The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[le calmar]

^ I was talking about St. Laurent. Based on another discussion in the Ottawa sub-section, STL has seen better days despite the direct connection to BRT and soon-to-be LRT. Maybe things will improve a bit once the transition to LRT is completed (LRT will attract more people than BRT).

[Prometheus]

Here is a bird's eye view from the Expo Line, Vancouver's oldest SkyTrain line, from terminus to terminus, shot in 4K during the blue hour. It crosses through four municipalities and five town centres in 41 minutes. The video begins at King George Station in the suburb of Surrey and ends at Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver:

• Video Link

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by le calmar

^ I was talking about St. Laurent. Based on another discussion in the Ottawa sub-section, STL has seen better days despite the direct connection to BRT and soon-to-be LRT. Maybe things will improve a bit once the transition to LRT is completed (LRT will attract more people than BRT).

True. I suppose losing Sears especially is a blow to STL too, but the rest of the mall seemed in decent enough shape when I was up there a few years ago. Hopefully they're finding a replacement for the Sears space.

Just getting the transit back to 'normal' will probably help a lot too, along with the new traffic brought in by the LRT.

[le calmar]

I didn't realize that, but due to ongoing conversion work on the transitway the mall has been disconnected from any form of rapid transit for five years. Things will certainly bounce back when the LRT opens.

The last time I've been there was probably 1.5, maybe 2 years ago. I found it reasonably busy at the time.

[J.OT13]

St-Laurent still has a few "rapid" transit routes serving it, but nothing like the service it had with the Transitway. Other stations, such as Lees, adjacent to apartment towers with a high student population, Train (re-named Tremblay, serving VIA Rail) and Cyrville (nothing worth mentioning) have basically lost all rapid transit service.

The owner of the St-Laurent Shopping Centre, Morguard, is considering a major re-development that could introduce an office tower, residential and a hotel. Any new development would retain the mall, though I imagine the old Sears might be replaced.

Morguard has done some significant work on two of its downtown properties, including re-vamping the old Delta Hotel complex across the street from Lyon Station to accommodate two Hilton Hotels and Heritage Place office tower, which includes direct subway access to Parliament Station. They had also built 150 Elgin a few years ago, which is the current world headquarter of Shopify. They've done some great work downtown and have faith they can turn St-Laurent around now that they seem to be shifting their focus.

[Taeolas]

A few years ago, I was in Ottawa, and took one of the 90-routes from downtown to St Laurant. I know those are the express buses, but due to the LRT construction, I was a bit surprised at how convoluted a route it had to take just to reach STL. I was also amazed by how much traffic there was around that mall, both bus and regular traffic.

I suspect everyone in that end of the city will be glad when the LRT opens and all those buses can be moved elsewhere and all those people will be able to take the train instead.

Expanding STL with office/hotel and residential space does seem like a good growth opportunity, especially with the Sears end prime for redevelopment.

[corynv]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

A few years ago, I was in Ottawa, and took one of the 90-routes from downtown to St Laurant. I know those are the express buses, but due to the LRT construction, I was a bit surprised at how convoluted a route it had to take just to reach STL. I was also amazed by how much traffic there was around that mall, both bus and regular traffic.

I suspect everyone in that end of the city will be glad when the LRT opens and all those buses can be moved elsewhere and all those people will be able to take the train instead.

Expanding STL with office/hotel and residential space does seem like a good growth opportunity, especially with the Sears end prime for redevelopment.

the 90s were never express buses, they were cross-town buses. The express buses are the 200s.

And after the LRT opens the 90s are going to be reused as the local identifier for river-side south. (the 10s place on the bus roots all refer to the main area of the city that route serves)

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by corynv

the 90s were never express buses, they were cross-town buses. The express buses are the 200s.

And after the LRT opens the 90s are going to be reused as the local identifier for river-side south. (the 10s place on the bus roots all refer to the main area of the city that route serves)

Right, wrong terminology; I was using the Transitway routes; the routes that used to/would run exclusively on the Transitway. Since the transitway is chewed up for the LRT, they were stuck on a more meandering route from downtown to STL that had a lot more traffic.

And with the LRT almost complete, the E-W 90's routes obviously aren't really needed any more, at least as they used to be. Still I'm out of Ottawa now and not really following the transit much so it's a moot point for me. Next time I'm up there; if I'm taking transit, I'd be taking the bus to the closest LRT station and taking that into the downtown or out to STL and so forth.

[TorontoDrew]

Union Station Tuesday

Source: https://cdn.skyrisecities.com
Taken by: raptor
Senior Member

[Chadillaccc]

That is awesome that this is fiiiinally near completion. This was proposed before I even lived in Toronto which was literally 10 years ago.

[WhipperSnapper]

The proposed timeline was aggressive. More forgivable than Nathan Phillips Square renos.

Reconstructing the Bush Shed probably added to the complexity. This City. The one thing in the city that should be retired because of its design inadequacies gets the extreme heritage treatment.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

That is awesome that this is fiiiinally near completion. This was proposed before I even lived in Toronto which was literally 10 years ago.

Not sure how "near" it really is.

It's great to finally see more of the moat getting covered (the section leading into the subway station has been up a while now, at least most of it) but the Bay concourse is still under construction and other work is ongoing. Staircases down from the platforms to the Bay concourse are making progress though; you can see down some of them from platform level now though they'll probably be blocked off for a while.

[someone123]

Here's a map of proposed BRT routes in Halifax. The "Portland Hills Terminal" route is similar to one that already exists (MetroLink; the other MetroLink route to Sackville is not included in this).

The route map shows why Halifax probably isn't going to get something like LRT anytime soon. A lot of trips go through the urban core but they don't go along any particular corridor. There are half a dozen different nodes scattered around the central parts of the peninsula (downtown, hospitals and universities, naval base, and shipyard) and the harbour bridges are north of most of that. I think an ideal transit system for Halifax would involve a mix of many different services; 1-2 commuter rail lines, half a dozen BRT routes (there are 2 now), and 1-2 new ferry routes (there are currently 2).


Source

Another problem with Halifax's system right now is that the routes don't connect up very well. If you take the airport bus you get dumped on one side of Scotia Square, others go to the other end of the complex (3 blocks away), the train station is in the South End, and the downtown Halifax terminal is not in the same spot as the ferry terminal. There is no equivalent of Union Station in Toronto or Waterfront in Vancouver.

[p_xavier]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ga...unding-province-quebec-secured-1.5168105

If the feds are playing the same game that they are doing in QC city, it might bite them again in the next elections.

[ClaytonA]

As of May 31, 2019, the Evaluation Committee has reviewed the submissions received and created a shortlist.

https://www.edmonton.ca/documents/transit/Bulletin_RFQ_932400_Shortlist.pdf

No procurement announcements for the next phase of the Metro Line yet.
Usual contractors/designers with Graham and Flatiron bigger in the western infrastructure market than they are in the east.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here's a map of proposed BRT routes in Halifax. The "Portland Hills Terminal" route is similar to one that already exists (MetroLink; the other MetroLink route to Sackville is not included in this).

The route map shows why Halifax probably isn't going to get something like LRT anytime soon. A lot of trips go through the urban core but they don't go along any particular corridor. There are half a dozen different nodes scattered around the central parts of the peninsula (downtown, hospitals and universities, naval base, and shipyard) and the harbour bridges are north of most of that. I think an ideal transit system for Halifax would involve a mix of many different services; 1-2 commuter rail lines, half a dozen BRT routes (there are 2 now), and 1-2 new ferry routes (there are currently 2).


Source

Another problem with Halifax's system right now is that the routes don't connect up very well. If you take the airport bus you get dumped on one side of Scotia Square, others go to the other end of the complex (3 blocks away), the train station is in the South End, and the downtown Halifax terminal is not in the same spot as the ferry terminal. There is no equivalent of Union Station in Toronto or Waterfront in Vancouver.

The problem is we are trying to make a modern transit system work on an almost 300 year old road system.

[MalcolmTucker]

Do the inter-city buses go from the VIA station? Otherwise is the station anything more than a convenient timing point with a bathroom or break room? I can’t see t adding much to connectivity.

[Reecemartin]

A video on the major airport Expansion plans at Pearson in Toronto as well as the improved transit connectivity and regional transit center: https://youtu.be/6uVZ_ilzffU

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Do the inter-city buses go from the VIA station? Otherwise is the station anything more than a convenient timing point with a bathroom or break room? I can’t see t adding much to connectivity.

Yes they do, the Maritime Bus station is there. The Airport bus should have gone there. Connexions are really bad in Halifax and I had to take a cab many times.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by d_jeffrey

Yes they do, the Maritime Bus station is there. The Airport bus should have gone there. Connexions are really bad in Halifax and I had to take a cab many times.

Commuter rail would also go to the same station as VIA.

Halifax's current bus system has too many routes and no focus on high frequency service along main corridors. It's hard for visitors to use, and in most cases the planning is haphazard so it's hard to coordinate land use planning with transit (the current strategy is to build lots of housing as centrally as possible and hope for the best). I've posted this before:



I think the 1 is the busiest and most frequent route. It goes from the West End to Dartmouth but there is a huge detour through the South End and downtown in the middle. It's not useful for any long distance trip in particular; it's a Frankenstein type route that happens to appeal to a variety of different riders that take it for shorter trips. Many other routes are odd attempts to blend coverage of some suburban area with some part of the urban core.