Canada Line | Completed

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by Xerx

looks like translink already did

LOVE THAT REPLY!!!

it totally pwns mr. malcolm.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by mrjauk

Another letter from a Sun reader:

Link to letter

The Canada Line lobby claims former Cambie Street merchant Susan Heyes should have suffered massive business losses for the common good. Such rubbish!

The line is being built for political prestige. There was not the ridership to justify subway construction (about 500,000 passengers a day), nor will there be in future. It's a project to satisfy the premier's mania for public-private partnership construction and to placate west-side Liberal voters for not building light rail transit on the contentious Arbutus corridor.

Most major transit projects around the world, including light rail and all cut-and-cover subway projects, have compensation packages for affected merchants who can prove a loss due to construction. [is this true?]

The real story is that costs for the line were spiralling out of control and InTransit BC had to reduce the scope of construction.

It achieved this by switching from the expensive SkyTrain to a cheaper "generic" metro; reducing station size to accommodate only three-car trains; single-track operation in Richmond, and a switch from bored-tunnel to cut-and-cover construction and no compensation for affected merchants. [As for his claims here, am I right that they are FALSE, FALSE (only 3-car trains?), TRUE, FALSE (cut-and-cover ended up costing just about as much, but the decision was made in the interests of time)?]

What the public is getting for its money is a truncated metro system that needs billions more just to achieve the capacity of a simple and much cheaper LRT line down the Arbutus corridor. [I know that an LRT down Arbutus would have greater potential capacity than one down Broadway, but will we really have to spend billions more for the Canada Line to achieve the capacity of a maxed-out potential LRT down Arbutus?] Where is the public good in that?

D.M. Johnston

Delta



Someone should send a letter to the Sun rebutting some of this gentleman's claims.

Since when would subway construction require 500,000 passengers per day?

It's not true that every rail construction project has compensation packages for local businesses.

InTransitBC, or rather SNC Lavalin, never chose SkyTrain technology to begin with. In fact, its bidding competitor Bombardier was the one proposing SkyTrain.

And what's so wrong with 'generic' metro? Not to mention, isn't Johnston supposedly anti-SkyTrain or is this a double standard?

However, this is all true: reducing station size to accommodate only three-car trains; single-track operation in Richmond.

Fact is, Arbutus wouldn't have achieved the same ridership as the Cambie corridor for the most obvious reasons: employment centres, attractions, and the location of it being down the centre of the city. Arbutus was also longer....really, what is along the Arbutus corridor besides Central Broadway and Kerrisdale? Absolutely nothing.

[metroXpress]

However, this is all true: reducing station size to accommodate only three-car trains; single-track operation in Richmond.

hummm.....

Continued from last time, when my friend saw the undergroud stations in Vancouver...he said, "Oh, thank god the stations are all undergroud not elevated....Vancouver is learning something "......But once he saw the undergroud station entrances, he said, "What? there's only one entrance per station [looking at Broadway-City Hall entrance] There should be 4-5 for each station at all corners of the intersection!!!"

: I have no hope talking to people like that :

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

LOVE THAT REPLY!!!

it totally pwns mr. malcolm.

I love the way he makes the article speak for itself.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Allen

hummm.....

Continued from last time, when my friend saw the undergroud stations in Vancouver...he said, "Oh, thank god the stations are all undergroud not elevated....Vancouver is learning something "......But once he saw the undergroud station entrances, he said, "What? there's only one entrance per station [looking at Broadway-City Hall entrance] There should be 4-5 for each station at all corners of the intersection!!!"

: I have no hope talking to people like that :

It's just being used to larger metro systems... and I wouldn't blame him. Not that we need so many entrances, but like Hong Kong MTR has like at least 3 per station.

[DKaz]

I think even Edmonton's LRT downtown section has a minimum of 3 entrances, but it's so bloody cold there that everyone stays in the heated underground Pedways.

In Vancouver we just have a bit of rain to contend with, but perhaps at Broadway-City Hall an extra entrance at the Crossroads development would've been nice... for one it would be added convenience to those transferring to/from Westbound 99 B-Line.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by deasine

It's just being used to larger metro systems... and I wouldn't blame him. Not that we need so many entrances, but like Hong Kong MTR has like at least 3 per station.

Based on my experiences in London and NYC, I'd much rather have one "large" station entrance compared to many smaller entrances, where you can hardly pass by somebody on the way out. That is, without touching them or the walls, which I try not to do.

[city-dweller]

Originally Posted by agrant

30 years from now is the big unknown. We don't know how things will pan out. But like any transportation infrastructure, be it new highway expansion, bridge etc... they fill up to capacity more often than not. If we get 30+ years of filling to capacity for the Canada Line, that's pretty good. Gives us time to consider other routes.

I thought this was part of the consideration in Metro Vancouver's plans: urban containment growth projections/targets. The plans are created in conjunction with Translinks input. You would think with both organizations spending money on forecasting they would have a good handle on capacity needs.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Based on my experiences in London and NYC, I'd much rather have one "large" station entrance compared to many smaller entrances, where you can hardly pass by somebody on the way out. That is, without touching them or the walls, which I try not to do.

i really like multi-entrances/exits. you can bypass traffic lights by just moving underneath them.

besides, all of our downtown stations can be entered in multiple ways

[dreambrother808]

The Edmonton LRT stations do have multiple entrances but they all seem rather deserted and therefore unsafe. Why waste money when one main entrance can serve the needed capacity?

[officedweller]

Crossroads has been built with a future entrance in mind - a space is allocated, but is currently used for retail - but it's a long distance underground from Crossroads to the mezzanine level of the station which is practically under 10th Ave. I doubt funding is going to happen soon - maybe it will be built with the UBC Line.

The only other station I would argue "needs" a second entrance would be Oakridge - just because the Cambie & 41st traffic light (together with Main & Temrinal) is the longest signal in the City - left turn signals in each direction. I think there is provision for a future entrance on the North side of 41st Ave. (not sure about the east side of Cambie).

Apart from those stations, having one entrance keeps people on the streets rather than in underground tunnels, which the City doesn't favour. And as the closure of the Stadum Station entrance aross Beatty St. shows, there are safety issues with poorly used underground connections.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by officedweller

And as the closure of the Stadum Station entrance aross Beatty St. shows, there are safety issues with poorly used underground connections.

There was another Stadium entrance before?!

[officedweller]

In front of the AMEC Building at 111 Dunsmuir.
The staircase is still there, but filled in with sand (a couple of concrete walls are still visible I think. Once 111 Dunsmuir did not connect to it with an underground link, it was closed.
The access from the station side is through the same passage that leads to the Lost Property office.
It may be reactivated when the Larwill Park property (VAG, etc?) is developed since that will have a large (federal?) office tower.

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

The Edmonton LRT stations do have multiple entrances but they all seem rather deserted and therefore unsafe. Why waste money when one main entrance can serve the needed capacity?

True, except during peak hours the stations (as well as the rest of downtown) is practically dead.

[LeftCoaster]

OD beat me to it, but yes there is definitely a link for a future station in the base of crossroads, located at the first set of stairs in from Cambie under the office tower. The entrance was built with the millennium line extension in mind and will most likely be built when the extension is built.

Here is a cut out from the DP plans showing it's location in relation to the building.

[agrant]

Originally Posted by city-dweller

I thought this was part of the consideration in Metro Vancouver's plans: urban containment growth projections/targets. The plans are created in conjunction with Translinks input. You would think with both organizations spending money on forecasting they would have a good handle on capacity needs.

I hope so, but history has shown...

[CLC]

Richmond News

Don't let train kill 98B line bus
Tracy Sherlock, Richmond News
Published: Friday, June 12, 2009

How are you getting to work or school this fall? You'd be wise to start planning a route now because major transportation changes are planned for Richmond when the Canada Line opens on Labour Day.

I'm a big fan of public transit. I'm excited about the Canada Line and the possibilities it opens up for Richmond commuters, as well as the future potential for a fully interconnected system of SkyTrains throughout greater Vancouver. But I'm sceptical about some of the changes that will go along with the new system.

I'm putting out a rallying cry to save at least one of the express buses that run from Steveston through west Richmond and Burkeville, using the Arthur Laing Bridge and Granville Street to access downtown Vancouver.
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We're going to lose them all - including the 98B line - come September, and to me that feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

"To get to Vancouver faster, we've spent $2 billion and it will, in fact, take longer," Coun. Harold Steves said earlier this year at a city council meeting.

At the same meeting, Coun. Sue Halsey-Brandt said the "dreadful plan" would "shaft" residents of west Richmond.

"Someone working at St. Paul's or one of the bigger shopping malls in Vancouver might now have to get a bus, then a train, then another bus instead of one bus going directly downtown," she said. "This is ludicrous ... and if I were one of them, I would want to go back to using my car."

Canada Line trains will leave every three minutes from Vancouver, and every six minutes from Richmond and YVR. A one-way trip from Richmond Centre to Waterfront Station will take only 25 minutes. Sounds great.

The catch though, is that you have to get to Richmond Centre station.

Don't plan on driving there. The only park and ride lot planned for Richmond will be at the Bridgeport Station near the River Rock Casino Resort. There will be 1200 pay-parking spots there in a garage built by the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation.

Anyone who lives in west Richmond is unlikely to drive all the way over to the River Rock in rush hour traffic to catch SkyTrain when they could be three-quarters of the way downtown in the same amount of time.

Those of us who live in west Richmond know that all of the fastest ways to get to Vancouver is to avoid No. 3 Road completely.

TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said local routes - 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 410, 430, 480 - will increase their frequency, providing better access to the Canada Line and more service within Richmond. That's good news, but the increased frequency will have to be major to entice people out of their cars.

One friend of mine lives in Steveston and works near Broadway and Arbutus. She currently hops on a 496 and is at work in about 40 minutes. Under the new regime, she'll need to catch a 410 to Richmond Centre, transfer to the Canada Line, and then transfer again onto a Broadway bus.

The 480 bus from Richmond to UBC will be the sole surviving bus route into the city. If you're going to Arbutus or Granville, this bus might be a viable option, however it originates at Steveston Highway and No. 5 Road, and doesn't go anywhere near Burkeville, so those folks are out of luck.

At least one express bus travelling via west Richmond should be left in service. If this bus travelled via the No. 2 Road Bridge, it could even work for the kids in Burkeville to take to school.

Canada Line is going to be a great improvement to Richmond citizens' ability to get around, but let's not get rid of what's already working.

Comments and questions always welcome at [email protected].

[WBC]

The residents of West Richmond and North America in general should maybe finally realize what the rest of the world has realized a long time ago - that living in a densely populated areas next to a mass-transit line is desired, increases your property value and improves your life and that living on the edge of the city away from the crowds has its price.

[WarrenC12]

My girlfriend works at St. Paul's. Only a lazy moron would catch a bus from there to the closest C-Line station, which is probably Roundhouse, about 500m away.

[city-dweller]

Isn't St.Pauls on Burrard and Roundhouse in YaleTown off Pacific?

Thats a bit more than 500m