Here We Go Again!
Again last week, a local politician repeated the old trope, that Broadway was the busiest transit corridor in not only Canada, but North America.
Again Zwei counters the statement with facts. Oh yes, a little birdie told me that TransLink is not running the full schedule of buses in the peak hours due to driver issues, that the buses are operating well under their scheduled capacity of around 2,000 pphpd.
Anyone prepared to count headway’s?
Posted by zweisystem on Tuesday, April 2, 2024
BROADWAY IS NOT THE BUSIEST TRANSIT ROUTE IN CANADA
It seems trouble is brewing on Broadway, buildings are sagging and media keeps repeating the TransLink and City of Vancouver’s nonsense that Broadway is the busiest transit route in North America.
Well it isn’t and never was and my guess is that TransLink, the provincial NDP and the CoV are softening up the taxpayer for some bad fiscal news about the now $2.7 billion, 5.7 km Broadway Subway.
The clincher is this; according to Thales News Release announcing thew $1.49 billion re-signalling contract;
The government of Canada, the government of British Columbia, and the region have committed to investing $C 1.47bn ($US 1.1bn) in the Expo and Millennium Line Upgrade Programme until 2027.
When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, and the Millennium Line will be able to handle 7500 passengers per hour per direction, a 32% and 96% increase respectively.
A maximum capacity of only 7,500 pphpd on the Millennium Line (Broadway subway) supposedly busiest transit corridor in North America? Is Broadway the busiest transit corridor in North America, I think not.
An updated RftV repost.
Broadway
BROADWAY IS NOT THE BUSIEST TRANSIT ROUTE IN CANADA
For the past several years, the SkyTrain Lobby, politicians and academics have all said, almost in unison, that Broadway was the busiest transit corridor in Canada, if not North America.
The old Joseph Goebbels quote is true; “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Thus for the past several years the big Broadway lie, enabled by TransLink has ingrained the notion that Broadway is the most heavily transit route in Canada.
Fact Check!
According to the TTC’s Fall 2022 data, these routes are busier than Broadway 99B Bus Route:
(data is from Translink and the TTC)99 B: 35,800 Boardings (Fall 2022)
504 A&B King St Streetcar: 48,900 Boardings (Fall 2022)
Queen 501Streetcar: 37,400 Boardings (Fall 2022)
Finch West 36 Bus: 36,900 (Fall 2022)
Lawrence West 52: 36,100 (Fall 2022)
In a letter to several news organizations, all metro mayors and other interested parties, I laid the foundation that Broadway was not the busiest transit route in Canada .
Stung by this, TransLink wrote a letter to myself and in a round about way claimed that Broadway “is our region’s most overcrowded bus route.”
No apology and not even a hint of remorse, TransLink continues to boast about Broadway!
Finally, on January 31, 2019, you contacted several news organizations and this Secretariat raising concerns over TransLink’s assertion that the 99 B-Line is the busiest bus route in the US and Canada. TransLink is confident in its data collection and peer comparisons, noting that the 99 B-Line route on the Broadway Corridor moves 60,000 customers per day on articulated buses running every three minutes at peak times. This is our region’s most overcrowded bus route. Pass ups are already common, as our regular riders on that route are fully aware. TransLink projects that the 99 B-Line from Arbutus to UBC will be at capacity in the peak when the Millennium Line extension from Commercial-Broadway to Arbutus opens.
Just a minor footnote, according to TransLink the 99B moves about 70,000 customers a day, but of course that is both ways, as TransLink slyly tries to once again inflate the real ridership on Broadway.
Why?
The big prize is the now almost $4 billion Broadway SkyTrain subway to Arbutus and TransLink does not want the truth to upset the subway bulldozer!
Addendum:
Haveacow
says:
The MIllennium seems a bit of a waste!
Even if the statement about Broadway being the busiest in Canada is true, why such a discrepancy between the contract for the signaling system and the current claimed daily ridership of 60,000 per day. The signalling system is designed to max out in peak hour capacity 7,500 p/h/d, that means your planning for a line that will move roughly 105,000 – 135,000 passengers per day. If your present bus corridor is actually moving 60000 per day, that’s roughly 3,300 – 4,500 p/h/d during the busiest point of the peak hour, and I’m being very generous. That’s a busway or a very light surface LRT line.
Montreal’s surface Busway is designed to handle twice that number per day (approximately 120,000). It cost, including cost overruns, $535 Million for 17 km, including a major bridge over a large river. That street doesn’t need a tunnel it needs better bus system management. Broadway is just as wide as Pie IX Blvd. Your going to spend anywhere from $4-$6 Billion for a 6 – 7 km long tunnel extension. MONEY YOU DONT HAVE, to extend the Millennium Line to U.B.C., to move half the daily passenger traffic Montreal’s Pie IX Busway is designed to move. This line is being built for purposes other than transport. After all this time it still doesn’t make sense.
I know the bus you are ridding is probably full and it feels like a Skytrain extension would be so much better but a massively expensive tunnel isn’t the answer, considering the small numbers your actually currently moving.
Zwei, I have a favor to ask you, the first time you ran this article I just ignored the issue. Since your running it again can you correct a typo of mine. It’s the 504 A&B King St Streetcar not the 514 streetcar. Many thanks!
Zwei, I have personally never actually read or heard someone from Translink or the City claim that Broadway is the busiest *transit* route in Canada and North America. I’ve seen claims about the busiest *bus* route but not the broader claim you cite.
Can you point to the source for your claim?
I did just look for ridership numbers to compare buses on Broadway (not just #99) in Vancouver vs. Queen and King streetcars in Toronto but could not find any numbers for 2024. According to https://movementyvr.ca/east-broadway-bus-lanes/ the Broadway bus ridership is higher than any Toronto streetcar routes (they compare it to 36 Finch West) but they don’t report the year or their source.
Zwei replies: It was this claim, often repeated by the CoV to build a subway and it is still repeated in the media. The City engineer who maintained the claim, is now earning $700K annually being CEO of Metro Vancouver.
Phone Vancouver City hall and they will tell you. In a letter I sent TransLink, in reply they made it very clear they did not make the claim and said it was their most congested bus route.
As for ridership numbers, the TTC has good record keeping.
Vancouver city council didn’t bring many options for Translink to solve the 99-B line problems. Still against putting up all date bus lanes on Broadway. The province is against LRT. The only option to solve it is an expensive skytrain and future capacity needed at UBC.
Zwei replies: The coV wanted a subway because subways, in their minds, makes Vancouver world class. Simple.
With the capacity of the Millennium Line capped at 7,500 pphpd, tells me TransLink does not think that the subway will attract much new ridership.
You are correct the province is against light rail, by the time the extension to UBC is built, there will be no trains available to operate on it.
In fact a source has told me that Translink is trying the buy the patents from Asltom for the proprietary railway.