SkyTrain Station Renovations

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Vin

between Oakridge/41st & Langara/49th. *crickets*

Swing and a miss there champ.

[ilikeredheads]

I don't think there were any proposals for a potential station between 41st and 49th. It has always been 33rd and 57th. Besides, a station between 41st and 49th is redundant given the lack of majority corridor running across and the short distance between stations.

[Migrant_Coconut]

At any rate, there's plenty of density on 33rd and 57th. Problem is that they'd have to uncover the tunnel in order to do any work on it - twice the money and infinitely more logistics than "just" plopping a station onto a viaduct like Capstan.

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Disappointing they didn't go with the initial plan. Catchment of subway stations in urban areas should and often do overlap. 400-500 meters between stations is the sweet spot in dense urban areas.

Yet another thing to be pissed at Derek Corrigan about: he, another mayor and the streetcar lobby spent the preceding five years complaining to anybody who'd listen that an RAV SkyTrain was a waste of money and nobody would ever ride it because nobody took the 98, and so TransLink had to water it down. That's also why the platforms are small and only have escalators in one direction.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

That's also why the platforms are small and only have escalators in one direction.

Almost all the original Expo line stations only have up escalators and a few of them are even missing one. It's only been when they've been renovating stations that they've been adding them in. I don't think the original Millennium line stations are much better for escalators.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Almost all the original Expo line stations only have up escalators and a few of them are even missing one. It's only been when they've been renovating stations that they've been adding them in. I don't think the original Millennium line stations are much better for escalators.

Fair enough, but the platforms are still shorter.

[officedweller]

but the trains are wider, which is better for luggage.

[cganuelas1995]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Too bad they didn't at least rough-in a station between Yaletown and City Centre.

Agreed, an entrance at Robson would be beneficial. They could add some fare gates, which sorely lack at all three Downtown stations.

Kinda short sighted that they didn't have entrances diagonally across from each other at intersections, like at Broadway City Hall, so instead of having to cross the street twice you only have to cross once.

[officedweller]

They wanted to minimize the number of entrances, probably for various reasons - obviously cost of building and maintaining entrances, escalators and faregates, but also safety of isolated corridors and surveillance. That's why the corridor under Beatty to Stadium Station was closed (plus Beatty is easy to cross).

[bloomtronzero]

Originally Posted by Vin

Exactly, and further highlighting the fact that Vancouver has failed miserably: referring to the proposed station between Oakridge/41st & Langara/49th. *crickets*

Too few high-density development projects around any proposed station location means not enough funding to plan/design/build one.

Was that where it was? I vaguely remember 33rd, and 50-something. Between 41 and 49 seems like not enough space, what's that a half mile between stations already?

I do wish we built these things *before* high density though. Plan for the future, all that. 33rd I feel is a good idea just as a QE Park access station already. But hey, the Canada Line was cut corners everywhere.

Edit: this was all already brough up, I need to read first

[bloomtronzero]

Originally Posted by officedweller

They wanted to minimize the number of entrances, probably for various reasons - obviously cost of building and maintaining entrances, escalators and faregates, but also safety of isolated corridors and surveillance. That's why the corridor under Beatty to Stadium Station was closed (plus Beatty is easy to cross).

Probably part of cancelling plans for such a thing in Burrard station too.

While we're on closing existing exits like Beatty, didn't that happen to Gateway, too? Like I'm not crazy, there was a staircase to the south side of 108 once, right? Why they ditched that one instead of the one that goes through that office building with the escalators that the methheads love to destroy, I'll never know. I mean I'm sure it was a 🞵🞵🞵🞵 design or something that couldn't handle faregates, but 🞵🞵🞵🞵 me that station needs a rebuild *bad*.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by bloomtronzero

While we're on closing existing exits like Beatty, didn't that happen to Gateway, too? Like I'm not crazy, there was a staircase to the south side of 108 once, right? Why they ditched that one instead of the one that goes through that office building with the escalators that the methheads love to destroy, I'll never know. I mean I'm sure it was a 🞵🞵🞵🞵 design or something that couldn't handle faregates, but 🞵🞵🞵🞵 me that station needs a rebuild *bad*.

Yeah, there was.
Someone pointed out different tiles on the platform where there used to be a staircase. Presumably it could be reopened as the area develops, subject to space for faregates, etc.

[madog222]

Burrard Station will have the five existing escalators replaced, no layout changes or expansion. Construction starts Oct 17th and scheduled to finish early 2024. Dailyhive says the cost is $14M.

https://www.translink.ca/news/2022/octob...urrard%20skytrain%20station%20escalators

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by madog222

Burrard Station will have the five existing escalators replaced, no layout changes or expansion. Construction starts Oct 17th and scheduled to finish early 2024. Dailyhive says the cost is $14M.

https://www.translink.ca/news/2022/octob...urrard%20skytrain%20station%20escalators

Guess they're trying to save money.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by madog222

Burrard Station will have the five existing escalators replaced, no layout changes or expansion. Construction starts Oct 17th and scheduled to finish early 2024. Dailyhive says the cost is $14M.

https://www.translink.ca/news/2022/octob...urrard%20skytrain%20station%20escalators

lame. seems like a waste to do pretty much nothing.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Guess they're trying to save money.

That and not wanting to close the station for two years?

I'm very disappointed. Burrard needs a number of upgrades, especially (IMO) eliminating the skinny hallway leading to the elevator and adding escalators between the mezzanine and street levels.

[Mac Write]

Anyone to stop the escalator replacements file a court document? This is a bad bad move.

Someone needs to talk to local media and stop this from happening.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Anyone to stop the escalator replacements file a court document? This is a bad bad move.

Someone needs to talk to local media and stop this from happening.

???

What's so bad about it? The escalators are in constant need of repairs and they're getting pretty old. Granville had its escalators replaced, what's wrong with Burrard getting its replaced?

[ilikeredheads]

It was canceled because all the bids were more expensive than their allocated budget of 75m.

[WBC]

Originally Posted by ilikeredheads

It was canceled because all the bids were more expensive than their allocated budget of 75m.

That first idea of building high speed elevators to open up access across Burrard made sense to me. The second one of rearranging station entrance and adding escalators requiring a massive rebuild with a 2 year station closure did not - a lot of cost with very little benefit plus long station closure. As things go the project timelines slide so that closure could be way longer than 2 years (see Metrotown)

I use Burrard once a week to go to the office. The reality is that SkyTrain use particularly downtown is down quiet a bit. It may take a decade for it to recover with all the WFH. So this likely can wait particularly with insane escalation in construction labor cost. Maybe additional smaller project could be done - like adding escalators all the way to the lowest level - like one way escalators (one up / one down) on each side of the outbound platform. Also perhaps that one sad elevator could be replaced with something faster.

[wabooba]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Anyone to stop the escalator replacements file a court document? This is a bad bad move.

Someone needs to talk to local media and stop this from happening.

Originally Posted by chowhou

???

What's so bad about it? The escalators are in constant need of repairs and they're getting pretty old. Granville had its escalators replaced, what's wrong with Burrard getting its replaced?

Agreed, chowhou. Infrastructure has to be maintained. In this case it is for safety and efficiency, especially considering the large numbers of people who use it daily.