Expo Line - Surrey Langley Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[Migrant_Coconut]

Well, with this configuration, nobody wins - all service north of Columbia operates at limited capacity because of a couple of switches at Lougheed and Production Way.

[officedweller]

Bidding process begins for major $1.1 billion contract for Surrey-Langley SkyTrain
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-l...-guideway-contract-procurement?auto=true

[greenturnedblue]

Is there anything at Columbia that would prevent a quick & direct Scott Road-Lougheed route? It would have to arrive at Columbia, dwell, and depart back the direction it came but take the other tracks

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by greenturnedblue

Is there anything at Columbia that would prevent a quick & direct Scott Road-Lougheed route? It would have to arrive at Columbia, dwell, and depart back the direction it came but take the other tracks

The problem with that, other than trying to slot such trains into the Expo line which is already running at nearly minimum headways, is that "U turning" trains at Columbia means that they'd have to run the "wrong way" - either between Columbia and Scott Road or between Columbia and Sapperton. That's simply not feasible with the other traffic.

What's plausible would be to run the trains past Columbia to the crossover between Columbia and New Westminster - but that would require synchronizing the U-turning train with traffic on both the inbound and outbound tracks, and with the very tight rush hour headways I'd think that would be pretty problematic. Any departure delays due to someone blocking the doors from closing would have a domino effect on all the other trains where they interact at that crossover.

I think you'd probably find that rather than waiting at Scott Road for a Lougheed-bound train that may only show up every 4th or 5th departure, most people would rather take the first available train and do the platform shuffle at Columbia.

[greenturnedblue]

Yeah that definitely isnt possible. If only they anticipated so many people would transfer up towards Lougheed from Surrey and built Columbia as a center platform station

[Migrant_Coconut]

Yeah, if we're going to do this right, TransLink needs to A) cancel all service east of Columbia for the next 2-3 years while they dig out a wye from the Skybridge to Sapperton, or B) build a brand new line from Newton to Coq Central - obviously neither of those are going to happen in our lifetimes.

Originally Posted by greenturnedblue

Yeah that definitely isnt possible. If only they anticipated so many people would transfer up towards Lougheed from Surrey and built Columbia as a center platform station

I'd argue the bigger problem is 80's TransLink deciding that all SkyTrains should use the Edmonds depot and nowhere else. An Arbutus-Lougheed line (with its own depot) that interchanged with an Expo branch to Coquitlam would make a lot more sense.

[scottN]

Originally Posted by greenturnedblue

Yeah that definitely isnt possible. If only they anticipated so many people would transfer up towards Lougheed from Surrey and built Columbia as a center platform station

And in the mean time we have built:

Lougheed (50% cross-platform transfers)
Bridgeport (100% cross-platform transfers)
Coquitlam Central (50% cross-platform transfers for future Poco extension with 2 different platforms for vancouver bound traffic!)

This is not a particularly good success rate.

[greenturnedblue]

Originally Posted by scottN

And in the mean time we have built:

Coquitlam Central (50% cross-platform transfers for future Poco extension with 2 different platforms for vancouver bound traffic!)

If/when they build this, would the spur go straight past Coq central without stopping, or would they convert the existing South platform to a center platform alongside the Poco line, and a 3rd platform for the furthest Poco tracks?

[scottN]

Originally Posted by greenturnedblue

If/when they build this, would the spur go straight past Coq central without stopping, or would they convert the existing South platform to a center platform alongside the Poco line, and a 3rd platform for the furthest Poco tracks?

I assume they would build new platforms at coquitlam central. Otherwise the spur to spur transfer happens inlet centre which is a side platform station with 0% cross-platform transfers. Service to Coquitlam central would also be reduced.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I think that was more due to the phasing.
Lougheed Station was supposed to be oriented north-south, but with the phasing of the line, that would have required a "through train" on the M-Line to enter the station and reverse out - so they oriented Lougheed Station east-west instead.

It wasn't only due to phasing. I believe it had to do with the Mall owner not wanting to give up land... although that may have been an excuse as well. From what I remember, Aligning North/South would have meant building more of the station on the Mall's parking lot area... and either the Mall owner wanted too much for the land, or didn't want to give it up at all... I can't remember exactly.

If it was built North/South, I doubt that they would have done phasing like they do now. It would have been the Expo line interlining to Lougheed (like it does now to Production).

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

It wasn't only due to phasing. I believe it had to do with the Mall owner not wanting to give up land... although that may have been an excuse as well. From what I remember, Aligning North/South would have meant building more of the station on the Mall's parking lot area... and either the Mall owner wanted too much for the land, or didn't want to give it up at all... I can't remember exactly.

If it was built North/South, I doubt that they would have done phasing like they do now. It would have been the Expo line interlining to Lougheed (like it does now to Production).

Yeah, I think the owner of the mall wanted the station at the mall, but they couldn't agree on terms/price, so the Province built the station off mall property.

When I referred to "phasing" I meant the phasing of the branches of the "T-Line". If the Braid-Sapperton and Coquitlam branches had been built at the same time, there would have been more incentive for the station to be north-south since that would have been the natural through-routing.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by greenturnedblue

If/when they build this, would the spur go straight past Coq central without stopping, or would they convert the existing South platform to a center platform alongside the Poco line, and a 3rd platform for the furthest Poco tracks?

There was a lot of discussion on the topic back in 2013 in the Evergreen Extension theread:
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthr...t=coquitlam+central+platform#post6343940

[greenturnedblue]

Thanks officedweller, that seems like a pretty big misstep in terms of putting the spur directly before Coq central not after, and not building in switches to support a combined VCC-bound track in the center, and Lafarge/PoCo bound tracks along the sides

[Diegotheartist1]

New Photos on Pre-Construction

New Transmission Tower for new guideway (I like the metal look of it):


Deep digging for the power lines to replace the aging wooden poles (and probably for a substation for 140 Street Station?):


Piles of old Asphalt to make way for new widened road. (view from 96 Avenue):


Westbound of Fraser now has two left turn lanes. Median for guideway:


Of course Fraser needs a pedestrian crosswalk for the Green Timbers Greenway:

[xd_1771]

Looks good! I'm guessing that the crosswalk just needs signal lights and that segment up to 96 Ave can reopen early!

[Diegotheartist1]

Fraser Highway between Whalley Boulevard and 140 Street is now closed.

[officedweller]

Mayoral candidate Jinny Sims vows to extend SkyTrain to Newton and South Surrey

If elected as the new mayor of Surrey, Jinny Sims says she will advocate for the southward extension of SkyTrain along King George Boulevard to reach Newton and South Surrey.
...
Safe Surrey Coalition incumbent Mayor Doug McCallum has also made a similar promise to extend SkyTrain along King George Boulevard to Newton.
..

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-surrey-extension-rapid-transit-2022-election

[Migrant_Coconut]

(broken record)
So long as it's a brand new line instead of branching the Expo. A three-way split kills any kind of frequent service past King George.
(/broken record)

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

(broken record)
So long as it's a brand new line instead of branching the Expo. A three-way split kills any kind of frequent service past King George.
(/broken record)

Could build a station over City Parkway to the east of Surrey Central, flyover the Expo line south of that over Holland park and continue down KGB from there. Also would give the ability to spur north east to Guildford. Phase 1 to Newton at 72nd ave. Phase 2&3 being the extensions to Guildford and eventually Semiahmoo/White Rock Centre.

Currently, that's the only way I see this integrating with existing plans and would turn Surrey Central station into more of a "central station" with 4 tracks.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

(broken record)
So long as it's a brand new line instead of branching the Expo. A three-way split kills any kind of frequent service past King George.
(/broken record)

It doesn't have to be. They can install a Wye. The bottleneck is the skybridge.

eg 100% of trains arrive at Columbia, 1/3rd goes north to University
the 2/3rds cross the bridge. Then all the trains stop at Surrey Central. The wye then allows the trains to switch to the Guildford-Newton line as capacity is needed, or continue on to Langley. So during "express time" maybe there will be trains that run from Newton to Waterfront, Langley to Waterfront and Guildford to Waterfront, thus ensuring like 90 second frequency along the main line at peak, and minimal mode change. Of the trains that normally don't cross the bridge, they would instead be Guildford to Surrey Central and Newton to Surrey Central.

It's all a question of if they try to save money by reusing the existing surrey Central platforms, like at University, or if they will instead put a third platform at Gateway to actually wye onto the mainline and run guildford down 108. And/Or put a wye at King George.

Like I seriously don't see a problem except if they try to cut an OMC from south of Fraser. No OMC south of Fraser means that all trains have to come from OMC1/2/3/4.

On the other hand, if they try to operate it independently (eg like the Canada Line) and use different vehicles, then all the savings disappear. It only makes sense in metro Vancouver to stick with the same compatible rolling stock and guideways, otherwise we end up all the problems that Toronto has.