Columbo
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Posts posted by Columbo
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Man, tearing up Broadway would shut down the city.
Although they could dig up 10th or 12th.
They would never tear up Broadway. It'd likely be a bored tunnel, and the only surface disruption would be at the stations.
All in all, for businesses commuters on Broadway, the positives of a rapid transit line will far outweigh the negatives of a few years of station construction.
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I'm sure this has been posted before but, help support skytrain to UBC.
I notice they shortened their description and added a summary, nice to see.
Join the group, people!
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That makes our train system look even more pitifully short of Torino's, doesn't it?
Maybe it has something to do with the nature of Vancouver. For example, maybe if people on Cambie would stop SUING Translink they'd have more money to make the line better!
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^ Built with a lot better funding that Translink had, I'd say. But who is to blame? I don't think it's Translink, in any case.
edit, referring to nitronut's post
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This is horrible. I hate to see what its like during the Olympics.
The Canada Line project is a massive failure.
Wow, overdramatic much? Yeah, it will be very crowded for the Olympics. What city's transportation system isn't crowded when they host the Olympics? The line wasn't built just to serve a 2 week period in February 2010...
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And now that the Evergreen Line is taking a priority, which is an extension of the Millennium Line, you're going to be serving rapid transit to an area that will probably flock to transit. It's going to be a one train ride from Coquitlam Centre to VCC Station, and guess which bus people are going to transfer onto when they reach Commercial-Broadway?
Speaking of Commercial Station, they really need more escalators/stairs for that station. It's not proportional to the amount of ridership it gets, or what it will soon get.
Thank goodness I'll have graduated by the time that's finished..... what a nightmare. They've got their Millennium line extension priorities backwards!
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Actually, some of the 99's buses already do short-turns. They do short-turns at Main Street instead of going all the way to Commercial, but this only happens during rush hour.
It would be a great idea to short-turn at Cambie, but I think I would be satisfied enough to see the 98's buses go to the 99 nevermind short-turning as as of right now there are no plans to add more buses on the 98! The 98's buses are going to Hastings routes and such on an interim basis.
You mean the 99? If so, that really sucks.
And I really think you'll see enormous line-ups at Cambie, big enough to warrant short-turns. Basically every UBC transit-taking student who lives in Richmond will be transferring there. I might have to start taking the 33, but that means at least another 20 minutes on my trip...
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Well, hopefully Translink is wise enough to use 10 of the 30 or so articulated buses, that were used for the to-be-canceled 98 B-Line, for the 99 B-Line.
Problem is, that'll only make lines shorter at Broadway, which is good but it doesn't really help the Cambie situation. The buses will still be packed when they arrive at Cambie, and now there's going to be hundreds of people trying to get on every bus. If Translink was smart, they'd have some buses start empty from Cambie. But I somehow just don't see it happening...
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^ the interurban line is destined to fail if it ever goes ahead, it's one massive squiggly line - it's a detour. Unfortunately, that's one of the few rail corridors we have left for transit use.
It would probably be cheaper to simply upgrade the Canada Line, and there's no point in ditching infrastructure we've built.
Anyhow, when it comes to the near future.....100,000 seems closer to reality everyday, and that's good because it means Translink won't have to subsidize it. But the downside of that is Translink will have to find tens of millions to buy more trains much earlier than originally planned ($6-million per 2-car train). We're at 80,000/day right now and that's WITHOUT bus integration, I think we can easily reach 100,000 within a matter of weeks with south of Fraser buses terminating at Bridgeport, the elimination of the 98 B-Line, people going back to school, and the majority of the office worker population returning to work.
I just realized, as a guy who goes to UBC and takes the 99 from Cambie every day, that this is going to be a huge disaster for me. It's already hard enough to get on that bus at 8:00 in the morning because of how packed it is coming from Broadway... now I'm going to have to compete with thousands of people coming from Richmond and transferring at my stop. Great. Just another reason why we NEED to extend the Millennium line ASAP.
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Yeah that's what I mean, there are only 2 ticket vending machines at Lansdowne......
Also there should be a big map on the wall because there was no information about the line until you buy a ticket and go into the paid fare zone.
We got off at Vancouver City Centre there were only 3 ticket vending machines and two were out of service at the time (on the way back only one was out of service)
I was at Vancouver City Centre when one of the machines were out of service, and there must have been 20 people in line for each of the working machines. Even if the 3rd one was in service it wouldn't have been enough. It's those small things that I hope they resolve before September - I mean a couple extra ticket machines can't be that hard/expensive to install, can they? If people are late for work because they have to wait 15 minutes to buy a ticket, they're not going to be too happy with the new line.
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So could an incremental upgrade to the system to alleviate Canada Line overcrowding look something like this?
1. Order more trains.
2. Increase the lengths of platforms and trains.
3. Restore 98, 400-, 350- and 600-series buses to downtown.
4. Build Arbutus LRT.
5. Extend Expo Line to Newton, and divert the bulk of S. Surrey and White Rock traffic onto it.
6. Build a replacement for the Canada Line, running overhead over most of Cambie on its median, using LIM or MagLev technology. Hopefully by then, the pro-transit lobby will outweigh any resistance from local NIMBY's along the Cambie corridor.
Once the first 5 things are done, I don't think the 6th will ever be necessary. But otherwise I like your plan, though I would order them differently: 1, 3, 5, 2, 4.
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To this very day there are people who were opposed to the Canada Line on Cambie, and now ride the train, who want it on Arbutus and/or as light rail. Some of them even want the system to be less busy, thus why it should be on Arbutus.
And then, of course, there are others who simply think there was never ever a demand for rapid transit along the corridor.
Here's one of those nutjobs, a lot of which he claims is false...he doesn't know how to put two things together and then leads to completely false assumptions and ridiculous theories:
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Malcolm is quite against extending SkyTrain or any SkyTrain-like system like the Canada Line....he wants LRT for everything.
Wow. This was my favourite line: "But there is more. Subways have proven very poor in attracting new ridership and the Canada Line may very well force more people into cars." What a joke.
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What I like is that this will shut up all the naysayers who said they were vastly overestimating ridership!! But you know what? Even if they were, we need transportation like this for the future.
bah, those very same nay-sayers will now be the people who criticize Translink for not buying enough trains. You know, the type of people you just can't please.
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Here ALL the headlines from the BC NDP website:
James says her team will hold government accountable, provide positive alternatives: New Democrat leader Carole James has announced the members of the official Opposition shadow cabinet. The new NDP team will hold the Campbell government accountable for its election promises...Did BC Liberals obstruct justice by deleting key e-mail during election?
Tourism Industry Hurt From Drop In Border Traffic And Campbell’s Double Whammy
Students Outraged At Post-Election Funding Cuts By Campbell Government
B.C. Liberal Deficit Deception Keeps Getting Worse
B.C. Liberals Need To Come Clean About Gaming Grant Funds – Simpson
Not a single story about the NDP. Like I've said before, are these guys even a party anymore? Or are they just the BC anti-Liberal movement? I used to think they had some values, now I haven't a clue what they're about.
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You'd be an idiot to ignore the recession.
The NDP have always traditionally been much more of the spending spree types.
But the NDP would increase spending, not decrease it, James said.
“The government is going in the wrong direction and contrary to anyone else across this country,” James said. “If you look at other provinces, if you look at other jurisdictions you’re seeing investments in the economy, you’re seeing stimulus packages.
That's Carole James in a nutshell.
*recession hits* "The Liberals are not doing enough for British Columbians blah blah blah"
*Liberals spend more money* "The Liberals are bankrupting our future blah blah blah"
*reporter asks what the NDP would do differently* "............. The Liberals blah blah blah."
Now that's leadership!
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And there are also quite a few other automated station announcements and they're still testing them out:
"The Canada Line is experiencing major delays due to harsh weather conditions."
haha great, can't wait to hear that one in action...!
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The question is, what type of transit would we see on Broadway under the NDP? The NDP candidate running against Campbell in the Point Grey electorate district in May really tried to rally the NIMBY types, Broadway businesses (by Cambie fear mongering), and LRT enthusiasts against voting for Campbell as he would bring SkyTrain to the area....
Yes, this is my point. If the NDP are elected and we end up with some crappy LRT on Broadway, I'm moving to Delta or something. To avoid the DISASTER.
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^ it's hard to come up with something solid until there's funding for it, and that's $2.8-billion. We just spent $2-billion on a new line that just opened, we're about to spend $1.4-billion on the Evergreen Line, and Translink needs to find $450-million every year to continue transit expansion including funding for Evergreen.
A definitive route for the Broadway extension will be made over the next few years.
It'll be built sooner or later, it's obviously vital to the region.
It's this "sooner or later" talk that worries me. I mean what if a source of funding never comes? What if the NDP come to power? What if the NIMBY-ers get their way? There seems to be a lot that could derail this plan... like I said, I'm still skeptical.
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No no I've heard about all these "plans" but right now they sound like nothing more than empty politician promises and fleeting reports. I want to hear something like "construction will begin in the summer of 20??" or "this is the definite route that the new line will take" or something. I mean what if the Liberals lose the next election? Will the plans evaporate? It all sounds very nice, but it just doesn't seem concrete enough!
Really, I promise I've heard about everything you guys posted, I just don't buy it quite yet. Not solid enough. I'm still very skeptical, is what I'm trying go say.
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Cool picture, but hardly concrete evidence of anything...
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It will happen, but the question is where would it stop? There's no doubt that LRT will be thrown out the door, it makes no sense. The NIMBY's and LRT enthusiasts can make all the noise they want, but LRT on Broadway is just retarded and the people in charge know it.
Arbutus will no doubt be the minimum of what a SkyTrain extension would stop at. The City of Vancouver is already forcing a major condo/retail development at Arbutus and Broadway to allow provisions for a large underground rail transit entrance at the development.
Going all the way to UBC would be most ideal, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I would love to believe this, but again, how do you know? I haven't seen a word about it on the media or on the internet (outside of this forum) except for that one study that examined the feasibility or whatever, but nothing concrete at all. I'm having doubts!
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^ it'll only be a matter of time before the Millennium Line is extended to Broadway from VCC Station to at least Arbutus. There will be a massive interchange station at Broadway-City Hall Station with the Canada Line.
I keep hearing this, yet I still haven't seen a single piece of evidence that gives me any sort of confidence that this will happen.
Also if a line towards UBC stopped at Arbutus, I think I would cry a bit inside. And maybe even outside. I understand the logistics of ending it there for now, but if they're going to build it, just go all the way... otherwise they'll be caught up in another 20 years of debates, commissions, reports, and red tape.
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It'll take time for it to settle in that we have actual transit in Vancouver now. Getting downtown'll be a lot easier now.
Indeed, but there's still a blatant lack of East-West service everywhere past Commercial Drive. Which is basically ALL OF VANCOUVER.
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Holy crud, turns out 83,000 rode the Canada Line on Tuesday (not Monday) on its first day of normal revenue service. Not 70,000 as first reported. That's incredible.
mmm, but a lot of those people (myself included) only rode it on tuesday because they didn't feel like waiting in line on monday. That number is obviously inflated, it'll be a while before there are any meaningful ridership stats.
The Official Transit Thread
in Off-Topic General
Posted
It's a bit sad that this group can't even garner 2000 supporters, while mindless groups about today's most popular celebrities or groups created to complain about the most trivial things can gather millions. I invited my UBC friends a long time ago, I think they basically all joined.