The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

the GTHA which is there region Metrolinx serves is over 4 times large (in terms of area) to Greater London and also has around 8 million people it is not a small problem.

So what? The fact the GO Lines under their control stretch out a long way is fairly irrelevant, it's the complexity of the operations that will matter. It's true that to be completely analogous to TfL then a hypothetical new operating body would just cover operations in the urban area, but with things as they are, Metrolinx operating everything seems like a realistic and sensible option.

[Reecemartin]

Did a Station Focus on Toronto's, Rosedale Subway Station:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yiR2L73lRw

Rosedale might be my favorite station on the network and was opened along with the original stretch of the subway from Union to Eglinton in 1954.

[Reecemartin]

Originally Posted by milomilo

So what? The fact the GO Lines under their control stretch out a long way is fairly irrelevant, it's the complexity of the operations that will matter. It's true that to be completely analogous to TfL then a hypothetical new operating body would just cover operations in the urban area, but with things as they are, Metrolinx operating everything seems like a realistic and sensible option.

Of course, it would make sense but, its not as simple a transition as you are suggesting. All the existing transit agencies have different fleets, operating patterns, policies, procedures etc. integrating like 8+ agencies is no small feat and could potentially hurt service in areas like Toronto in order to better equalize it across the GTHA. This seems unreasonable to many as Toronto, for example, has extensive night buses (probably the best in the country and one of the best in NA) whereas surrounding cities have none.

[Dengler Avenue]

“probably the best in the country”

I thought Vancouver’s nightbus system’s pretty good too.

[Reecemartin]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

“probably the best in the country”

I thought Vancouver’s nightbus system’s pretty good too.

Vancouver has 12 night routes and thats across Metro Vancouver not Vancouver proper, Toronto has 27 as well as 4 24 hour streetcar routes.

"The Blue Night Network is the overnight public transit service operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The network consists of a basic grid of 27 bus and 4 streetcar routes, distributed so that almost all of the city is within 2 km of at least one route. It is the largest and most frequent night network in North America." from Wiki

[GreaterMontréal]

Montréal (STM) also have a great all-night bus service.
http://www.stm.info/sites/default/files/pictures/reseaudenuit.pdf
http://www.stm.info/sites/default/files/pictures/reseau_nuit_centre-ville.pdf
http://www.stm.info/en/info/networks/bus/night/all-night-service
http://www.stm.info/en/info/networks/bus/night

[Nouvellecosse]

One route. All I want is one route.

[goodthings]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

This seems unreasonable to many as Toronto, for example, has extensive night buses (probably the best in the country and one of the best in NA) whereas surrounding cities have none.

In 13 days, Mississauga will have its first 24-hour routes. Only four routes, but we gotta start somewhere. I hope 5, 13, 23, 26, and maybe 35, 39 (and even 109) follow next.


Source

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by goodthings

In 13 days, Mississauga will have its first 24-hour routes. Only four routes, but we gotta start somewhere. I hope 5, 13, 23, 26, and maybe 35, 39 (and even 109) follow next.


Source

And they all make sense.
3 of them are on arterial roads, and one of them is an airport route.

Mi Way 7 has horrible frequencies on weekends, though: 60-30-60 on Saturdays and 40 throughout on Sundays.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

Vancouver has 12 night routes and thats across Metro Vancouver not Vancouver proper, Toronto has 27 as well as 4 24 hour streetcar routes.

"The Blue Night Network is the overnight public transit service operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The network consists of a basic grid of 27 bus and 4 streetcar routes, distributed so that almost all of the city is within 2 km of at least one route. It is the largest and most frequent night network in North America." from Wiki

Now it's down to 10

But most of the remaining ones have frequency increase and most would run at least every 20min at some point in time...

All night bus routes begin or end within the City of Vancouver, and some extends way into the suburb (and may be extending further within a couple of years)

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by nname

Now it's down to 10

But most of the remaining ones have frequency increase and most would run at least every 20min at some point in time...

All night bus routes begin or end within the City of Vancouver, and some extends way into the suburb (and may be extending further within a couple of years)

IRCC, N19’s the longest one (stretching between Downtown and Surrey Centre), closely followed by N9 (from Downtown to Coquitlam Centre). The rest doesn’t even come close.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

IRCC, N19’s the longest one (stretching between Downtown and Surrey Centre), closely followed by N9 (from Downtown to Coquitlam Centre). The rest doesn’t even come close.

N9 is actually the longest NightBus with 35.71 km one-way according to GTFS
N19 is second longest with 29.89 km
N10 closely follow with 26.50 km

[p_xavier]

So there's a big financing war between for the Québec City streetcar, the feds are asking Montréal to cede some money for Québec City and of course Valérie Plante refused.

The Québec government also formally asked Québec City to study alternatives to the streetcar and must include a metro and a monorail. A lot of people are saying that a metro is the only way to go that a streetcar is a big waste of money (and I also agree on that).

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by d_jeffrey

So there's a big financing war between for the Québec City streetcar, the feds are asking Montréal to cede some money for Québec City and of course Valérie Plante refused.

The Québec government also formally asked Québec City to study alternatives to the streetcar and must include a metro and a monorail. A lot of people are saying that a metro is the only way to go that a streetcar is a big waste of money (and I also agree on that).

Light rail with underground sections in the core is the way to go imo. Give me a break with that monorail though.

[Aylmer]

Agreed. Metro systems are difficult to justify in postwar cities given the low densities and long distances to cover. Grade separation is also less necessary in suburban areas where surface ROWs allow for quite acceptable speeds for LRT. Prewar neighbourhoods are a tangle of narrow streets and cross streets which give underground systems a real advantage, but a road like Laurier in Quebec city is a straight arrow with lots of space and intersections 500-700m apart. A metro would still be faster, but getting a line 10% faster at 300% the cost isn't worth it.

In my opinion, surface LRT with underground sections where it's warranted allows for comparable speeds, more-than-sufficient capacity, and for lines to be long enough to serve suburb-heavy cities like Quebec City, Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, etc.

[Reecemartin]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Light rail with underground sections in the core is the way to go imo. Give me a break with that monorail though.

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Agreed. Metro systems are difficult to justify in postwar cities given the low densities and long distances to cover. Grade separation is also less necessary in suburban areas where surface ROWs allow for quite acceptable speeds for LRT. Prewar neighbourhoods are a tangle of narrow streets and cross streets which give underground systems a real advantage, but a road like Laurier in Quebec city is a straight arrow with lots of space and intersections 500-700m apart. A metro would still be faster, but getting a line 10% faster at 300% the cost isn't worth it.

In my opinion, surface LRT with underground sections where it's warranted allows for comparable speeds, more-than-sufficient capacity, and for lines to be long enough to serve suburb-heavy cities like Quebec City, Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, etc.

Careful guys, I am hearing a lot of common sense here

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by d_jeffrey

So there's a big financing war between for the Québec City streetcar, the feds are asking Montréal to cede some money for Québec City and of course Valérie Plante refused.

The Québec government also formally asked Québec City to study alternatives to the streetcar and must include a metro and a monorail. A lot of people are saying that a metro is the only way to go that a streetcar is a big waste of money (and I also agree on that).

First off, pinning City against City is just wrong. Surprised they haven't thrown Gatineau into this as well.

As for the monorail suggestion, are you kidding me? That would be such an eyesore in and near Old Québec. There are very few such systems in the world, and there must be a reason. A full metro would be much too expensive. Something along the lines of the REM could be possible, but the project proposed seemed to be more than adequate for Québec City.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

First off, pinning City against City is just wrong. Surprised they haven't thrown Gatineau into this as well.

As for the monorail suggestion, are you kidding me? That would be such an eyesore in and near Old Québec. There are very few such systems in the world, and there must be a reason. A full metro would be much too expensive. Something along the lines of the REM could be possible, but the project proposed seemed to be more than adequate for Québec City.

Gatineau will probably get nothing. The comparative studies were showing only a fully underground metro, while something like the REM might even be cheaper to build than what is currently proposed in Québec due to pillars and an aerial structure tha can be much cheaper than to build than digging the roadbed and replacing utilities before putting rails in. Add that higher operating costs and lower operating speeds and sharing road with cars and a streetcar doesn't look much better than buses (which is in Québec City, not full LRT).

Like my signature says...

[Aylmer]

Quebec's proposal doesn't have any shared track sections - it's all ROW B+ (seperate lanes plus signal priority) with A (full grade separation) in the centre.

And Gatineau may surprise you yet.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Quebec's proposal doesn't have any shared track sections - it's all ROW B+ (seperate lanes plus signal priority) with A (full grade separation) in the centre.

And Gatineau may surprise you yet.

There's plan to have a short section in mixed traffic before the tunnel in the Haute-Ville.