Quote:
Originally Posted by Greetingsfromcanada
If Ontario talked to Translink, I'm sure they would have come up with something more reasonable
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For all the flack Translink routinely gets in Metro Vancouver, they have been incredibly consistent in designing, delivering, and operating an efficient region-spanning rapid transit system.
For the last 35 years or so, every five to seven years a new SkyTrain line, small- but high-yield incremental extension, or a major system expansion that would otherwise constitute a new line, is approved and built with local, provincial, and federal joint funding. Examples of small- but high-yield extensions include the one-stop extension of the Expo Line when it crossed the Fraser River in the early 90s to link New Westminster with Surrey, followed by a further three-stop extension to downtown Surrey a couple years later.
Interoperability of every new line (excluding the Canada Line, discussed next), and the alignment of rapid transit and regional land use planning and development are the key achievements of the SkyTrain system, Metro Vancouver (and its predecessor), and Translink (and its predecessor). The SkyTrain Expo and Millennium Lines, plus their Evergreen Line, Broadway Subway, and Surrey-Langley extensions, all share the same trains and automated train control system. A standard elevated guideway system (columns and guideway segments) was developed in the late 90s for the Millennium Line and it has formed the basis of all subsequent elevated sections, including the Canada Line. Elevated stations for each line share a common 'kit of parts' to minimize cost and leverage experience from previous station designs, and simplify future expansion (all stations on the Expo and Millennium Lines, plus their extensions, have 80-meter platforms that can be extended to 100m).
The one time things went off the rails, so to speak, was when the Province interfered. That's how we ended up with the terms of reference for the procurement of the Canada Line (formerly known as the RAV Line - Richmond Airport Vancouver) that specifically did not require interoperability with the existing SkyTrain system and prohibited any consideration of benefits (operational or monetary) that could accrue to Translink were system interoperability to be proposed by a bidder. The result was the selection of a lower bid that proposed a new trainset, train control operating system, and physical constraints that prevent any future interoperability with the existing SkyTrain network. There is no way the line could even be retrofitted in the future to accept standard SkyTrain vehicles, so we're stuck with it.
The take-away from that fiasco, regardless of the Canada Line offering sufficient operating capabilities, plenty of future growth capacity, low construction cost, etc., is the peril a transit system faces when there is interference from interested but unqualified parties. The BC Liberal party didn't give a single shit about the permanent inefficiency and cost burden it would burden Translink with by not requiring interoperability of the new line with existing. The BC Liberals just wanted to get the thing built as fast as possible for as cheap as possible in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the train nerds could sort out the details later (and at their own expense).
Ontario (and basically all governments), that's the take-away.
Don't do that. No. Bad governments. Let the experts define their project tender parameters. They know what they're doing.
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