Montpellier opens new lines – A lesson unlearned for TransLink!
What is very interesting about this news item from the Light Rail Transit Associations web siteAi??( www.lrta.org ) is that the cost for Montpellier’s two new light rail/tram lines 3 & 4 (28.2 km) is about CAD $688.8 million or about $24.45 million/km. to build!
The cost of Montpellier’s two new tram lines are less than one half of the cost of the Evergreen line, yet almost three times longer! This means LRT can reach more destinations, cheaper than SkyTrian light-metro, with light rail offering more people a good public transit option than we can with SkyTrain. No wonder TransLink is in financial chaos asAi??we are spending about three times as much to provide the same sort of service with SkyTrain, than we could with modern light rail!
Montpellier opens new lines : Lines 3 and 4 of the Montpellier light rail network entered public service on April 7 after an inauguration ceremony at 17.00 on 6 April, Line 3 runs for 19Ai??8 km with 20 stops from Juvignac in the west of the city to PAi??rols-Etang de l’Or in the southeast, with a spur to Lattes-Centre. It is operated with a fleet of 19 Alstom Citadis cars, Each 40m trams are liveried to a maritime design. Line 4 is 8Ai??4 km long and runs partly on sections of lines 1, 2 and 3 from Saint-Denis to Place Albert 1er, serving 17 stops. It is operated with a fleet of 12 Alstom Citadis cars, each 32m long in black livery
In addition Line 1 has been extended from Stade de la Mosson to a new interchange with Line 3 at Mosson, Line 2 has been rerouted to take a more direct route through the Centre running from Corum to the SNCF station at Saint-Roch via ComAi??die.
The Montpellier network now totals 56km compared with 15.2km when the cityai??i??s first line opened in June 2000 and has 12 Park + Ride sites. The new lines have cost a total of EUR530m (CAD $688.8 million).Ai?? A pdf version of the new route map can be found on the TAM site (Transports de l’Agglomeration de Montpellier).
Good for Montpellier, good for public transit, not necessarily relavent to Vancouver. Minor quibble a lot of line 4 is on existing track. You should probably adjust the $/km a bit.
Following Montpellier’s launch of new lines, passengers deserve a drop in transport fares since the light rail tramways are cost effective and they have a higher carrying capacity than previous tramways. Although a drop in fares is left at the discretion of the tramway operators, passengers will travel more often if they are offered affordable transportation and this will translate to more income being generated by the tramways.
Still flogging a dead horse Rico. TransLink’s current financial woes is because we keep building with the very expensive, yet obsolete SkyTrain/Canada Line mini metros. We can build a whole lot more transit for the price of one SkyTrain Line.
TransLink is hopeless. Someone please put the morons at TransLink out of their misery.
I couldn’t agree with this article more, trams are the answer in Metro Vancouver – more stops, more access and less expensive (than SkyTrain and BRT). Trams also reduce air pollution by removing diesel buses such as the 99 B-Line “required to fill” the SkyTrain.
According to the efficiency review (just weeks old) by the TransLink Commission, TransLink is not performing well because TransLink operates too many buses too often and there are too few passengers boarding buses per hour:
http://translinkcommission.org/TransLink_Efficiency_Review_Mar_21-12_FINAL.pdf
So what does TransLink do? On April 18, 2012, not even one month after the efficiency review by the TransLink commission, TransLink announces extra 99 B-Line service to UBC from midnight to 2 am while “UBC is in recess” over the summer:
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/TransLink+expands+NightBus+service+Metro+Vancouver/6478687/story.html
At the same time, TransLink cancelled B-Line service for Surrey. This doesn’t sound too smart to me when all the empty 99 B-Line buses could be providing at least some service to Surrey, instead. Is everyone at TransLink retarded?
TransLink is going to be operating “express” 99 B-Line diesel buses on the #9 trolley bus route (continuing to cancel the #9 trolley bus service on weekends and after 6:30 pm on weekdays) to operate the “fast” 99 B-Line service until 2 am. Is this really necessary when the “fast” 99 B-Line has to stop at lights every few blocks along Broadway and only saves “seconds” over the #9 trolley bus service after 7 pm and on weekends (provided that TransLink operates the # 9 trolley bus service at the same schedule as the 99 B-Line)? Apparently it does to TransLink and every second counts!
Does it make any sense for the dimwits at TransLink – to operate 99 B-Line diesel buses rather than #9 trolley buses which don’t create as much noise as the 99 B-Lines, which don’t create any air pollution compared with the 99 B-Lines, which stop more often to pick up more passengers than the limited stop express 99 B-Line service and which are more economical to operate than the 2.65 mpg articulated 99 diesel buses? Is this what Ian Jarvis, TransLink CEO means by well managed?
Should TransLink be worried about the pending audit of its performance by the provincial government? No, not really. Kelvin Falcon who appointed the stooges at TransLink is doing the provincial audit on TransLink rather than an independent third party engineer from say, Edmonton Transit.
With Falcon doing the audit, it is more likely going to turn into a paper shredding exercise to destroy evidence of any wrong doing by TransLink before the next government opens the books on TransLink… “every day is exactly the same, there are no laws here and there is no pain, every day is exactly the same, I can’t remember how it all started but I can tell you how it will end” that song by NIN must have had TransLink in mind, I’m sure of it:
http://www.burnabynow.com/news/TransLink+report+damning+Corrigan/6477214/story.html
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http://www.rockantenne.de/webplayer/?playchannel=alternative
What TransLink should do on Broadway is to upgrade the route to a Euopean standard and operate articulated trolley busses, with stops every 400 to 500 metres, with priority signaling at major intersections. Such a service would both provide extra capacity and increase commercial speed of the service, negating the need for the polluting TransLink brand 99-B Line diesel express buses.
I’ve used the LRT in Portland a few times, and the trains treval down city streets without separate (expensive) right-of-ways. The system seems to work fine, and doesn’t seem that expensive either. Simply put rails into the pavement and place train on rails That’s what it seems like they’ve done in Portland. I’d be happy seeing rails down the middle or edges of KGB with trains on them seems pretty simple to me, and much better than the 321 (standing room only) that I take every day from Central City to Newton!