The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Chadillaccc]

Excellent progress on Burnaby, Port Moody, and Coquitlam's Evergreen Skytrain Line.

Originally Posted by Olden Retreiver

Perhaps not brilliant photos (taken yesterday afternoon with my iPhone), but these should show followers here some things you would otherwise not see.

Bridge over Schoolhouse Creek immediately east of Barnet Highway. Looking east:



I don't know if these huge steel pipes become part of the structural columns or if they are just part of the ground preparation. Looking west:



There are salmon spawning under the bridge. Looking south:

[The Chemist]

Where does Edmonton plan to get the funding for that whole new line? I mean, it looks good, but if Calgary can't get federal/provincial funding for SELRT how does Edmonton expect to fund this line?

[Chadillaccc]

I'm not sure, but I assume the funding is secured. The line has been approved for a year or so.

[ssiguy]

Love the Edmonton LRT. How much is it going to cost and who is paying? When will it be done?

One quick comment.........I would assume that they expect Churchill to be the busiest station due to being right downtown and a connection to the current LRT so I think they should redesign the station. There will be a lot of pedestrian traffic crossing between the 2 so I think an entire glass canopy over the Valley/Churchill station would be a good idea so patrons don't get soaked in the rain or break their neck walking on the ice and snow. The cost would be miniscule and I think it would be a good idea and very well appreciated by the transit users.

[mistercorporate]

Hats off to you Edmonton!! I love the plans for the LRT lines and the other developments going your way recently...another Canadian city upping its game and scaling up, love it and impressed.

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

I'm not sure, but I assume the funding is secured. The line has been approved for a year or so.

IIRC, it's $1.8B for the portion from 102 St. to Millwoods, of which we're still ~500M short. Federal funding has been provided but with the caveat that it be built and operated as a P3, which a lot of people are unsure will end up being a good deal for the city in the long run.

[losername]

Will Edmonton pass Calgary in terms of light rail track length ?

[Coldrsx]

^no, not with the SELRT line.

[Chadillaccc]

Not even with our current lines.

Calgary's current length is 56 kilometers with 2 kilometers under construction.

Edmonton's current length is 21 kilometers with 3 kilometers under construction and 27 kilometers approved for the Valley Line. Total of 51 kilometers.


I'm not sure how long the 203 line (North Central to Southeast) in Calgary will be, but I would imagine it will be similar in length to the 201 line (33 kilometers) when all is said and done. Plus, once they build the 201 subway that will be about 2 kilometers of underground track through downtown, they will be keeping the 202 above ground on 7th Avenue.

[White Pine]

Edmonton's approved line looks pretty good. The only thing I don't like is that corner it takes in the middle of an intersection. That has potential to be awkward. The rest of it is very good, though.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Alberta cities have planned for years for our rights of way. In Calgary, the only lrt line that goes through a busy street is the downtown corridor which has been LRT exclusive (no cars allowed) since the beginning. The rest of the city has exclusive rights of way completely disconnected from the streets except at some intersections. Edmonton's new North line has one section through a residential area. I'm not sure of the hurdles that went through though.

Originally Posted by RTA

There has been pretty big opposition to the plans where the LRT runs down Stony Plain Road west of 142 St., exactly because it would take away driving lanes. So much so that the city is delaying the west portion of the line and starting with the SE portion sooner. To be fair, this street is a bottleneck in moving traffic from the west end into downtown and back, but what people forget is that the LRT itself will remove significant numbers of cars and buses from the street already.

Thanks to you both.

Aside from the Edmonton opposition to the line on Stony Plain, how much have LRT plans become political footballs?

Cost is the next big argument against the plans around here... "we can't afford it", "we shouldn't be spending all that money on a streetcar to benefit a few lower-city bus riders", "we have other priorities", etc. I understand that thinking, but relatively few people realize there are other city-wide benefits, and I don't think that point is made strongly enough when the proposals are discussed. It will surely be a hot election issue at both the provincial and municipal levels.

[Chadillaccc]

I know I've mentioned about how the C-Train is powered by wind energy before. However, I don't think I realized or mentioned that it is the only 100% wind powered rail transit system on the continent (or possibly the planet?). Very cool! Here are a few tidbits from the Calgary Transit information page.


Transit usage

The downtown remains the most important travel destination in the City, with about one-fifth of all Calgary jobs located there. In 2011, 50% of trips into downtown (AM peak hour) were made by Calgary Transit, 39% by private automobile, 9% walked and 2% cycled.

Impact

A three-car C-Train can carry over 600 passengers, equal to 545 private vehicle trips. And the great thing about the C-Train it is in powered 100 per cent by renewable energy. This initiative made Calgary the first wind-powered public transit system in North America and reduced CO2 emissions by over 56,000 tonnes in 2012.

Full page at: http://www.calgarytransit.com/environment/ct_environment.html

[kevinbottawa]

Here's a pic from the City of Ottawa of the western portal of the Ottawa LRT tunnel construction.


Western Portal

And here's a fairly recent update from Richard Eade of the Ottawa forum.

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

As of, November 11, 2013, the Central Shaft was slowly getting deeper.


I found it interesting that the upper portion of the retaining wall appeared to be nothing more than fabric stretched between the piles and the sprayed with shotcrete.


The majority of the ramp to the Eastern Portal seems to be nearly ready, with the foam and heating coils going down before the concrete is poured.




The ramp is steeper than I thought it would be, but it is possible that this ramp is specifically for rubber tired equipment and that the future LRT ramp will have a different profile.

And the second Road Header has arrived and is being prepared for work.


But before the Road Header can get to work, the spile ‘umbrella’ needs to be put into place. This involves a horizontal drill installing an arc of tubes (roughly 90 feet long each) into the soft material above where the tunnel will be dug. The tubes will be stiffened by being filled with grout. This offers support of the overburden during the digging (until the shotcrete can be sprayed from inside the tunnel).




Yes, there is a lot of water in that trench. It was almost over the driller’s boots; which is why they were installing a bigger pump. I expect that most of the water came from the drilling operation.

Once the spile ‘umbrella’ is in place, this ‘level’ end of the ramp will be dug down to its final profile. Then the metal can be cut away from the face and the Road Header can get to work

[Aylmer]

Four thousands words right there

[The_Architect]

I've always found that gif weird because CLRVs generally don't have double seating on both sides.

[Chadillaccc]

I had a dream that the new Ctrain LRV's were in service already. Wow I'm a geek!

[The_Architect]

Construction updates of the new subway platform at Union Station (and restoration of the building itself):




Source.

What a mess it is down there on Front. In person it's even more ridiculous somehow.

[Innsertnamehere]

meh. you get used to it after a while. it isn't that bad as a pedestrian, I feel for the drivers though. Between Front being Closed, Bay down to 1 lane, York Closed, and a swarm of 509 replacement buses, its horrible.

[SpongeG]

• Video Link

[Daveography]

^ Ok, that was pretty cool.