White Rock funicular & waterfront impo

[SpongeG]

I was thinking about this idea a couple of weeks ago, something to connect the upper area with the lower area. A funicular would work.

One ticket for the White Rock funicular?

November 27, 2019 By Peter Meiszner



City of White Rock outlines possible enhancements to waterfront
White Rock’s waterfront is a major part of the city’s identity, and a tourist attraction for tens of thousands of visitors annually.

With the importance of the waterfront to the city’s fortunes, White Rock has developed a Waterfront Enhancement Strategy to guide improvements over the next 10 to 20 years.

Some of the highlights include:

Improve connections with funicular or people mover
Currently, Johnston Road is the main pedestrian route from Uptown down to the waterfront, but there’s a lack of wayfinding signage and stairs and ramps need improvements to make traversing the steep incline safer.

Over the longer term, the city will study the feasibility of a funicular or another people-mover system to bring people from the waterfront to Uptown. As well as being functional, a funicular could become a new tourist attraction for the city and showcase views of the waterfront.


Improvements to connect Uptown White Rock to the waterfront. Credit: City of White Rock


[I]Drawing of enhancements to White Rock Pier. Credit: City of White Rock[/]


Potential improvements to Marine Drive, as well as adjacent city-owned parking lots. Credit: City of White Rock

...

https://urbanyvr.com/white-rock-waterfro...j6osRYiy29yVU7aCtJuSH_48JyPCDraOEhL0Od3E

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I was thinking about this idea a couple of weeks ago, something to connect the upper area with the lower area. A funicular would work.

One ticket for the White Rock funicular?

November 27, 2019 By Peter Meiszner



City of White Rock outlines possible enhancements to waterfront
White Rock’s waterfront is a major part of the city’s identity, and a tourist attraction for tens of thousands of visitors annually.

With the importance of the waterfront to the city’s fortunes, White Rock has developed a Waterfront Enhancement Strategy to guide improvements over the next 10 to 20 years.

Some of the highlights include:

Improve connections with funicular or people mover
Currently, Johnston Road is the main pedestrian route from Uptown down to the waterfront, but there’s a lack of wayfinding signage and stairs and ramps need improvements to make traversing the steep incline safer.

Over the longer term, the city will study the feasibility of a funicular or another people-mover system to bring people from the waterfront to Uptown. As well as being functional, a funicular could become a new tourist attraction for the city and showcase views of the waterfront.


Improvements to connect Uptown White Rock to the waterfront. Credit: City of White Rock


[I]Drawing of enhancements to White Rock Pier. Credit: City of White Rock[/]


Potential improvements to Marine Drive, as well as adjacent city-owned parking lots. Credit: City of White Rock

...

https://urbanyvr.com/white-rock-waterfro...j6osRYiy29yVU7aCtJuSH_48JyPCDraOEhL0Od3E

I looked at making a rack railway system from Semiahmoo to White Rock. It's probably not necessary without Skytrain (Buses can use the current routing to Buena Vista and get bus lanes from Street parking), and Funiculars are probably too low-capacity once Skytrain goes through to South Surrey.

Also, there's very little space on either Lower Johnson or Martin Road, so you'd be closing off those roads. Problem is that houses and businesses front onto them, either forcing you to buy them and demo them or somehow convince them to accept an active railway literally in front of their doors. To say northing of being able to use their garages.

Gondolas take up as much RE, probably more.

Either way, you're gonna be spending a — ton of money. White Rock kind of — like that.

[SpongeG]

its not for transit, its for tourists

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

its not for transit, its for tourists

It still needs to be useful for transportation to justify itself and its construction costs. You're demolishing a bunch of homes for an expensive tourist attraction.

If it's useful for transit, people will be able to easily go from the rest of the city to White Rock, which would be a boon for the currently struggling waterfront.

[jsbertram]

I don't see why this couldn't be built as an outdoor escalator instead.

Hong Kong and Barcelona have figured this out already.

hong kong:
https://interestingengineering.com/worlds-longest-outdoor-escalator-system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hthI0vQPIOw

barcelona:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw3KWW6P7L4

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

remember people, if it is for transit a city can't build it without TransLink approval. or TransLink will need to run it, which i doubt they would want to do without some good numbers.

[ilikeredheads]

highly doubt the NIMBYs will allow escalator/tram/peoplemover in their neighbourhood.

[SpongeG]

It does also say people mover so an escalator is possible or it could just end up being a better stairway.

All issues aside, Is there anywhere else in the Lower Mainland area that could use something like a funicular?

[svlt]

I rode one of these in Asia and it was pretty damn cool, but it'd be kind of out of place here and I'm not sure if White Rock gets enough tourists to justify the costs and upset property owners?

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by svlt

I rode one of these in Asia and it was pretty damn cool, but it'd be kind of out of place here and I'm not sure if White Rock gets enough tourists to justify the costs and upset property owners?

i was thinking the escalators/ travelators would be used primarily by locals to get to /from the seafront

and by tourists in their busy season

just like any other mode of transportation, altho i dont expect these to be used much by commuters

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by svlt

I rode one of these in Asia and it was pretty damn cool, but it'd be kind of out of place here and I'm not sure if White Rock gets enough tourists to justify the costs and upset property owners?

Have you ever tried to park down there on a sunny weekend? Even a sunny weekend in January it's crazy how busy it gets.

The fancy computer controlled funicular at the Getty center cost $6 million and reinstalling the Angel's Flight in downtown LA cost something like $4 million (both in the late 90's).

Edmonton built a funicular, stairs, bridge, viewpoint and elevator for $24 million.

So, for the price of the park they just built, they could probably run a Funicular from Marine up to Columbia without having to buy any more property than they already own.

And you don't need some kind of Skytrain system to feed it. A typical Funicular caries like 30 people max. I think the one in Quebec City has standing room for about 15 (it's pretty much an elevator cab). The one in Edmonton isn't much bigger, but it is automatic.

Funiculars are not a fancy rapid transit system. It's a diagonal elevator. Probably costs not much more than installing an elevator and less maintenance than an outdoor escalator.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

Have you ever tried to park down there on a sunny weekend? Even a sunny weekend in January it's crazy how busy it gets.

The fancy computer controlled funicular at the Getty center cost $6 million and reinstalling the Angel's Flight in downtown LA cost something like $4 million (both in the late 90's).

Edmonton built a funicular, stairs, bridge, viewpoint and elevator for $24 million.

So, for the price of the park they just built, they could probably run a Funicular from Marine up to Columbia without having to buy any more property than they already own.

And you don't need some kind of Skytrain system to feed it. A typical Funicular caries like 30 people max. I think the one in Quebec City has standing room for about 15 (it's pretty much an elevator cab). The one in Edmonton isn't much bigger, but it is automatic.

Funiculars are not a fancy rapid transit system. It's a diagonal elevator. Probably costs not much more than installing an elevator and less maintenance than an outdoor escalator.

Yeah, but that funicular doesn’t exactly GO anywhere meaningful. Also, the only space on existing city-owned land is on the East Beach.

[Galaxy]

I could totally see a private company similar to the Sea to Sky gondola build and operate a Funicular in White Rock. Then a whole infrastructure of other tourist-related stuff being built around the Funicular.