The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Black Star

IMG_0716 by BLACK STAR III, on Flickr

IMG_0718 by BLACK STAR III, on Flickr

IMG_0720 by BLACK STAR III, on Flickr

Ouuu what station this? Gives me vibes of like Calgary's Sunalta Station and Burnaby's Brentwood Station had a beautiful baby.

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Ouuu what station this? Gives me vibes of like Calgary's Sunalta Station and Burnaby's Brentwood Station had a beautiful baby.

Davies Station....2 blocks east of W.P Wagner High School. Shes going to be a beauty.

[J.OT13]

Davies will be an impressive station.

But why is the the only station with a park-and-ride? It's relatively close to downtown. There doesn't seem to be any space for a p-a-r at Milbourn or Grey Nuns, but Mill Woods seems to be a perfect spot for washrooms and p-a-r facilities.

[Coldrsx]

Park and Ride is something that this city has not done well with more recent lines. The whole SLRT parking/riding a mess and yes, more of that should be on the perimeter of the city, not 10-15 mins from Downtown.


https://postmediaedmontonjournal2.files....aviesstation_publicart2016-05-04-pdf.jpg

[J.OT13]

Certainly doing the bus loop right, going around the station. At Ottawa's major Transitway - O-Train elevated station, Hurdman, the bus loop is adjacent, and offset. It makes for a very long walk from the O-Train station to the local bus platforms.




https://www.otrainfans.ca/confederation-stations/hurdman

The situation is worse at Tunney's, the western terminus until 2025. Much higher volume of transfers than Hurdman, hence more local bus stops.

• Video Link


https://www.otrainfans.ca/confederation-stations/tunneys-pasture

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Certainly doing the bus loop right, going around the station. At Ottawa's major Transitway - O-Train elevated station, Hurdman, the bus loop is adjacent, and offset. It makes for a very long walk from the O-Train station to the local bus platforms.




https://www.otrainfans.ca/confederation-stations/hurdman

Just so people know, where the bus is is where you generally take the bus here. That shelter towards the middle of the photo is only used for late night bus service. Which I suppose makes sense - to have it as close as possible to the main station building for late night safety reasons. The shelter closest to the photographer I don't believe is in use at all.

So for 95% of passengers it's a pretty good hike to and from the bus stops. It's also in a pretty open area - IIRC literally open fields for hundreds of metres or even 1 km not that far beyond where that bus sits. So it's a very windy spot.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Park and Ride is something that this city has not done well with more recent lines. The whole SLRT parking/riding a mess and yes, more of that should be on the perimeter of the city, not 10-15 mins from Downtown.

Is park and ride even much of a priority for ETS anymore? I get the impression that it has fallen out of favour among urban transit systems (not so much regional networks like GO, of course), with the focus being more on encouraging people to live and work in ways that allow them to use transit from point to point.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by esquire

Is park and ride even much of a priority for ETS anymore? I get the impression that it has fallen out of favour among urban transit systems (not so much regional networks like GO, of course), with the focus being more on encouraging people to live and work in ways that allow them to use transit from point to point.

I think this goal is valid, but P&R still serves a role. IMO, the solution is to have P&R, but charge for it, so people still have an incentive to use transit point-to-point. The revenue stream also allows for P&R to consist of compact multistory garages rather than sprawling parking lots that waste prime space next to stations.

[Innsertnamehere]

TTC still builds big park and ride lots. There are over 2,000 parking spaces available on the Spadina subway extension, as well as about 1,000 more privately owned commuter spaces. They are planning another ~2,000 spaces on the Yonge subway extension as well.

That said, the City is currently decommissioning a lot of the older park and ride lots to convert to affordable housing so the total amount of TTC park and ride lots isn't really changing much.

[foolworm]

Originally Posted by esquire

Is park and ride even much of a priority for ETS anymore? I get the impression that it has fallen out of favour among urban transit systems (not so much regional networks like GO, of course), with the focus being more on encouraging people to live and work in ways that allow them to use transit from point to point.

Edmonton's current strategy is to only have Park'n'Ride lots outside the 'inner ring road' (i.e. Yellowhead, 170 St, Whitemud, 75 St). The lot at Davies station is temporary - in the long run the lot will be given over to TOD and eventual waterway daylighting. There are also plans for a lot at 50 St / Ellerslie if/when Valley Line gets extended there.

Calgary still builds plenty of Park'n'Ride, as does Ottawa.

Regarding the 'second tier' transit systems (Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary... ): to summarize, they are all converging on a LRT/BRT system. I can go into more exhaustive detail in a subsequent post.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by CityTech

I think this goal is valid, but P&R still serves a role. IMO, the solution is to have P&R, but charge for it, so people still have an incentive to use transit point-to-point. The revenue stream also allows for P&R to consist of compact multistory garages rather than sprawling parking lots that waste prime space next to stations.

That's my train of thought. And it doesn't even have to be that expensive; 3$ dollars a day or $30 a month would convince many to take the bus down to the rapid transit station. You could even make it possible to pay by tapping your transit smart card.

Ottawa has fairly significant network of P&R lots. All of them surface (no parking structures) and the majority are in the suburbs, outside the Greenbelt, with a few exceptions. All are free, except for a handful of Gold Passes (to park closest to the station) and a few inner-Greenbelt lots at Blair and Baseline.

As part of the Confederation Line 1 Stage 1, no P&R were built or expanded, which makes sense since the short line is within the Greenbelt.

For Stage 2, the there are no plans to build or expand P&Rs in the east end, which is a strange decision IMO.

In the west, no P&Rs will be built, which means that all suburbanites will have to bus to the rail termini, from home of existing P&Rs in the suburbs. Baseline P&R will be removed or drastically reduced to accommodate a new bus loop. I have no issues with the removal of the P&R, but the bus loop is not well situated to serve the future Baseline BRT, though that's another story.

In the south, where Line 2 will be extended to Riverside South, P&R will be expanded significantly.

What cities charge for P&R services and how much?

[Airboy]

Some shots of the Valley line as it slowly progresses.
[IMG]2020-04-22_12-48-26 by [url=https://[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]


Vibration dampers for the Theater next to this.
[IMG]2020-04-22_12-48-40 by [url=https://[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]

And another cable is attached.
[IMG]2020-04-22_12-48-52 by [url=https://[/IMG]

[Coldrsx]

This line is going to be pretty impressive once open about this time next year.

[Black Star]

We Hope......Its been Sooooo long and frustrating.

[J.OT13]

Ongoing work at Montreal Road Station. Highway will be shifted on both sides to accommodate the new O-Train Line and stations.


Source: Stage 2 email updates.

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[foolworm]

https://www.rtands.com/rail-news/is-otta...th-america-one-expert-seems-to-think-so/

The Trillium line often gets short shrift in coverage of Ottawa's transit system, so it's nice to see some positive coverage. That said they still should double track and electrify the line, it's like saying they have the most efficient Pentium computers....

[corynv]

Originally Posted by foolworm

https://www.rtands.com/rail-news/is-otta...th-america-one-expert-seems-to-think-so/

The Trillium line often gets short shrift in coverage of Ottawa's transit system, so it's nice to see some positive coverage. That said they still should double track and electrify the line, it's like saying they have the most efficient Pentium computers....

I do agree with that. But the biggest hurdle in doing that is getting a 2nd tunnel under Dow's lake/Rideau Canal. and there doesn't seem to be much political will in doing that right now.

[J.OT13]

The Trillium Line, when built, was a very innovative project. Twenty years later, it doesn't provide the needed service anymore.

After a $50 million "upgrade" that gave us a 3 minutes frequency increase, from 15 to 12 minutes, when we were promised 8 minutes in 2013-2015, and now the $600 million Stage 2 extension/upgrade that doubles train length but maintains the lackluster 12 minute frequency, it's getting embarrassing. Not to mention the 3 train trip from the airport to downtown.

Instead of doubling train and platform lengths, they should have double tracked the entire system. Even if they left the Dow's Lake tunnel and Rideau River bridge single tracked, I'm sure they could have increased the frequency to 5 or 6 minutes, doubling frequency and capacity. How they thought longer trains was a better option than higher frequencies, I will never know.

The line had a ridership of around 10,000 per day when it was shut down in 2013 for "upgrades". With the Confederation's opening, the ridership increased to 20,000. It will shut down again in May for 2 years. When we have to shut it down again for double tracking and/or electrification, what will the ridership be? 40,000 per day? Getting hard to provide bus shuttles for a rail line with such a high ridership.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Ongoing work at Montreal Road Station. Highway will be shifted on both sides to accommodate the new O-Train Line and stations.

To think that all the residents of this interchange get an LRT station whilst urban Ottawa is left with subpar bus service.