TramTrain For 2022

A re-post from earlier this year.

With the devastation caused by this years heat dome, wild fires, tornado, atmospheric rivers, flood and of course our modern day plague, Covid, the provincial government must rethink its plans to spend over $10 billion to build less than 22 km of the SkyTrain light metro network.

$10 billion you say? Yes, $10 billion and probably a little more.

  • The 5.8 km Millennium (Broadway subway) to Arbutus is now said to cost over $3 billion.
  • The 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now topping $4 billion.
  • The much needed mid life rehab for the (especially for) Expo and Millennium lines, may cost $3 billion.

Added up, that is over $10 billion for a mere 21.8 km of light-metro line. 21.8 km of new line will do very little taking cars off the road or reducing pollution, especially from autos and commercial vehicles.

There must be another way and there is, but our planners, engineers and especially our politicians remain deaf to a proven affordable alternative and that is TramTrain, a modern tram that can quite happily operate on both streetcar tracks and on regular railway tracks.

TramTrain could be built up the Fraser Valley for around $1.3 billion, connecting Vancouver to North Surrey/Delta, Cloverdale, Langley, Abbotsford, Sardis/Vedder and Chilliwack.

On Vancouver island, TramTrain could be the answer for the E&N. An estimated $1.5 billion could see a rehabilitated E&N offering a two train per hour service serving the communities between Victoria and Courtney and with more investment have small tram/streetcar routes in Victoria and Nanaimo, which would attract even more customers to transit.

Global warming is real; catastrophic weather events are becoming more common place; traffic congestion is becoming endemic both on the mainland and on Vancouver Island. The province needs real solutions to solve the growing climate crisis and the pablum of doing the same thing over and over again, ever hoping for different results has long ended.

We cannot blacktop or SkyTrain our way out of global warming, yet this is what the current government is doing, as they sleepwalk from one global warming fiasco, to another.

We must send a clear and concise message to all politicians, we must do a lot more for a lot less money.

TramTrain fits the bill wonderfully.

 

TramTrain in the countryA Karlsruhe TramTrain on a cross country railway in the Black Forest

From December, 2020.

Zwei has been a member of the Light Rail Transit Association for over 35 years and with membership comes a subscription to the most excellent magazine Tramways & Urban Transit.

The following will be of most interest for those wanting an affordable rail connection from Vancouver to Chilliwack using the existing and former BC Electric passenger line connecting to Chilliwack or reinstating passenger service on the E&N Railway.

Today six years after the this article was published in T&UT much has happened with TramTrain. today there are over 30 TramTrain systems operating around the world, with a further 30 plus systems being planned.

TramTrain is evolving and with newer, Greener propulsion systems and cheaper and safer signalling systems, TramTrain is no longer a niche transit system, but a safe, affordable and user friendly transit mode, that can expand ones transit system into lower population areas, providing an efficient and cost effective public transport service.

There are several candidates for a TramTrain service in BC, yet the provincial government and civic politicians still want massively expensive and financially ruinous extensions to the current light metro system as they love to cut ribbons in front of mega-projects at election time.

The time has come to seriously consider TramTrain in BC, but I am afraid with Horgan and the NDP, the affordable transit train has long left the station.

 

From Tramways & Urban Transit

Tram-train / JUNE 2014

www.tramnews.net.www.lrta.org

TRAM-TRAIN:A PROMISE UNFULFILLED?

Micheal Taplin

Prologue

“On 25 September 1992 dual-voltage LRVs began running between Karlsruheand Bretten… within a year passenger numbers were up 400%, and today the model works over nearly 500km (310 miles) of track.”

TramTrain and regional passenger train at station.

During 125 years of electric tramways, the tram as we know it has generally been developed as a vehicle suited to alignments on, or based on, city streets. Of course there were interurban lines that ran across country, particularly in North America, where they reached their apogee in 1915, before being decimated by the inexorable rise in motor vehicles. Some of these originated as steam railroads, and others entered cities on the tracks of urban tramways or rapid transit lines. In Europe, particularly Switzerland, such interurbans were called light railways (to distinguish them from their mainline cousins), and again running on to city streets was, and is, quite common. The former NZH in the Netherlands is another example.Japan, with its plethora of private railway companies, followed the US interurban pattern, though the boom there coincided with the decline in North America, and Michael Taplin gives a brief overview of the tram-train concept and asks if political and institutional issues form a greater barrier to its further implementation than technical concerns.

During 125 years of electric tramways, the tram as we know it has generally been developed as a vehicle suited to alignments on, or based on, city streets. Of course there were interurban lines that ran across country, particularly in North America, where they reached their apogee in 1915, before being decimated by the inexorable rise in motor vehicles. Some of these originated as steam railroads, and others entered cities on the tracks of urban tramways or rapid transit lines. In Europe, particularly Switzerland, such interurbans were called light railways (to distinguish them from their mainline cousins), and again running on to city streets was, and is, quite common. The former NZH in the Netherlands is another example.

Japan, with its plethora of private railway companies, followed the US interurban pattern, though the boom there coincided with the decline in North America, and Michael Taplin gives a brief overview of the tram-train concept and asks if political and institutional issues form a greater barrier to its further implementation than technical concerns.most lines survive today as rapid transit operations, with some penetration of city streets or subways. None of the above models were referred to as tram-trains, though the principle is not dissimilar.

Germany The modern tram-train concept, which saw its inauguration at Karlsruhe in Germany, uses a tram-based vehicle capable of operation on both mainline railway tracks and city tram tracks. Track-sharing between trams and trains was not unknown before, but the railways involved could hardly be deemed mainline.Karlsruhe had its own interurban operation, the Albtalbahn, which had track-sharing with Deutsche Bahn (DB) on its northern arm.

The possibility of travelling to the city centre without a change of vehicle was very attractive to passengers. Thanks to the German concept of the Verkehrsverbund joint tariff area, the financial consequences could be uncoupled from the commercial interests of the operators (AVG and DB), and work concentrated on the legal and technical hurdles to be overcome to permit through operation.On 25 September 1992 dual-voltage (750V dc and 15kV ac) light rail vehicles began running between Karlsruhe and Bretten, switching between city tram tracks and DB tracks at Grötzingen.

Within a year passenger numbers were up by 400%, and today the Karlsruhe model works over nearly 500km (310 miles) of track. There are 151 dual-voltage cars, 121 from Siemens, and 30 just being delivered by Bombardier (with options for up to 45 more). The tram-train model was truly a success, and good business for the Karlsruhe-based consultants involved.

Other German examples followed, in Saarbrücken, Chemnitz, Zwickau, Kassel and Nordhausen, though not exact copies. Saarbrücken runs 28 Bombardier Flexity Linkdual-voltage cars through the streets and then on DB tracks south to Sarreguemines,

For the rest of the story please click here

 

Postscript

If one wants to talk transit, join the Light Rail Transit Association

Comments

3 Responses to “TramTrain For 2022”
  1. Cardinal Fang says:

    Grinding to a halt: a look inside the Fraser Valley’s rail system
    A storm knocked out the valley’s rail system for weeks. Things are starting to move again, but a return to normal is still a long way away.
    https://fvcurrent.com/article/fraser-valley-train-flood/

    The BC Government must ensure the resilience of rail & also road routes in the Fraser Valley

  2. Haveacow says:

    Last night I was trying to find a particular fact that l was trying to remember in the old EA for the Stage 1 Broadway Subway to Arbutus extension of the Millennium Line. Rereading the document, I was still dumbstruck how they whittled down the choices for the eventual form of the project. I am still surprised by how few people went,”what the hell are they trying to do here?” There is a continually bizarre pattern of decision making when they(Translink) make their final choices around Skytrains. .

    The build up to the Surrey LRT project was a series of no fewer than 6 planning studies going back to, at the least, 2001, traveling forward all the way through to 2016. The study period that led to the Surrey-Langley Expo Line extension was 1 study of barely a year between 2019-2020, with only one possible outcome studied. A Skytrain line from Surrey to Langley This study and plan was so completely blown to pieces by Covid 19 they had to change the project scope, phasing and financing. Translink has been forced to essentially redo the physical planning, the financing and operational plan from the final form chosen, backwards to fit the reasons why this line, technology and financing is the best way forward.

    With most projects anywhere else, this would mean an entirely new Environmental Assessment from scratch to reassess the project, but no this is okay. Is it any wonder the price of construction went from $1.63 Billion to $3.95 Billion in less than two and a half years. I wonder what else they missed? Once the Mayor of Surrey dumped the LRT project for a Skytrain extension, any real and careful planning went out the window. Not only were new opportunities missed, mistakes, are also probably being made in this blind rush forward. I believe, I have spotted two already.

    The Skytrain project to Langley is now more expensive than both Stage 1 and 2 of the old LRT plan. So 27 km of very expensive LRT, costs less than 16 km of Skytrain. Keep in mind, our Stage 2 LRT Plan here, gives us 40 km of electric and diesel-electric LRT for $4.6 Billion. Just $600 million more gives us here in Ottawa, two and half times the coverage, including 5 km of tunnel, stations and vehicles which are either the same size or larger (depends on the line you look at). With all that flood damage to pay for, is this over rushed, political project, really worth it for the B.C. provincial government?

    Zwei replies: It is my belief that TransLink is in big, big financial trouble. They say ridership is climbing but any casual look at the suburban routes show empty bus after empty bus.

    Also we must remember the Universities were still collecting U-Pass money from students, so TransLink was getting income, ridership or not. it seems the buses going to post secondary institutions have increasing ridership as well as bus dependent people in Vancouver/Burnaby/New West, but in the burbs, people are avoiding transit like the plague.

    The problem i see for TransLink is that the U-Pass was designed for about 30% compliance, but if 60% or 70% of the issued U-Passes are used, TransLink will have major financial problems.

    As 2022 is a civic election year, i do not see taxes rising to pay for the transit mess and i o see a fair amount of”anti tax” politicians running. And now with inflation and limited budgets, I would think any politician running on a more taxes for TransLink will be committing politcal suicide at the polls.

    The cost of the massive damage coming from the floods and now a potential of lawsuits again certain municipal government for not maintaining dikes, I think the Expo line will be extended to Fleetwood, so the NDP and premier Horgan can save face sometime after 2030 and it will go no more. Even the Broadway subway completing to UBC is a dicey question and if there is a change on city council, it might be stopped dead in its tracks.

    What I do know is, if that the economy tanks, will Alstom pull the plug on MALM? Vancouver is the only customer and Alstom last experience in Vancouver left them with a very bad taste in the mouth. There is no love lost between
    Alstom and the province and TransLink.

  3. Qualicum says:

    What about tramtrain to Prince George? Trains need to be longer with food and drink service on board.

    Zwei replies: A bit too far for TramTrain to P.G., but a regular long distant DMU service is very feasible.

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