City of Victoria abandons Johnson Street Bridge rail plan

Victoria, B.C. – forget commuter rail entry into downtown

SaanichAi??News March 10th

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/saanichnews/news/117699518.html

The City of Victoriaai??i??s faint hope of finding funding partners to save the E&N rail on the Johnson Street Bridge fizzled Wednesday.

ai???Itai??i??s a reluctant decision that we have to take,ai??? said Coun. John Luton. ai???Many in this community are committed to supporting commuter rail into downtown Victoria.ai???

With the exception of Coun. Geoff Young, all on council voted to nix the $12-million project to include rail on the bridge.

That means the new $77-million bridge will have three lanes of traffic, two bike paths and a multi-use trail, but no train tracks.

The trainai??i??s final stop will likely be situated in Vic West instead of downtown. The city will preserve the rail corridor in case funding for a rail bridge is prioritized in the future.

E & N Budd RDC

Victoria, the capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island, had an opportunity to bring possible commuter rail service into downtown.

But that now has been precluded by a City Council decision to bar E-&-N (now known as Southern Railway of Vancouver Island) from sharing a new $77 million highway bridge.

Web site of the Island Transformations Organisation. http://vicito.jigsy.com/

Nobody’s nostalgic for the freeway to nowhere

Nostalgia over easy was the order of the day at Sinbad’s, a waterfront restaurant in the shadow of the Ferry Building. The talk turned to fern bars, and fast cars, and long lunches in places like Paoli’s. Remember the ’80s? The men had narrower ties and the women had shorter skirts. “Hey,” somebody said. “Remember the Embarcadero Freeway?”

San Franciscans wince at the memory. It was the elevated freeway to nowhere, gray as a prison, ugly as sin. It ran right in front of the Ferry Building, which not long ago was a building with a past and no future.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-06/news/28661784_1_embarcadero-freeway-double-decked-freeway-ferry-building

The wrecking balls went to work on the freeway on Feb. 27, 1991, just 20 years ago last Sunday. The foes of the freeway threw a big party with music and Champagne toasts. Twenty years! It should have been an anniversary to remember, but I forgot about it myself.

“I have a hard time believing that thing was ever here,” said Rex Clack, a maritime attorney, who used to use it as a shortcut from the waterfront to Broadway. He remembers the dark look of the street under the concrete legs of a double-decked freeway, roaring with traffic. Now the Embarcadero is a showpiece: open to the sky, lined with palm trees, the city on one side, the bay on the other. Colorful streetcars run down the middle.

You would think now that everybody would have seen what the Embarcadero could have become without the freeway. Think again.

The battle over the freeway is a cautionary tale of how San Francisco let the state impose highways that scarred the city in the name of progress, and then dithered over what to do next as opposing forces battled to a standstill.

The Embarcadero Freeway opened in 1958, part of an engineering dream – or nightmare – to ring the city with freeways. It was supposed to link the Bay Bridge with the Golden Gate, but a citizens revolt halted it at Broadway.

Civic-minded people hated the Embarcadero Freeway, but 60,000 cars a day used it. If it were torn down, what then? Why, said the dreamers, a boulevard, a parkway, views of the water.

In 1986, a proposal to tear down the freeway and build the boulevard went to the voters. As it turned out, the Embarcadero had a lot of friends: the public voted to keep the freeway by a large margin. Even Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, Mr. San Francisco himself, voted for the freeway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarcadero_(San_Francisco)

Current issue of Trains should be required reading

Matthew at Transport Action BC http://transportactionbc.wordpress.com/

writes on March 8th

http://transportactionbc.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/current-issue-of-trains-should-be-required-reading/

Never was a truer word spoke,

The response of the BC Ministry of Transport & TransLink to theAi??reportAi??on the Fraser Valley Interurban proposal, has been at best tardy at worst contemptuous to the population of the Lower Fraser Valley.

US Light Rail News

News from Detroit, Denver and Minneapolis

Detroit:

The Republic, Columbus Indiana

City schedules neighborhood meeting on proposed $25 million light rail project in Detroit

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/2e8de5cf80324a10a7ace0814c52098a/MI–Light-Rail-Detroit/

DETROIT ai??i?? City transportation officials are scheduled to meet with Detroit residents at Mount Olive Baptist Church to answer questions and give details about a proposed light rail project along Woodward Avenue.

http://www.woodwardlightrail.com/HomeNew.html

The meeting Thursday is to feature discussion of the rail’s three downtown options.

Project overview:

http://www.woodwardlightrail.com/ProjectOverview.html

Denver:

urbandesign Podcast

Union Station redevelopment round table discussion

http://urbandesignpodcast.com/podcasts/2011/podcast121.html

Denverai??i??s Union Station redevelopment will create a new gateway to Downtown Denver and the region and re-energize Denverai??i??s historic train station. As the hub of RTDai??i??s expanding transit system.

http://www.rtd-denver.com/lightRail_subHome.shtml

the $480 million project includes a new RTD light rail station, a new underground RTD regional bus terminal, and a new commuter rail station for RTD and Amtrak, along with several new signature public spaces. Hosted by Ken Schroeppel, creator of DenverUrbanism.com, our roundtable conversation about the Union Station project includes Anne Hayes, chair of Union Station Advocates, and Bill Mosher, ownerai??i??s representative for the Denver Union Station Project Authority.

Minneapolis:

Twin Cities Daily Planet

Central Corridor construction kicks off on University, Washington Avenues

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2011/03/09/central-corridor-construction-kicks-university-washington-avenues

As construction of the Central Corridor light rail train gets into full swing, many changes have already started to appear on Washington Avenue and University Avenue. Ai??As a University of Minnesota student, I come into contact with the construction daily. Ai??Some construction has caused sidewalk closures, forcing pedestrians to change their routes. Ai??Also, traffic has been squeezed into single lanes, making travel times longer.

Ai??

Comparing Light Rail, Bus and Subway Costs

Two  reports on Canadian Light Rail systems

The following link is to a report published in 2006 by Calagary Transit

Light Rail Transit in Calgary

 http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/Calgarys_LRT_1st_25Years_TRB_revised.pdf

Currently, the average hourly operating cost of LRT is approximately $163, including operating, maintenance and utility costs. With an average of 600 boarding passengers per revenue operating hour, the average cost per LRT passenger is only $0.27. In comparison, the average cost per bus passenger boarding is approximately $1.50, or almost six times the cost of carrying an LRT passenger."

The Authors are a Director, and the Manager Transit Planning, of Calgary Transit, the figures should be accepted as authentic, also note the data on safety and accidents

The second link, published in January 2011
by Cherise Burda and Graham Haines,

Making Tracks to Torontonians

http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/making-tracks-toronto.pdf 

examines the costs and benefits of the subway extension proposed by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in December 2010, compared to the light rail transit plan that is already underway with funding on the table.The subway extension would provide less service per dollar invested than the existing light rail rapid transit plan for Toronto, and wouldn't deliver transit service to the communities that need it most.

Calgary Light Rail- Safer Than Buses.

This interesting bit of information comes from Light Rail Transit in Calgary, The First 25 Years. Contrary to the LRT naysayers, Calgary's trams are safer than buses. What isn't shown is how many accidents were caused by auto drivers deliberately ignoring crossing gates and lights or red lights.

 

http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/Calgarys_LRT_1st_25Years_TRB_revised.pdf

 

Table 1 – Calgary Transit LRT and Bus Collisions and Passenger Accidents

                                                                   1995                        2005

Collisions per million km

Bus Collisions                                            23.0                         17.8

LRT Collisions                                          11.3                          10.3

Passenger Accidents per million

boardings

Bus Passenger Accidents                           5.6                              1.6

LRT Passenger Accidents .                       0.40                               0.06

 

Lessons Learned

1. Surface LRT operations can be safely and effectively integrated within city streets by using conventional traffic, pedestrian and railway controls.

2. LRT signal pre-emption in arterial streets provides reduced transit travel time without compromising roadway safety

3. LRT is safer than bus.  On the basis of Calgary Transit’s experience, LRT vehicle collision and passenger accident rates are significantly lower than those for the bus system.

  4. Systems fail –  Manage failure. Design your LRT system with replacement in mind and embrace formal asset management principles as soon as possible. Five to ten year forecasts of resources necessary to ensure stable infrastructure are mandatory for good management of the system. Key maintenance people should be in place during the system design and construction stages. Numerous design and construction deficiencies can be avoided with this approach. In Calgary’s operating and weather environment, the need for major infrastructure replacement increased exponentially during the 20 to 25 year age window. Good ride quality and wear characteristics in the LRT environment demand track tolerances well beyond those in the typical mainline heavy rail environment. Track designers and constructors with bona fide LRT experience should be engaged in design and construction, wherever possible. Locate facing point switches and bi-directional interlocked signaling to facilitate maintenance and failure management.

Rebalancing Our Transportation Network: A Case Study

Hamilton, Ontario has for long been promoting a Light Rail system for the city, details of their campaign can be found on the Hamilton Light Rail web site:

http://hamiltonlightrail.com/index.html

Details of the economic case for Light Rail are:

http://hamiltonlightrail.com/article/an_economic_case_for_light_rail/index.html

Similarly to Rail for the Valley in BC, the Hamilton Light RailAi??promoters are citing examples of the European sucess of Light Rail, Tramways & Tram-Trains to support their case.

The Hamilton team, have regularly promoted the Grenoble Light Rail system in France as their aspiration for a rail based transit system, see;

http://hamiltonlightrail.com/article/grenoble_rebalances_its_transportation_system/index.html

Ai??and http://raisethehammer.org/article/477

The Grenoble Light Rail system consistentlyfeaturesAi??amongst the topAi??2 orAi??3 hits on this blog, so the Cardinal will include some details on the system.

The Grenoble tramway network is 35Ai??km long, and comprises four lines: lines A, B, C and D. Line A was opened in 1987, line B in 1990, line C entered into service on the 20 May 2006 and line D opened on the October 2007.

Railway Technology http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/grenoble/

Grenoble Light Rail map

 

Grenoble Alstom TFS & Citadis LRV’s

First interconnected tram-train service!

On 12 December 2010, the first tram-train service in the French region of Alsace commenced. 5000 daily passengersAi??are be able to travel from Mulhouse to Thann on an innovative, ecomobile transport route.

read the article:

http://www.sncf.com/en_EN/html/media/CH0004-Everyday-life/BR1122-Tram-train-Mulhouse/MD0005_20101206-Read-article.html

Photograhs of the track system, internal & external views of the Alstom Citadis Tram-Trains

Images courtesy of:

http://www.tc-alsace.eu/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=87

Susan Heyes

It seems TransLink, in the guise of RAVCo; in the guise of the Canada Line P-3, is the only major subway cut-and-cover projects that did not plan for compensation to affected businesses. In three years of research, Zwei has failed to find a major transit scheme, let alone a cut-and cover subway projects, that didn't provide compensation to those businesses that could show a loss due to construction.

That the courts failed to notice this, or take this into account is unforgivable and it seems that the BC Court of Appeals made their decision before the case was brought before them.

For the David Berner interview with Susan Heyes:

http://pelalusa.blogspot.com/2011/03/susan-heyes-vs-canada-line.html

Generational divide on regionA?ai??i??ai???s light-rail plans?

In June 2010, The Province of Ontario committed $300 million towards the capital cost of constructing a rapid transit system in Waterloo Region.

http://rapidtransit.region.waterloo.on.ca/

• Approved a light rail transit (LRT) system from Waterloo to Cambridge as the Region’s long-term preferred rapid transit system;
• Recognized that a staged implementation would be required to ensure the best match of transit technology to ridership and intensification potential; and
• Approved the initial phase of the project which includes LRT from Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall and adapted bus rapid transit from Fairview Park Mall to the Ainslie Street Terminal in Cambridge.

about the project:

http://rapidtransit.region.waterloo.on.ca/about-the-project.html

On March 4th, More than 280 people attended public consultations at the Albert McCormick Centre in Waterloo and at Regional Headquarters in Kitchener—the first in a series of information sessions leading to a June vote at regional council.

Report in the The Record.com 4 March 2011

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/496158–generational-divide-on-region-s-light-rail-plans

WATERLOO REGION — Young people who never cared about municipal affairs before and middle-aged property owners worried about tax increases came out by the hundreds Thursday night to have a say about light-rail transit.