Has TransLink Ignored SkyTrain Safety by Refusing to Install Sliding Doors at Stations?
The VAL automatic metro in Lille, France has sliding doors at stations to prevent suicides as mandated by EEC rules for automatic metro systems. This begs the question; “Has TransLink ignored this important safety feature to reduce costs for the SkyTrain and Canada line mini-metro systems?”
The sad answer is that TransLink finds it cheaper to deal with suicides than prevent them and if people find this distasteful, don’t shoot the messenger.
Light rail, which has drivers, has a far better record in preventing suicides than automatic metros like SkyTrain, especially when the operating authority refuses to include safety features with station designs.
I remember back in 1985’ish people were warning about jumpers with SkyTrain. They have done nothing and to this day suicides sadly continue.
Could also try blue lights. In Japan, a study found an 84% reduction in suicides after blue lights were installed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22980401/
Either way, something needs to be done.
Yes, TransLink is negligent 100%. How the buffoons at TransLink can keep doing things wrong by the seat of their pants with total impunity is beyond me.
If TransLink were a private corporation, someone at the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure would have suspended their transit license years ago after the first 100 deaths for the unnecessary cost of scrapping guts from the tracks, at the very least. Moreover, TransLink’s total disregard for the noise and emission impacts from its FTN buses wreaking havoc here warrants the sacking of all the monkeys at TransLink.
Unfortunately, if the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure did an investigation into TransLink – it would point the finger at the dimwits at the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure making all the decisions for TransLink. So, don’t expect any due diligence from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure any time soon.
Translink needs to install platform screen/edge doors, or install half-height screen doors the very least!
Zweisystem replies: the excuse that BC Transit and TransLink has used for not installing the screens is that it would be too costly. One must remember that SkyTrain, then known as ALRT, was sold at the time as a supper streetcar and not a mini-metro and to keep costs down and too keep the appearance of Skytrain really being light rail, the station doors were never contemplated.
Today, streetcars have proven in revue service to have a higher capacity than SkyTrain and no one builds (except for TransLink) Skytrain anymore, improvement for Skytrain will never see the light of day.
Also, how much is the driver’s operating costs (annually), and can streetcars (or modern light rail transit) be fully automated?
Zweisystem replies: The cost for drivers for a LRT/tram line is lower than the staff requirements for an automatic railway. Instead of drivers, Translink has 170 full time attendants and the technical staff is much larger on a automatic transit route, when compared to LRT. Yes a streetcar can be automated, if it can operate on a fully grade separated rights-of-way, but streetcars or trams, operating on-street attract more ridership, when compared to a automatic mini-metro operating in the Sky. This is what is refereed to as the “convenience factor” as convenience of a transit system is very important to attracting transit customers.
@Daniel, all sky train lines add buses to get people to the stations spaced 1.6 km apart on average. This is an added operating cost which TransLink deceptively writes off as overhead and does not include as the cost of doing business with sky train. In contrast, trams with closely spaced stops remove buses from the roads to reduce operating costs.
Saying that an automated and driverless system like the sky train requiring the addition of buses is less expensive to operate than a tram or LRT system with stops close enough together to take buses off the roads is “specious”. It is analogous to saying that a trailer towed by a SUV is less expensive to operate than a Prius.
In this analogy the Prius is the tram (tram uses one-third the electricity of the sky train) and the SUV is the diesel bus (with driver) operating along the sky train route to feed the sky train (trailer). In general, sky train costs much more to construct, operate and maintain. At the same time, the tram is faster than the sky train for the average commuter in Metro Vancouver. Sky train is a lemon by fools who won’t admit it because it will end their careers.
Sky train is a sham. The truth will come out eventually, and behind the scenes TransLink is in chaos.