station precinct plans are adopted, there's no real point in redeveloping those sites, including the odd vacant lot, with low-rise development when high-density redevelopment potential exists on the horizon. A new city-wide land use plan for the City of Vancouver will be created in the coming years and I fully expect major changes to station area redevelopment potential.

There is some development coming in that area. However many of the pockets are not skytrain centric which is weird. For example the zoning at 29 and Rupert and 28th and Rupert is for mixed-use and there have been a few applications. The same applies along kingsway.

At the same time the area around 29th station is very single family home focused.

Joyce station I think makes for an excellent example of what we should push for around the other stations.

[J.OT13]

Bids have come in for Ottawa's Stage 2 rail expansion. Costs have gone up from the estimated $3.6 Billion to $4.6 Billion. City staff who royally screwed up the original estimates are telling Council that ya, sure we can afford the additional Billion.

Winners of the Confederation project are Kiewit and Vinci. Their bid was apparently hundreds of millions less than the two other consortia competing, which seems suspicious to me. Something must be missing.

The winner of the Trillium project is SNC Lavalin. Nough said.

Here are some images.

Confederation East, past the current terminus of Blair.

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

Not the best quality images... I couldn't find the actual image files, so I just trimmed them from one of the documents posted here.

Montreal Road


Jeanne d'Arc


Orleans Boulevard


Place d'Orleans


Trim

Confederation West, past the current terminus of Tunney's Pasture.

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

All images are extracted from here.

Westboro


Dominion


Cleary


New Orchard


Lincoln Fields


Iris


Algonquin


Queensview


Pinecrest


Bayshore


Moodie

Trillium South from the current north terminus of Bayview (transfer station to Confederation) headed south. Bayview is the only existing station shown. The slides skip over the other existing stations and only show new ones, including two infills.

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

best quality images I could get (all from here).

Bayview


Gladstone


Walkley


South Keys


Leitrim


Bowesville


Limebank


Uplands


Airport

Many more images can be found on the presentation along with further information on the project.

https://www.stage2lrt.ca/wp-content/uplo...it-Project_Tech-Briefing_20190222_EN.pdf

[le calmar]

Are they planning to double the tracks between Carleton U and the Carling station at all? I know that section is tricky due to the presence of an old tunnel.

[Dengler Avenue]

By the way, stations in the median of The Queensway look very American.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Are they planning to double the tracks between Carleton U and the Carling station at all? I know that section is tricky due to the presence of an old tunnel.

They'll be double tracking from Bayview to just south of the Queensway. It's a big price tag for no improvement frequency wise.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

By the way, stations in the median of The Queensway look very American.

Those stations loom pretty terrible. I wish they would have adopted the Stage 1 design for these types of stations:


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

Compared to:

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

They'll be double tracking from Bayview to just south of the Queensway. It's a big price tag for no improvement frequency wise.

So Carling to Greenboro will remain single tracked? Besides the double tracked sections at the existing stations.

[Reecemartin]

So I think someone mentioned provincial funding is locked down and an announcement is coming imminently? When is construction start?

While I agree the stations are less flashy that really is ok, because they are less central and less flashy stations is a good compromise for getting more stations. I love the O pylons, its a great design that I think can be pretty timeless, reminds me of the LU Roundel.

Pretty amazing to see such an explosive expansion in what will likely be <20 years.

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

By the way, stations in the median of The Queensway look very American.

I was just thinking that Jeanne d'Arc reminds me of the old 95th/Dan Ryan in Chicago.

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

So I think someone mentioned provincial funding is locked down and an announcement is coming imminently? When is construction start?

Maybe this helps?





All pics from: https://www.stage2lrt.ca/wp-content/uplo...it-Project_Tech-Briefing_20190222_EN.pdf

[Chadillaccc]

The Confed expansion looks impressive!


Here's a new graphic about the proposed Calgary metropolitan regional rail system...

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

The Confed expansion looks impressive!


Here's a new graphic about the proposed Calgary metropolitan regional rail system...

Cool theyre doing that.

[MalcolmTucker]

A study in the west line for Calgary regional rail is due very soon. The rest, not so much.

Past talk by CP has said $500 million for the west line to Cochrane, which I think was converting mostly single track to triple track. The reason it is so expensive is it is the CP mainline, mich supports 37 freight trains a day currently.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

A study in the west line for Calgary regional rail is due very soon. The rest, not so much.

Past talk by CP has said $500 million for the west line to Cochrane, which I think was converting mostly single track to triple track. The reason it is so expensive is it is the CP mainline, mich supports 37 freight trains a day currently.

If CP has said it's $500M just to upgrade the track to Cochrane, then that torpedoes the Waterous' claim that they can run a commuter railway to Banff for $600M. Even if it was the same cost per km to get the tracks to Banff (and obviously it won't be, it will be much more expensive) then that would be $1.5B+ just to get the tracks to Banff, then you have to buy the trains, stations etc.