Lotus Land In Shock with the CPR Reactivating The Arbutus Corridor
The Arbutus corridor Interurban near 37th
The Arbutus corridor debate continues and Zwei has a made a few observations.
- Has anyone in the media ask Molsons if they want to once again use the railway for both delivery and export?
- Has anyone in the the media reported that the CPR has paid taxes since the rail line was mothballed?
- What liability risk is there for the CPR if someone injures themselves on the line?
- Has the media reported that the Arbutus line was doubled tracked until the late 1950’s, hence no WW II victory gardens were on the right of way?
- $100 million for the 10 km Arbutus Corridor ($10 million/km) is a bargain if a LRT/streetcar/tram line were to use it, considering that a Broadway SkyTrain subway will cost about $200 million/km!
From the Vancouver Sun.
Pete McMartin: Urbanization: Whoai??i??d have guessed? Kerrisdale as a bastion of Marxism
By Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun August 16, 2014
A Canadian Pacific Rail police officer, right, directs residents Sarah Myambo, left, and Mila Rakhmetouline off the property for their safety as they try to salvage items from their community garden after workers destroyed and removed it on a stretch of abandoned CP Rail line in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday August 14, 2014. The once-abandoned 11-kilometre-long Arbutus Corridor has been used by residents for many years as a greenway where community gardens were erected. The removal of the gardens is the culmination of a growing dispute between the rail company and the City of Vancouver over the value of the land. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
The latest tempest in a pea plot emanates from ai??i?? where else? ai??i?? the westside, home of the ever-embattled.
If itai??i??s not one thing with westsiders, itai??i??s everything. While most of Metro Vancouver endures measures of growth that are completely transforming huge swaths of the urban landscape to no outcry whatsoever, westsiders continue to make news with what seems to be their permanent state of apoplexy over the smallest of problems.
In the recent past, they have voiced their displeasure, to much media coverage, over the establishment of a single bike lane, a park pathway, modest densification along an arterial route, the only social housing complex for recovering addicts to be built west of Main, housing demolitions (as if that hasnai??i??t happened in every neighbourhood in the city), the invasion of offshore real estate buyers … and not having a moat to keep the rest of the world at bay, although possibly I made that last one up.
Whether itai??i??s the sense of enclave that privilege engenders, or the unstated but deeply held conviction that money should talk and a lot of money should do the loudest talking, the creme de la creme seem to spend much of their time complaining about how their world is curdling around them.
And that now includes gardening.
Or rather, as I see it, trespassing.
For over a decade, gardeners have appropriated for themselves small parcels of land alongside the CP Rail tracks that traverse the Arbutus Corridor. Westsiders walk their dogs there and park their cars there, too.
Itai??i??s private property, yet those gardeners have paid not a single penny to CP for the privilege of establishing their gardens on it. CP has up until now allowed it, probably out of disinterest more than anything.
This was also property that in the recent past was being considered as one of the candidates for a mass transit corridor through Vancouver, the proposal of which westsiders fought hard to stop. And successfully did so. Instead, the line was built down Cambie.
Yet while they blanched at the idea of a transit line going down the Arbutus Corridor, or, for that matter, anything going down it, the locals were fine with the idea of trespassing on private property so they could grow snap peas or walk their dogs. In effect, they seized the means of production. Who could have guessed that Kerrisdale would emerge as a bastion of Marxism?
So, when CP ordered the clearing of the gardens ai??i?? which I am assuming is its latest move in its high-stakes game of poker with the city government ai??i?? it was cast as the big bad capitalist bully.
Why couldnai??i??t the railway have waited, critics bemoaned, until the gardeners reaped their harvest? Didnai??i??t it realize that one of those gardens it was demolishing was the Vancouver Montessori Schoolai??i??s, planted to educate children about ai??i?? and I quote from the gardenai??i??s press release ai??i?? ai???life-changing processes of the seed-to-table process, the environmental impacts of their food choices and the various cultural celebrations connected to foodai????
And this, too, critics pointed out: The federal government gave that land to CP for free in the 1800s! And now the railway wants the city to pay a kingai??i??s ransom for it? Outrageous!
Well, no, itai??i??s not outrageous. Itai??i??s business. CPai??i??s responsibility is to get as high a rate of return for its stockholders as it can, not to ensure a high yield of tomatoes for the green thumbs of Kerrisdale.
If that means trying to force the city governmentai??i??s hand three months before a civic election ai??i?? a city government that CP has no love for, given their court battles, and the cityai??i??s zoning change that devalued the CP land by tens of millions of dollars ai??i?? I wouldnai??i??t be surprised if it did so.
Digging up the gardens was not a deft public relations move. Corporate backhoes levelling the gardens of retirees and schoolchildren is the kind of stuff that makes newshour producers salivate. So visceral. So easy.
But it isnai??i??t. This is a hard-headed negotiation. The city wants to buy the land from CP for significantly less than what CP wants to sell it for.
Meanwhile, those gardeners have had use of CPai??i??s land for free for over a decade. Thatai??i??s a lot of harvests under their belts. How much would it have cost them, I wonder, if they had had to pay for that privilege?
In 1986………….
In 1986, during the duration of Expo 86 in Vancouver there was a passenger rail service from New Westminster to Abbotsford.
A British Rail Class 142 Pacer DMU at Abbotsford station in the summer of 1986. If it could be done in 1986, it can certainly be done in 2014.
What is not said is that most of these trains were full!
Political will and nothing more will see the interurban, updated to 21st century standards, in operation again in the Fraser Valley.
Stupid is, as stupid does – TransLink – The faregate fiasco!
This article from Toronto contains some very interesting information.
“………$8 million to hire 100 fare inspectors……..”
…………and TransLink is spending at least $171 million on fare gates, with annual operating costs of $15 million to deter less than $5 million in fare evasion annually!
By the way, there is no proof that fare gates actually reduces fare evasion.
More proof that “if you have idiots running the show, don’t be surprised at the results!”
<http://tinyurl.com/p6jq6k4>
“A welcome way to improve streetcar service: Editorial
Transit CEO plans to let streetcar riders board using the back or centre door on an honour system of payment
Published on Mon Aug 11 2014Andy Byford, who heads the Toronto Transit Commission, wants to move to the fare system used by cities throughout Europe, allowing customers to board streetcars by the back door on an honour basis.
The new model wouldnai??i??t operate entirely on trust.
As part of its plan, the TTC would hire about 100 fare inspectors to catch cheaters. Anyone without a specially stamped transfer, Metropass or other proof of payment, could be fined as much as $400.
This is a welcome reform. It would save passengers time; alleviate bunching at the front door; and, if the TTCai??i??s calculations are correct, pay for itself within a short time.
ai???International experience shows that with proper enforcement fare evasion will actually shrink,ai??? said chief customer officer Chris Upfold.
The proposal still needs the approval of the TTC board and the city.
The idea isnai??i??t new; the 501 streetcar on Queen St. already uses a proof of payment (POP) system between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The cityai??i??s 204 new streetcars ai??i?? which will phased in over the next few years ai??i?? will all use the new fare system. They will be introduced on the Spadina line, starting Aug. 31.
The TTC originally set a 2019 target date to complete the switch-over.
But if Byfordai??i??s plan is accepted, the new fare system will be in place on all streetcars as of Jan. 1, 2015.
He estimates the change will save 5 to 6 minutes per trip on the heavily-used King streetcar.
He canai??i??t promise much relief to rush-hour customers.
That would require more vehicles and storage facilities. But heai??i??s doing as much as he can to modernize the existing system.
He is asking the city for $8 million to hire 100 fare inspectors and to increase the TTCai??i??s capital budget so he can add express buses, with the aim of reducing crowding to the 2012 level, when funding cuts were imposed.
Although money is tight and thereai??i??s no easy fix for Torontoai??i??s overburdened transit system, Byford has been making measureable progress since he took the helm in 2012.
He has improved punctuality on buses and subways (not yet on streetcars, impeded by construction).
He increased the number of subway stations with elevators and cut staff absenteeism. He has given ticket sellers the tools they need to accept debit or credit cards.
He introduced a customer charter with 39 commitments and a firm timetable for achieving them.
He launched ai???meet the managerai??? sessions for riders and quarterly town hall meetings. He has improved cleanliness, upgraded crackly speakers at five subway stations, and introduced easy-to-understand signs to guide travelers at the Yonge-Bloor and St. George hubs.
It would help enormously if the TTC, the third largest transit system in North America, received the same level of government support as its U.S. and European counterparts.
It currently relies on customer fares to provide 70 per cent of operating funds. But that is beyond Byfordai??i??s control.
What he is doing is providing creative leadership to get people moving in a clogged transit system.
If you thought using a toll road was costly, try building one
From down under.
As we are finding out with the $1.3 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road (which is both poorly designed and built) road projects tend to be as expensive or more, than comparable rail projects.
If you thought using a toll road was costly, try building one
The Sydney Morning HeraldMelbourneai??i??s giant East West Link road project is shaping up to cost $1 billion a kilometre and Sydneyai??i??s WestConnex $473 million a kilometre.Brisbaneai??i??s Airport Link cost $747 million a kilometre and Sydneyai??i??s Cross City Tunnel was constructed at a capital cost per kilometre at $476 million.
These and other road project figures have been prepared for Fairfax MediaAi??by actuary Ian Bell. An excellent interactive graphic below shows the capital costs of Australiaai??i??s major road projects.
Direct comparisons are fraught as some projects are still in the planning stage, others were completed some time ago and the more costly projects have high tunnelling costs. Melbourneai??i??s CityLink for instance had a capital cost of $100 million a kilometre (10 per cent of East West estimates) and Sydneyai??i??s Westlink M7 had a capital cost of $58 million.
Nevertheless the estimates are instructive in that they tell taxpayers and motorists what they are up for ai??i?? something their elected leaders are not telling them.
The governments of Victoria and NSW have left the planning and prospective funding of their biggest projects, East West Link and WestConnex, shrouded in secrecy.
The lack of co-ordinated, long-term planning of major transport projects across the nation is even more concerning. There has been little effort even to properly evaluate whether rail networks ai??i?? arguably more effective than roads and a fraction of the cost ai??i?? would be a superior option to big-ticket spending on roads.
The key thing to observe from Bellai??i??s analysis is the significant jump in capital cost for roads once tunnelling is involved. The Hunter Expressway toAi??NewcastleAi??for instance, a superb piece of new dual carriageway, shows a cost per kilometre of just $42.5 million. At the other extreme isAi??Brisbaneai??i??s CLEM7 motorway under the BrisbaneAi??River;Ai??it was 10 times more costly per kilometre.
If the upper band of estimated costs forAi??Melbourneai??i??s East West Link applies, the cost per kilometre more than doubles again.
Due to the various time frames and project types the values are not directly comparable, nor could they be in strictly comparable in 2014 dollar value terms, without inflating the costs of some and deflating the costs of others.
So, if that is the case with most of the large new projects, why would governments expect past methods of public-private partnership financing and toll-setting to work? No other utility inAi??AustraliaAi??expects a utility provider to lock in for fixed pricing formulae over periods of 30 years or more. It is no wonder some large superannuation fund investors are now baulking at such massive greenfields projects.
Looking at one example, Bell did some simple illustrative numbers onAi??Sydneyai??i??s Westlink M7 versus the proposal forAi??WestConnex. Taking the M7ai??i??s original cost, including finance during construction, up to its start in 2006, he inflated that broadly to 2014 terms. Then he took Macquarie Bankai??i??s leaked numbers for WestConnex (the state has not released anything), and deflated roughly back to 2014 terms. He did this while simultaneously adjusting for lane numbers and known lane lengths. Effectively this compared the two in simple terms on the basis of costs per lane kilometre.
The ratio he then found was thatAi??WestConnexAi??was about 2A? to three times more costly than the M7. This implies, importantly (and all other things being equal), that toll rates should be 2A? to three times as high, unless there are going to be heavy subsidies intoAi??WestConnexAi??by the government.
It needs to be asked how this could all work in practice, but as State Parliament has put restrictions on the information flow forAi??WestConnexai??i??s business case, the public cannot even judge what will happen to their taxpayingAi??dollars, or to their motoring budgets.
Without proper release of data from Roads and Maritime Services, Transport for NSW and Treasury, it is impossible to be sure just how many hundreds of millions of dollars of funding or revenue shortfall might arise for this, the largest infrastructure project in the stateai??i??s pipeline.Ai??Will it be a repeat of theAi??QueenslandAi??experience of the failed BrisConnections project ai??i?? soon to be before the courts?
This project, after all, is more than twice the size (and the risk will lie with the governments, not with stock exchange investors).
The accompanying graphic which shows comparative costs of road projects bears some explanation.
Some projects such as Westlink M7 (opened January 2006) were completed years ago. Others (such as parts of the Pacific Highway upgrade and the Hunter Expressway) are recently completed.
Others such as Sydney West Airport road upgrades and Stage 1A of West Connex (due 2017) are to be finished in a few years and a few will not be complete for some years (West Connex Stage 3 in 2023, East West Link, timing not available).
Due to the various timeframes and project types, the values are not directly comparable, nor could they be strictly comparable in 2014 dollar value terms without inflating the costs of some and deflating the costs of others.
The figures should therefore not be used to over-state the multiple for the cost of the new tunneled projects versus the costs for roads built on the surface on relatively flat land, in Western Sydney for instance, even though that multiple is high.
Another factor is that the newer projects listed, starting with Brisbaneai??i??s Airport Link Motorway, have additional lanes and in the case of Sydneyai??i??s West Connex, the lane design, and interchanges and so forth, are still apparently being designed, so the figures involve some guesswork. Same deal for those of the East West Link inMelbourne, whose base case model remains a secret.
However, even with a simple (road engineers might call it crude) method of relating the costs back to those for 2×2 lane dual carriageways, the message is still clear ai??i?? where tunneling is involved the cost factors are blown out by many times those above ground.
To take one example, actuary Ian Bell did some simple illustrative numbers on Sydneyai??i??s Westlink M7 vis-a-vis the proposal for West Connex. Taking the M7ai??i??s original cost, including finance during construction, up to its start in 2006, Bell inflated the cost broadly to 2014 terms.
He then took Macquarie Bankai??i??s leaked numbers for West Connex, deflated roughly back to 2014 terms while at the same time adjusting for lane numbers and known lane lengths. That effectively compared the two in simple terms on the basis of costs per lane per kilometre.
That is how Bell came up with the ratio that West Connex was around 2.5 times to 3 times more costly than the M7.
It is also worth noting that even this multiple of 2.5 to 3 times understates the sheer cost of tunneling. On Ian Bellai??i??s reckonings the 33kms at seven lanes wide on average (giving 231 total lane kilometres) hides the fact that only 134 kilometres are new lane distances. The Government is contributing free to the project some 97kms of lane length from a combination of the existing M4 between Parramatta and Concord and the existing M5 East from King Georges Road to Mascot. Locking up an existing asset such as this with zero return on capital is quite the reverse philosophy of the thrust from new premier Mike Baird on privatization and capital recycling.
Perhaps this was why Mike Bairdai??i??s predecessor Barry Oai??i??Farrell was happy to retire on a bottle of Penfolds Grange, because the former premier of NSW had committed theWest Connex to have the same toll cap as the M7.
It bears inquiring how that could possibly be the case if it would cost so much more. Further, Bell deduced theAi?? theoretical toll caps for the West Connex at roughly double or more the M7 figure (plus or minus a bit to cover for the lack of data from NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). The M7 is now tolled at $7.56 for any trip over 20 kilometres. For residents of far Western Sydney that doubles.
Further, the NSW government has just agreed to allow roads operator Transurban to lift the tolls for heavy vehicles on the upcoming North Connex and its connecting motorways to a multiple of three times that of cars. If it uses such a multiple for West Connex, then the trip tolls for trucks from Parramatta to the Airport or the port will be in the range of $40 or $50.
This is higher than Australia has ever experienced before and even higher than the experience of Canada for its Toronto 407 ETR ai??i?? which reaches a high of about 90c per kilometre for the heaviest vehicles in the peak periods.
How this might all work in practice is still up in the air. As parliament has put restrictions on the information flow for West Connexai??i??s business case, the public cannot tell what might happen to their taxpaying dollars, or their motoring budgets.
In the big picture it is worth contemplating why the expansion of rail networks has taken a back seat in transport planning.
In theory, some transport analysts say heavy rail is four times as cost effective as roads when it comes to capital spending.
Last Saturday we explored in broad terms the reasons for the failure of transport policy in properly considering rail, or at least in squaring it with road spending in the long-term policy outlook.
In simple terms there appears to be a culture of priority for road options fostered by the political classes which may stem from the advice presented to government. In short, the fees to be gained by bankers and other advisers are bigger in road than in rail.
Whatever the case, there is an unacceptable secrecy in government planning – which takes the public out of the debate ai??i?? and is surely to the detriment of the country when it comes to long term public policy planning.
This is evident too in the failure of successive governments to preserve urban corridors, something which had led to the present, egregious billion dollar blow-outs in project costs.
Zwei goes to town
Zwei had some business to attend to in Vancouver on Friday morning and from casual observation, our transit system is a failure.
Hitting Oak street at 10:30, the traffic going South was gridlocked until Park Ave., yet the two North bound trolley buses I passed were all but empty.
The Broadway B-99 express buses were also lightly patronized, yet I saw a parade of three West bound B-99 buses bunched up at MacDonald, with the third bus empty.
On my whole journey, from Delta to West Broadway and home via Dunbar and South West Marine Dr., I passed no more than five cyclists!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that TransLink’s and Vision Vancouver’s transit cycling strategies are not working and are their to placate small but very politically active pressure groups. Lots of buses, but no customers: and this is the mass of ridership that demands a $3 billion subway?
Lots of people using cars, yet very few taking transit demonstrates not just bad management, but a an extremely dangerous political hubris about public transit.
What is the moral of this little travel log?
Beware of planners, politicians, and self proclaimed transit experts, who are shilling for a Broadway subway; which will be a horrendously expensive transit project that will do more to impair public transit in the region than improve it.
It Ain’t Rocket Science Folks
Really, do the math.
TransLink has 170 full time attendants (part time attendants unknown); TransLink operates 57 trains during peak hours; how hard is it to schedule an attendant to be on a train at all times?
Why doesn’t TransLink force management types to be on the trains, and act as attendants as well? Unless management can see and feel the problems first hand, they haven’t a clue!
SkyTrain executive wonai??i??t push for onboard attendants
by Carlito Pablo on Aug 6, 2014
Putting attendants onboard the SkyTrain would cost a lot of money, says a transit executive.
ai???Fares would likely increase substantially to cover that kind of cost for extra staff,ai??? Fred Cummings, president and general manager of B.C. Rapid Transit Company, which operates SkyTrain, told the Straight.Cummings was on the line Tuesday (August 5) following a recent Straight web report about an independent safety review during the 1990s of trains stranded due to system failure.
The assessment was ordered by B.C. Transit, which ran SkyTrain at that time. In March 1993, the Toronto Transit Commission handed in a report that recommended the introduction of onboard attendants.
A new review is under way in the wake of two major disruptions last month. During a July 21 service stoppage, passengers forced their way out of cars and made their way on service walkways to nearby stations. Former Toronto GO Transit CEO Gary McNeil is expected to provide his report by the end of October.
ai???Iai??i??m not going to put words in the mouth of the reviewer, so weai??i??ll have to see what he comes out with,ai??? Cummings said when asked about the chances that the 1993 recommendation about onboard attenAi??dants will be revived. ai???But one of the advantages of having automated train operations and unattended trains is the cost of operations.ai???
According to Cummings, SkyTrain has 57 vehicles rolling during peak hours. If attendants were going to be hired, he said that the system would need at least 70.
ai???We got an excellent safety record without having attendants on trains, and we would certainly encourage that to continue,ai??? Cummings said.
Ron Stromberg, a transit specialist with the then Crown Corporations Secretariat, pushed for the safety review during the 1990s.
Stromberg noted in an August 5 phone interview with the Straight that onboard train attendants were meant to do more than just drive the SkyTrain to the nearest station
when the automated system fails. Based on the Toronto Transit Commissionai??i??s report, attendants can perform fare checks. Their presence also enhances a passengerai??i??s sense of safety, resulting in increased ridership and revenues.
Zwei Told Ya so!
Sorry folks, I mean the SkyTrain Lobby, Zwei told ya so, SkyTrain should have attendants on board every train………………..
From the Georgia Straight.
SkyTrain disruptions like the July 17 and 21 outages have happened in the past.
Indeed, a report addressed this issue 21 years ago. Thatai??i??s why Ron Stromberg, who was the one who initiated a review back then, wants to know what happened.
In 1992, B.C. Transit ordered an independent safety assessment of SkyTrain cars stranded on the tracks because of a system failure. At that time, it was B.C. Transit that operated transit in Metro Vancouver, which is now run by TransLink.
About seven months later, the Toronto Transit Commission handed in its report.
Whatever happened to that report is a mystery to Stromberg.
ai???Thatai??i??s the question TransLink should be answering,ai??? Stromberg told the Georgia Straight today (July 31) in an interview at his Vancouver home.
Stromberg is familiar with the review commissioned by B.C. Transit. It was he who made a case for it when the transportation agencyai??i??s board met on August 21, 1992.
At that time, Stromberg carried the title ai???Special Projects ai??i?? Transit Specialistai??? with the Crown Corporations Secretariat, which oversaw provincial government corporations.
In his presentation before the B.C. Transit board, Stromberg noted that at ai???various timesai??? during the six years of SkyTrain operations, its computerized Automatic Train Control has ai???failedai???.
According to the minutes of the meeting, Stromberg explained that failures were due to computer malfunctions and ai???other service interruptions leading to the system haltingai???, which are basically the same as those related to this yearai??i??s July 17 and 21 shutdowns.
ai???This normally leaves as many as 26 trains loaded with passengers randomly spread out along the trackway and unable to move,ai??? Stromberg told the board.
Like what happened on July 21, passengers had also opened the doors of stranded SkyTrain cars, and walked to the nearest station on service walkways.
ai???As frustration sets in, passengers have been known to force the doors and exit onto the maintenance walkway,ai??? Stromberg told the B.C. Transit board in 1992. ai???This is a highly dangerous situation and is even worse at night during winter weather conditions, inviting electrocution or impact with a moving train.ai???
Stromberg suggested that the Toronto Transit Commission be hired to do the review because it also operates a SkyTrain system. (He was referring to the Scarborough RT.)
The Toronto Transit Commission, through its wholly owned Toronto Transit Consultants Limited, was asked to assess the safety of passengers exiting stranded trains, and measures to minimize customer delays during a shutdown.
In March 1993, the Toronto agency submitted its report.
According to Stromberg, the consultants made one key recommendation that B.C. Transit, and its successor, TransLink, has ignored: put SkyTrain attendants on board all trains during peak hours, or during all operating hours, if possible, who can drive the cars when the system fails.
ai???What you do is when it goes down, thereai??i??s a man or a woman there that can move the train,ai??? Stromberg said in the interview.
In the report, the Toronto consultants noted that the presence of a SkyTrain attendant on board would not only reduce delays.
According to them, the attendantai??i??s presence would be a ai???major deterrent to unauthorized egressai???.
ai???There is no documented evidence on either the Vancouver SkyTrain or the Toronto SRT [Scarborough RT] during their relatively brief operating life that an On Board Attendant is essential for a life threatening emergency,ai??? the report stated. ai???However, the On Board presence on the SRT has undoubtedly provided better reliability, reduced recovery time and enhanced the perception of security for passengers.
ai???This recommendation is based on both our extensive TTC subway experience since 1954 and our knowledge of high capacity rapid transit systems throughout North America and Europe,ai??? the report continued.
ai???Over the past 39 years on the Toronto system their [sic] have been a number of incidents which had the potential to be life threatening except for the On Board presence of TTC personnel,ai??? the document went on.
The report continued: ai???It is the combination of many years of rapid transit experience and what we consider to be statistical evidence which establishes our conclusion that SkyTrain will not be able to achieve minimum recovery time, together with maximum safety and security without the availability of an On Board Attendant.ai???
Stromberg can only guess why the reportai??i??s recommendation was ignored.
ai???I think they didnai??i??t want to get and have to put money on that,ai??? Stromberg said.
TransLink has hired former Toronto GO Transit CEO Gary McNeil to review the July 17 and 21 Expo and Millennium line disruptions. McNeil will be paid $1,200 a day. He will provide a report by the end of October.
Stromberg doesnai??i??t doubt that the 1990s-era review he initiated remains relevant.
Follow Carlito Pablo on Twitter: @carlitopablo
Oh Please. Once Again The Vancouver Sun Again Shills For SkyTrain
Really! The Vancouver sun continues to unashamedly shill for the SkyTrain mini-metro system.
I know this is tiresome, in fact downright boring, but the folks at the Sun should know better than take TransLink Press Releases as fact.
The old arguments, the apples to oranges comparisons, is none other than editorial BS, from a newspaper that doesn’t research the news.
I wonder how much TransLink will spend in advertising to get the Sun’s Editorial Board to tell SkyTrain “pork pies”.
Questions for the Sun’s Editorial board:
“Why after being on the market for over 35 years, not one SkyTrain system has been allowed to compete directly against LRT, why?”
“Why have only seven SkyTrain systems have been built, during a period of unprecedented investment in public transit?”
“What are the owners of SkyTrain afraid of?”
Editorial: SkyTrain excels but still strives for improvement
Vancouver rail beats competition
Vancouver Sun July 30, 2014
SkyTrain passengers have lately been understandably outraged by a succession of delays and disruptions to their rapid transit service.
However, it is important to put such mishaps into context.
Vehicles crash, airplanes go down. Systems malfunction. There is a reason why the term ai???human errorai??? is used so frequently.
It is in the nature of things to go wrong occasionally, for all manner of reasons. It is simply unrealistic to expect systems to be efficient at all times.
Since being launched into service in 1985, SkyTrain has experienced two derailments, one in 1986 due to an axle coming off, impeding the trainai??i??s movement on the track; and another in 2010, when two axles came off an empty car after an object struck the switch. There have been no collisions and no injures.
Zwei replies: Actually, Skytrain has derailed a few more times, including in a snow storm where the SkyTrain was derailed after hitting a snow bank. Why does the sun make it sound like LRT constantly comes off the track?
Most Metro Vancouverites are grateful to have at their disposal above-grade rapid transit that can travel without intersection delays. For many years they made do with alternative travel options while watching Torontonians enjoy a rapid transit service that was launched in 1954.
Zwei replies: Excuse me, Toronto has a subway, streetcars (LRT) and a Skytrain. Both the streetcar and metro systems are being refurbished and extended, while the SkyTrain is being torn down.
The 29-km Expo Line marked the start of rapid transit in the Lower Mainland, after which the 42-km Millennium Line was added, in 2002, and the 15-km Canada Line, in 2009.
Zwei replies: The 42 km Millennium Line actually uses 22 km of the Expo Line so in reality the Millennium Line is 20 km. long.
The lines have helped shape development in the region, contributing to environmental sustainability by enabling urban densification.
Zwei replies: Er no, development was created by city councils up-zoning properties adjacent to the Skytrain line giving windfall profits to mainly friends of council. SkyTrain is the least sustainable transit mode as it is too expensive to extend and requires a lot more maintenance than compared to LRT.
The service has coaxed people out of their cars with the lure of speed and convenience.
Zwei replies: Again the sun invents facts. There is no evidence of a modal shift from car to SkyTrain, in fact mode share by auto in the metro region has stayed at 57% since 1994! 80% of Skytrain’s passengers first take the bus and buses are notorious for not attracting the motorist from the car.
Ridership per capita is unusually high in Vancouver, trailing only ridership in New York and Toronto. In the Lower Mainland, 157 trips per capita are made annually. In Portland the comparable number is 50 per capita. In Denver, itai??i??s just 33 per capita.
Zwei replies: Vancouver has always had good public transit ridership. Unfortunately, comparisons made in Vancouver must be adjusted to take into account the 110,000 deep discounted U-passes forcibly issued to post secondary students. Also, American cities are notoriously poor in attracting customers to transit and modern LRT has been a proven tool to reverse the trend.
TransLink touts a reliability rate of nearly 95 per cent, as measured by train operations no more than two minutes early or two minutes late.
Such reliability is a point of pride, out-paced in Canada only by Torontoai??i??s subway service with its 96.6-per-cent reliability within three-minute markers.
On North Americaai??i??s west coast, Seattleai??i??s light rail system offers 93.6-per-cent reliability within three minutes either way. Portlandai??i??s light rail line claims 82-per-cent reliability, within a window of one minute early and five minutes late.
Vancouverai??i??s SkyTrain also runs more frequently than most of its counterparts, with a train every three minutes on both the Expo and Canada Lines; every six minutes on the Millennium Line.
Zwei replies: This is really an “Apples to Oranges” comparison as SkyTrain does not have a regular timetabled service , while Toronto, Seattle and Portland do. It is easy to make claims by comparing a non timetabled service with one. Studies have shown that automatic transit systems actually are less reliable than non automatic systems. SkyTrain runs more frequently because its trains have smaller capacities than LRT trains., they must run at higher frequency’s to maintain capacity.
Portlandai??i??s service arrives at intervals from 7-15 minutes long.
Zwei replies: Not necessarily true. Where one, two or three services share the one route, headway’s can be as low as two minutes on that particular section of route.
Computer glitches, switching problems, those who jump on to tracks, or a clumsy electrician ai??i?? who took the blame for the infuriating five-hour disruption on the Expo and Millenium Lines July 21 ai??i?? are all things can cause delays to operations on any line.
The trick is ensuring mishaps are kept to a minimum, and protocols exist to avoid situations where passengers pry open doors and dangerously walk on elevated track near electrified lines.
TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis announced this week a two-month independent review ai??i?? at considerable expense ai??i?? that will seek lessons to be learned from the unfortunate episode.
Irate transit users should take some comfort from TransLinkai??i??s clear determination to do better.
Zwei replies: What the Vancouver Sun did not mention is that SkyTrain’s management were nowhere to be seen during the debacle; so bad was the lack of communication, thousands of transit customers abandoned Skytrain like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
The Small Minded Anti LRT Conspiracy
A certain Randall O’Toole, a conspicuous member of the Cato Institute hates LRT and streetcars. A favourite of the roads lobby he is also the darling of the United States rising Libertarian and Tea Party. Much of what O’Toole writes about come from the theory that public anything is bad and individualism reigns. The problem is, as history has shown, is not so cut and dried.
The following study comes from the American right, which by Canadian standards is what the old Progressive Conservative Party was and not the Tea party clones like the current Harper and the BC Liberal governments.
The following is written from an American standpoint, by a Conservative think tank as a rebuttal of the Libertarian AgitProp written by Randall Oai??i??Toole.Ai?? Some of it is USA-specific, but many of the arguments and much of the data are of use to proponents of trams as superior public transport in Canada.
I believe the the following study is well worth the read.
The-Small-Minded-Anti-Streetcar-Conspiracy-FINAL
SkyTrain Whitewash Continues
TransLink can’t help it. It is inbred in them. Honesty is just not in their lexicon. They hire a SkyTrain type, at $1,200 a day to do a review of the two recent embarrassing shutdowns. It is like the police investigating itself.
What should be a truly independent review, will be another SkyTrain “whitewash”, with a SkyTrain type enjoying the TransLink “gravy train“.
There was never any need for a review, especially a $1,200 a day review, but too many politicians glad handing SkyTrain were embarrassed, the supposed ‘wunder system’ wasn’t so wonderful, especially with transit customers abandoning derelict SkyTrain cars in droves, like rats leaving a sinking ship.
The public are tired of TransLink’s ‘Dog and Pony’ shows and the upcoming review will achieve nothing, but another expensive scrap of paper deflecting blame.
Independent review of SkyTrain outages may take until October
Transit expert who helped launch system in the 80’s to head review
He will be paid a daily rate of about $1,200 for his work, said Jarvis.
A handful of interim changes are slated to be made during the three month-period while McNeil is preparing his report. They include putting the train’s public announcement system on a separate breaker and testing the system’s volume levels so people can understand the messages being sent.
The transit authority is also looking at boosting the number of buses and staff at bus-bridge loops and stations and launching a public information campaign to inform riders as to what should be done during future outages.
“When these things happen during rush hour, your fleet is fully booked out and occupied, so what reasonably can be done with the equipment available and staff available is limited. That’s why it’s so important around the communication,” said Jarvis in an interview. “We’re going to start to communicate out as you would in any travel what plans you need to make. People that really rely on SkyTrain, for instance, aren’t familiar with the bus network as much, so getting an understanding of what your local bus services are and what your options are is one example (of how) we could help our customers.”
Along those lines, TransLink has already made a change to its online Trip Planner, allowing customers to design trip plans that don’t rely on the SkyTrain, something that many riders had suggested during this month’s system failures.
The Expo and Millennium lines were shut down for more than four hours during both of the outages. The first was caused by a failure with the computer system that controls the Expo Line and the second happened when the main power control panel was taken out of service by mistake.
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