Quote:
Originally Posted by swimmer_spe
Please define high quality. The way I see it, it is a substandard system due to the limitations on how many people it can move.
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That criticism doesn't make sense to me. Every system in every city has limitations on how many people it can move. What matters is that a system has the capacity to move the number of people it's being asked to move. The fact that a city, which is small to medium size on a global scale, has lower capacity than you'll find in large cities is a feature rather than a bug because it allows smaller cities to afford a more extensive system that otherwise might be too costly. Yes it will eventually need to be expanded as the city grows but there's nothing wrong with that, unlike asking a 2.5 million city to afford the transit system fit for a 5 million city which is completely unreasonable. The Skytrain system already has a route length greater than the Toronto subway and Montreal metro and is still being expanded with planning for the Broadway and Langley extensions pushing forward.
I also don't think it would be terribly difficult to expand the downtown capacity. The Expo line could be extended east past Waterfront station either elevated along the rail corridor or underground below Cordova or Powell before dipping south to VCC-Clark. The Expo line could be made into a loop while the Millennium line would run through downtown with one terminus being in Surrey (or by that time Langley) and the other in Coquitlam. This would be similar to how the Yonge line runs through downtown connecting two separate arms to the north and northwest. It would only require about 4km of new tunnel, elevated guideway, or a combination of the two. The future Broadway line would connect to both at VCC-Clark. This would be pretty cheap compared to a project like the DRL/Ontario line.
They could also choose the more expensive option of running east under Hastings until the exhibition site before heading south along the highway or Boundary Rd to provide better Skytrain service to the eastern part of the city. The current Millenium line service would head north at Gilmour to follow the new corridor into downtown and the current alignment west of Gilmour would become part of the Broadway line. However, I'd probably just go with the former 4km option. Either way, it isn't like the system is somehow irreparably crippled by capacity constraints. Reasonable investment can easily expand the system just as it can with most other systems.
Something similar can also be done with the Canada line by twinning it with a mostly elevated service along the Arbutus corridor. The Canada line currently branches at the end serving both the airport and Richmond centre. This could be disentangled with the current Canada line serving the airport branch and the Arbutus line serving Richmond. There would be a transfer point at Bridgeport where riders could switch between routes. The Arbutus route could tunnel under False creek between the Burrard and Granville bridges providing a stop on Granville Island before following Burrard St with stops at Pacific, Nelson, Burrard, and Waterfront with the last two being interchange points. Regardless of the specifics, this would provide higher order transit to more of the city while offering additional redundancy and route options.
The takeaway being, the idea that a system that is providing excellent service to its community is somehow flawed because it will someday run out of capacity doesn't make sense.