Canadian LRT/RT projects U/C

[caltrane74]

looks similar to the UPX station at Pearson Airport...

[SkahHigh]

More pictures from the first open house in the Saint-Laurent borough, all by nephersir7 on mtlurb.

Panama Station



Du Quartier Station



Stretch along the A-10



Stretch at the A-10/A-30 intersection in Brossard



Pointe-Claire section

[MolsonExport]

^wicked. So great to see transit down the highway corridors. I grew up very close to Pointe Claire. I relied for years on the 211 bus. I fucking hated that bus. beyond words.


gazoo

[nephersir7]

Animation of the REM over the A40 in Pointe-Claire

[SkahHigh]

More infos on the project given by Denis Andlauer, the project director, at a public house in Brossard yesterday:

-The South Shore terminal will include a full garage for trains. (Deux-Montagnes has an AMT terminal which will be used as well) a small extension for ~4 trains will be made at the end of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue station to feed the system every morning.

-Rive-Sud station will have a parking space for 3000 vehicles (forgot to ask how much will be surface lots)

-Capacity. Initial trains will have 180 second headways but that 120 second headways can be done without much difficulty, which would expand the system to 18,000 pph. The system is theoretically able to have 90 second headways. They expect this will allow the system to handle capacity until 2040. Beyond that, they confirmed that every station will be designed to be doubled in size to 160m in length, meaning 1200 passenger cars. Amazing news.

-When asked about Tax increment financing, he said they want it, but that direct revenue for TIF is not the goal. They estimate that it’ll add $120 million to the project, which they recognize it not that much.

-He confirmed that Fairview STM bus terminal will move next to the new station and that they are working very closely with the STM to make the integration between buses and REM as tight as possible. Quote: “right now the AMT rail stations are surrounded by parking with bus stops at the edges. We want to have buses in the center with parking around it”

-They worked hard on a Griffintown station but it’s just not possible. The problem is that that route south of Peel Basin is in a tunnel, and the track is planned to rise up after the basin. They can’t have a station on a grade and since they cannot have more than a 5% grade, it would mean moving the start of the rise further north which causes problems for meeting the CN Rail ROW and entering into Central Station.

-On the subject of the McGill and Edouard-Montpetit stations. He said they recognize how important those stations are. The AMT is currently working on some studies for fire emergency preparedness in the tunnels. That plus other work means they are not sure about those stations and don’t want to delay the whole project for them. No info about funding was provided.

-The Rive-Sud station was initially suppose to be north the of 10, but that area is currently a recycling depot and in the past handled dangerous chemicals. It's heavily contaminated so they decided to curve south instead.

-The Panama station will be built on top of the current bus trench, level with car traffic. The area under will become the pedestran zone and will be integrated with a new underground bus terminal at the existing Panama station location.

-The tunnel under Pointe-St-Charles is one of the most challenging parts, because it is badly contaminated.

-They will take over the 3 tracks in Central Station used by AMT, which may be used to store extra trains and add emergency capacity when needed.

-The station is 400m long, but they intend to use the southmost 80m. They are not allowed to modify the narrow, small Central Station exit in any way. so they will also build their own exits, particularly a new path to Bonaventure that is easier and more direct than the current way.

-The fire hazard of the Mount Royal tunnel is recognized. Since they cannot have any exits, the solution (determined by the AMT already) is to have fireproof bunkers every 750m along the tunnel.

-The airport spur till Saint-Laurent Technoparc is guaranteed. After that the airport link remains under study. ADM is still studying if they can modify it to come in from the north instead.

-They are considering have Express trains to the airport during off peak hours.

(These infos were collected by gelu88 on mtlurb)

[p_xavier]

Montreal made the right choice by going to another metro system and not LRT like in Ontario. Can't believe they plan on having longer trains than their existing metro systems, they're already among the longest in the world!

[Treplow]

Looks quite SkyTrain-esque (though hopefully Montreal's version runs better in the snow!)

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Treplow

Looks quite SkyTrain-esque (though hopefully Montreal's version runs better in the snow!)

It is freezing rain that worries me the most.

[lrt's friend]

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announces further funding of Ottawa LRT, offering 50% of the cost of a further eastern extension and an airport link as part of Phase 2 to begin construction in 2018.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ding-1.3614386

But don't get too excited about an Ottawa airport link. There will be no direct service downtown. It will require as many as 3 different trains to reach the airport under the current plan. This will replace the current single seat airport bus service to downtown.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

It is freezing rain that worries me the most.

The power comes from overhead wires, not third rail. So there should be less issues.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announces further funding of Ottawa LRT, offering 50% of the cost of a further eastern extension and an airport link as part of Phase 2 to begin construction in 2018.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ding-1.3614386

But don't get too excited about an Ottawa airport link. There will be no direct service downtown. It will require as many as 3 different trains to reach the airport under the current plan. This will replace the current single seat airport bus service to downtown.

How in the world would it involved 3 trains? It's two trains, it's just unclear which two it would be (South Transitway or Trillium), no?

[GreaterMontréal]

the REM will add up to 35M trips per year to the rapid transit system.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

the REM will add up to 35M trips per year to the rapid transit system.

I am super excited to see the project go forward, both for the transit aspect, and the experimental delivery aspects. Who would have thought Quebec would be the province to be the first to go full P3 on a project (ownership via an arms length fund not withstanding).

If the project goes well, Caisse could sell it and then use the same seed capital on another project - assuming once it is built people will be agnostic as to who owns it.

[eemy]

Originally Posted by Beedok

How in the world would it involved 3 trains? It's two trains, it's just unclear which two it would be (South Transitway or Trillium), no?

I think the last proposal for how the extension of the Trillium Line could work with a spur to the airport is that the train would run between the Airport and Bayview during the day with a shuttle between Riverside South and Lester or Greenboro or something. During peak hours, however, the Trillium Line would instead continue to Riverside South with a shuttle connecting to the airport.

In that situation, passengers would have to take the shuttle train to connect to the Trillium Line, take the Trillium Line to Bayview to finally connect to the Confederation Line. It's a terrible idea and I can't imagine anyone being happy with that outcome.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I think the last proposal for how the extension of the Trillium Line could work with a spur to the airport is that the train would run between the Airport and Bayview during the day with a shuttle between Riverside South and Lester or Greenboro or something. During peak hours, however, the Trillium Line would instead continue to Riverside South with a shuttle connecting to the airport.

In that situation, passengers would have to take the shuttle train to connect to the Trillium Line, take the Trillium Line to Bayview to finally connect to the Confederation Line. It's a terrible idea and I can't imagine anyone being happy with that outcome.

The last upgrade of the Trillium Line has not gone well. A lot of money was spent to double the number of trains but only delivered minor service improvements and reduced schedule adherence. The crux of the problem is the single track line and a major VIA Rail crossing that regularly delays Trillium Line trains. This will become a massive problem if VIA Rail ever gets funding for its high frequency service.

Phase 2 with the airport spur creates a branch on the single track route and requires complicated train shuttling after crossing a single track bridge. This has bottleneck written all over it.

The experts have recommended this but I cannot imagine how more and more complicated train operations and a single track can reliably handle the planned number of trains.

The problem is that City Hall has bought into this as a much lower cost addition to the Confederation Line plan. They are not really paying attention and it got to the point of no return. My city councillor is now getting more and more flack from ratepayers about the last so called improvement and is starting to see the writing on the wall. But most city councillors from the east and west end of the city are dominating and only really care about the Confederation Line. So Phase 2 of the Trillium Line keeps moving forward with the much better designed Confederation Line and now today's funding announcement for the further complicating airport spur. A feather in the cap for Ottawa in name only.

But yes, the plan calls for 3 trains during peak periods (2 trains in off-peak hours) to get from the airport to downtown, a distance of about 10 km as the crow flies. But even worse, it will take 3 trains and a bus to get downtown from the growing southern suburbs during off-peak hours. Both terminating stations in the southern suburbs are in locations with little or no possibility of development. More useful terminating stations are not possible based on the continued use of DMUs. Not a recipe for growing ridership.

But who cares, since the 2006 LRT cancellation fiasco, Ottawa no longer does ridership studies to assess the value of what they are doing.

[Elmira Guy]

Update on Waterloo Region's ION LRT project construction.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ-slWfJkFw

[kwoldtimer]

K-W just getting on with getting on. As it does.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I think the last proposal for how the extension of the Trillium Line could work with a spur to the airport is that the train would run between the Airport and Bayview during the day with a shuttle between Riverside South and Lester or Greenboro or something. During peak hours, however, the Trillium Line would instead continue to Riverside South with a shuttle connecting to the airport.

In that situation, passengers would have to take the shuttle train to connect to the Trillium Line, take the Trillium Line to Bayview to finally connect to the Confederation Line. It's a terrible idea and I can't imagine anyone being happy with that outcome.

Confusing as hell! My God.

I don't understand why, outside this forum, no one seems to point out the obvious failings of this half assed plan. Everyone; journalists, politicians, business representatives and the airport's president seem to think this is a brilliant idea. They keep talking about a link to downtown!? Every world-class city has a rail link to the central core, they say. Are they completely mental!? Do they not see that this does not connect to downtown?

Best case scenario on opening day, people taking the train from the airport to Bayview might be able to take a 500 meter walk, luggage in hand, to one hotel, that is ONE singular hotel, and an NHL arena.

If they would just convert the line and interline with the tunnel, they would have access through the subway to at least 1,500 hotel rooms and the Convention Centre without ever going outside (through office complexes, malls and existing pedestrian tunnels directly connected to the system) and well as over 3,000+ hotel rooms a short distance away.

[Innsertnamehere]

what is so bad with a friggen transfer? its hardly a huge deal, thats why nobody is making a stink about it.

[GoTrans]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

what is so bad with a friggen transfer? its hardly a huge deal, thats why nobody is making a stink about it.

As long as the frequencies of the services are relatively frequent. No system can offer single seat rides from one origin to different destinations. We have a car for doing that but there are obvious downsides using cars.