The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Can you post a map of your proposed route please? I'm having a little trouble visualizing it.

I don't really have a specific route in mind. I'm thinking of how useful it would be to have underground portions and overpasses or elevated portions in key areas. These could also be for buses, not just for rail (in some cities, these routes have eventually been converted to rail lines). In the future it might make sense to have automated electric buses anyway.

One example of this might be a downtown transit tunnel that would run under the Cogswell redevelopment area to Scotia Square. The buses could enter near Cogswell and Gottingen. This would be only be maybe 500 m of cut and cover tunnel. All of downtown would be around 2 km.

Another obvious spot is around the Windsor Street exchange area where there could be an overpass that would serve routes going between the peninsula and the Bedford Highway or Lacewood.

Another interesting idea is to build trenches similar to the rail cut. All of the surface streets that cross would have bridges. Or you could just build this across a major intersection or bottleneck.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I agree that the Québec City project has way to many stations. This is supposed to be the region's trunk line. We need to distance the stations enough to achieve a decent speed. Looks like Gatineau will do the same mistake with their west line and Ottawa is planning a ridiculous amount of stations in Kanata and Barrhaven.

.

Typically, as these projects move further away from the fantasy world and closer to the real world, the number of stations gets right-sized (or close) as they are all placed through a more robust assessment of need and suitability.

[Martin Mtl]

Pink line: Montreal set to get new tramway in Lachine, Southwest boroughs

Published Wednesday, June 26, 2019 10:17AM EDT
Last Updated Wednesday, June 26, 2019 10:43AM EDT

Montreal and Quebec City are set to get new tramway systems.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante made the announcement Wednesday morning at city hall aalongside Treasury Board President Christian Dube and Junior Transport Minister Chantale Rouleau.

The funding comes due to an agreement in principle between the City of Montreal and the Quebec government to reallocate $800 million in federal funding slated for the STM to instead finance both projects.
Montreal's new tramway will run along Notre Dame St. between the Southwest Borough and Lachine and will connect to a tramway already planned for Montreal’s east end.

"From the beginning, I responded to help find solutions that would make it possible to create the Quebec City tramway project, without penalizing Montrealers who have major needs for public transportation. Moving forward with this agreement in principle today, we can say ‘mission accomplished.’ The challenge of public transit funding is real for all municipalities in Quebec and is a good illustration of the need to work together to overcome it and begin a more ecological transition,” said Plante in a statement.

"I want to thank the mayor for her great collaboration and the fruitful exchanges we have had, and without which this good news would not be possible. The openness demonstrated by the City of Montreal has made it possible to break a stalemate and take an important step forward for the Quebec City transit network, which will see its financing completed,” added Dubé.

[Dengler Avenue]

So Legault’s really letting Plante have her way now??

[Nouvellecosse]

I'm confused by the headline. How does this tramway project relate to the Pink Line, a proposed Metro line on the other side of town? Are they saying they've diverted funding away from the Pink Line to instead be used for the tramway?

[Treplow]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I'm confused by the headline. How does this tramway project relate to the Pink Line, a proposed Metro line on the other side of town? Are they saying they've diverted funding away from the Pink Line to instead be used for the tramway?

That was my impression too.

Also I'm curious how this new tram line will link up with the proposed east end line (through Old Montreal/the port?)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I'm confused by the headline. How does this tramway project relate to the Pink Line, a proposed Metro line on the other side of town? Are they saying they've diverted funding away from the Pink Line to instead be used for the tramway?

I agree that the headline is confusing.

What it means I think is that the tramway from downtown to Lachine (via the Sud-Ouest and St-Henri districts) is basically serving the areas that were proposed to be served by the western segment of the new pink line of the Métro.

[Nouvellecosse]

Oh I didn't even know there was a western segment of the Pink line so maybe that would make sense.

[Martin Mtl]

The segment of the Pink Line between downtown and Lachine was always proposed to be above ground.

The Quebec gov. wanted to use an available amount of 800m$ that the federal reserved for Montreal. The city of Montreal had to agree for that amount to be redirected towards Quebec City. In exchange, the Quebec gov will compensate the city with the same amount of 800m$ towards the tramway between downtown and Lachine, which is in essence the west part of the pink line.

Since the election of the CAQ, Valérie Plante said many times that she would agree to settle on a tramway for the western part of the pink line if that means that Quebec will finance it. And so it is.

It's all explained here in French.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

The segment of the Pink Line between downtown and Lachine was always proposed to be above ground.

The line will be on Notre-Dame boulevard in the east through Griffintown, St-Henri, etc. and on to Lachine.

The Quebec gov. wanted to use an available amount of 800m$ that the federal reserved for Montreal. The city of Montreal had to agree for that amount to be redirected towards Quebec City. In exchange, the Quebec gov will compensate the city with the same amount of 800m$ towards the tramway between downtown and Lachine, which is in essence the west part of the pink line.

Since the election of the CAQ, Valérie Plante said many times that she would agree to settle on a tramway for the western part of the pink line if that means that Quebec will finance it. And so it is.

It's all explained here in French.

This makes sense. The central portion of the pink line was more of a downtown-central Montreal relief line. As I mentioned a few pages ago, it's reasonable to prioritize areas that have no rapid transit at all (like Sud-Ouest and Lachine) before making costly improvements in areas that are already served - albeit overloaded.

The eastern end of the proposed pink line (toward Montréal-Nord) might not be optimally served but it does have several stations on the Mascouche commuter rail line, plus it is getting BRT for almost the entire length of Pie-IX.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I'm confused by the headline. How does this tramway project relate to the Pink Line, a proposed Metro line on the other side of town? Are they saying they've diverted funding away from the Pink Line to instead be used for the tramway?

The East Island line was planned to be a tramway, the CAQ sent the project to the CDPQi for analysis as to know if a REM would be a better technology and to justify which technology to use. Hence, next year, the technology will be chosen by the CDPQi. The pink line was always proposed as a having a technology being compatible with the REM. The QC government refused the diagonal pink line because it would be ridiculously expensive to build, so they proposed to colour the East Island lines pink.

The announcement today is that the tramway (or whichever technology) will connect in the original pink line alignment to the new East Island system, which could still be a metro (REM) if it's the technology being chosen next year. The mayor confirmed that to the media. Both her and the transportation minister wore pink for the occasion.

[Nouvellecosse]

^ Do you know what the original Pink Line alignment was? My understanding is that it's an idea that long predated any concept of the REM and was basically just a slightly more recent iteration of the white line running directly downtown from Montreal-Nord under the eastern nabes rather than going down Pie-IX feeding the Green line as the White Line proposal did.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

^ Do you know what the original Pink Line alignment was? My understanding is that it's an idea that long predated any concept of the REM and was basically just a slightly more recent iteration of the white line running directly downtown from Montreal-Nord under the eastern nabes rather than going down Pie-IX feeding the Green line as the White Line proposal did.

Here is a map:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_rose...eal_Metro_Geographical_Map_Pink_Line.png

I don't think it was ever intended to go straight down Pie-IX and link up with the green line.

[Nouvellecosse]

Ok that's basically what i was expecting of the Pink line except I somehow thought it ended downtown. Thanks!

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

^ Do you know what the original Pink Line alignment was? My understanding is that it's an idea that long predated any concept of the REM and was basically just a slightly more recent iteration of the white line running directly downtown from Montreal-Nord under the eastern nabes rather than going down Pie-IX feeding the Green line as the White Line proposal did.

The revamped pink line was for Projet Montréal election and that's after the REM. That's when they proposed compatibility with the REM, based on Barcelona's line 9.

[Dengler Avenue]

Meanwhile, for GTA...

What’s with the system-wide service reduction?!?!

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Meanwhile, for GTA...

What’s with the system-wide service reduction?!?!

What do you mean?

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

What do you mean?

GO bus service. Oops I forgot to mention that.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

GO bus service. Oops I forgot to mention that.

Sounds like Ford is 'helping' Sheer get elected.

[ssiguy]

I understand there has been some reductions in GO Bus service but that has to be compared to the massive increase in frequency and coverage of the GO Rail network.