The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[J.OT13]

As of today, OC Transpo returns to full summer service and masks are mandatory in any bus, train or station (unless an individual is unable to wear a mask for medical reasons). No enforcement or fines for the first little while, only education.

• Video Link

[Chadillaccc]

City of Calgary Approves Ctrain Green Line in 14 - 1 Vote
Calgary has taken a giant leap forward in city mobility with the approval of the $5.5 billion Green Line transit project.
Anosha Khan | Livewire Calgary | June 16, 2020

The project began as the Southeast Calgary Transitway (SETWAY) in 1996 and culminated with a functional plan in 2006. It was originally a bus-rapid transit (BRT) plan. Fourteen years and several iterations later, council has agreed on light rail transit alignment.

The Stage 1 alignment is divided into Segment 1, Segment 2A and 2B. The entire project consists of building the Green Line from 16 Avenue N to 126 Avenue SE (Shepard).

Segment 1 is from 126 Avenue SE (Shepard) to East of the Elbow River (Inglewood/Ramsay). Segment 2A is East of the Elbow River (Inglewood/Ramsay) to 2 Avenue S.W. Station (Eau Claire). Segment 2B is North of 2 Avenue S.W. Station (Eau Claire) to 16 Avenue N, running up Center Street.

They’re calling the process “stage gating” – or managing the progress of the project by smaller stage.

“It’s the best scenario for allowing both the south and north to develop in one continuous line and be able to develop the transit line that is exactly like the red and blue (transit lines),” said Councillor Shane Keating, the main driver behind the project for the past decade.

Within a 10 minute walk of Stage 1, there’s more than 31 parks, 21 schools, and 16 cultural facilities, the city said.

The city has also said there are 20,000 jobs connected to Stage 1.

...

Full story: https://livewirecalgary.com/2020/06/16/calgary-approves-5-5b-green-line-transit-project/

[J.OT13]

Debunking the exaggerated claims that transit helped propagate the spread of Covid-19.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/fear-transit-bad-cities/612979/

[J.OT13]

Post from an Ottawa forumer on an interesting article arguing for more transit planning for all-day users vs commuting.

Originally Posted by bradnixon

Some interesting (and positive) comments from Jarrett Walker about the potential implications of lower peak demand: https://humantransit.org/2020/05/the-collapse-of-rush-hour-a-deep-dive.html

A transit system more focused on all-day service could end up being more sustainable in the long run.

Here's a graph showing demand pre-Covid vs May. Data is collected from mostly Canadian and American transit agencies (via Transit app), and some international. Rush-hour has dropped drastically, while all-day that has dropped significantly, but not quite as severe.



You can compare your City to many around the world at https://transit.app/coronavirus.

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

The Green Line is officially coming to Calgary! With the approval by the city, the Green Line is now ready for procurement and will start construction soon. Enjoy the video for a quick overview!

https://youtu.be/VA_02xHu4j0

Pending the Provincial Government's 'review' of the line. It would be terrible if they pulled funding from it at this point, but with the UCP in charge it's not impossible.

[srperrycgy]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Pending the Provincial Government's 'review' of the line. It would be terrible if they pulled funding from it at this point, but with the UCP in charge it's not impossible.

It depends on how badly Ric McIver wants to screw over Nenshi. Seeing as he lost heavily to Nenshi in 2010, this won't be good for the City.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Post from an Ottawa forumer on an interesting article arguing for more transit planning for all-day users vs commuting.

What does that do to the economics of mass transit though? The justification for capital-expensive rail is capacity during rush hour. Running more frequent half-full buses and trains sounds like a great way to crush the fare-recovery ratio.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by accord1999

What does that do to the economics of mass transit though? The justification for capital-expensive rail is capacity during rush hour. Running more frequent half-full buses and trains sounds like a great way to crush the fare-recovery ratio.

Less rail. More electric buses.

[foolworm]

Originally Posted by srperrycgy

It depends on how badly Ric McIver wants to screw over Nenshi. Seeing as he lost heavily to Nenshi in 2010, this won't be good for the City.

No kidding. He pushed that letter out super fast, on official letterhead and everything, less than 24 hours after the official vote was actually taken. Normally the response comes after the ask, not before - I'm all but certain City administration had not sent anything formal to the Provincial government at that point.

I've said this elsewhere but the anti-Green line factions are going to be knocking hard on Provincial doors now. This also comes off the back of the YYC-Banff study announcement that includes a rail shuttle between the deep north and downtown which -surprise!- targets the biggest beef that opponents of the current alignment have.

Honestly, I think there's a non-negligible chance that AT comes back saying that the project isn't viable in the same way Ford did for Hamilton's LRT. I really hope to be wrong, but the way this UCP government has been (ripping up the City Charters, pulling transit grants, inserting guillotine clauses... plus this) doesn't exactly instill confidence. The continual scope reductions and cost increases don't help Calgary's case either.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by srperrycgy

It depends on how badly Ric McIver wants to screw over Nenshi. Seeing as he lost heavily to Nenshi in 2010, this won't be good for the City.

If the UCP has a serious political death wish, they would definitely cancel their portion of the funding. But since like all politicians and shills, they are going to pander to their base. Calgary’s districts are the only swing votes in the province, and the Green Line has overwhelming public support (something like 80%) in the city. So it will definitely happen.

In the wake of the devastating storm last week, Kenney hasn’t even been to the city yet. Notley was down here by Monday with MLA Irfan Sabir to assess the damage and announce what they are going to propose to the UCP for relief of the area. The affected area is spread across four ridings, one of which is NDP and three of which went to the UCP by fairly slim margins.

In a nutshell, people are seeing the NDP still doing what they can for the people, and seeing the UCP not really doing shit other than obstructing. They should be nervous about the next election, especially if they force the cancellation of the biggest infrastructure project in provincial history and simultaneously bungle the relief efforts for a massive area of the largest city in the province.

Either way, fuck em.

[Gabmtl]

For those who understand french, Quebec City has revealed how the underground stations of the LRT will be implemented :

https://www.reseaustructurant.info/docs/20200619-Presentation_CollineParlementaire.pdf

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Gabmtl

For those who understand french, Quebec City has revealed how the underground stations of the LRT will be implemented :

https://www.reseaustructurant.info/docs/20200619-Presentation_CollineParlementaire.pdf

Very cool. That is impressively ambitious on Quebec's part.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by esquire

Very cool. That is impressively ambitious on Quebec's part.

One less station, a straighter tunnel and the obnoxious technology choice reminds me of Ottawa's.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by p_xavier

One less station, a straighter tunnel and the obnoxious technology choice reminds me of Ottawa's.

To be fair to Ottawa, plans always called for three stations*. Rideau was moved, but an argument can be made that the new location better serves the area. On the other hand, the distance between Parliament and Rideau is quite high for a downtown core, at 725 meters.

The straighter alignment saved hundreds of millions of dollars and a few minutes to get from street level to surface, but the choice of Queen Street limited the amount of space to build the tunnel (narrow right-of-way).

In defense of Quebec City, the choice of LRT technology makes a lot of sense since the line runs on the surface most of the alignment. In Ottawa's case, with a grade-separated metro type system, the choice of technology boils down to money (cheaper to build light-rail than heavy rail).

*uOttawa station was originally planned as a tunnel station, for a total of 4 in the downtown tunnel, but was ultimately built on the surface, but in the same location.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

To be fair to Ottawa, plans always called for three stations*. Rideau was moved, but an argument can be made that the new location better serves the area. On the other hand, the distance between Parliament and Rideau is quite high for a downtown core, at 725 meters.

This is less of an issue if you keep in mind that the distance between the two stations is achieved because between them is the War Memorial (no residents), Canal (no residents), and other facilities which have no residents. The placing of both stations makes logical sense and I don't think anyone is actually complaining all that much about their relative separation.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by JHikka

This is less of an issue if you keep in mind that the distance between the two stations is achieved because between them is the War Memorial (no residents), Canal (no residents), and other facilities which have no residents. The placing of both stations makes logical sense and I don't think anyone is actually complaining all that much about their relative separation.

That's true. The distance between Parliament Station's east entrances is 370 meters from Elgin (edge of the CBD), which is the same distance as the west Parliament entrance to Lyon's east entrance. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge deal.

Looking at the tunnel's geometry, we can see that it would have been far more expensive, not just to add a station, but even moving Parliament a half a block to the east.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Gabmtl

For those who understand french, Quebec City has revealed how the underground stations of the LRT will be implemented :

https://www.reseaustructurant.info/docs/20200619-Presentation_CollineParlementaire.pdf

Quebec City appears to have done more in a year or so than Calgary has done in five.

[foolworm]

Meanwhile, Montreal's Blue line extension is getting bogged down in legal challenges and lawsuits:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/metro-stm-blue-line-montreal-1.5499762

[Rico Rommheim]

The blue line is truly cursed. It's already stunted at 6 cars instead of 9. And it is often dismissed as useless, but the blue line is a vital part of transportation for the centre part of the island. It connects a giant mall (Fairview), the country's second largest university (UdM), Quebec's densest and poorest neighbourhood (Parc-ex), a giant park (Parc Jarry), arguably Canada's nicest residential neighbourhood (Outremont), Canada's largest religious shrine (St-Joseph's) and countless other hubs and attractions. It's extension is long overdue.

It's sad, actually when you think of it. The REM phase II will probably be built or start construction by the time the Blue line is extended.