Man walking on tracks holds up SkyTrain – From The Vancouver Sun
Trams coexisting with people is normal in Amsterdam
This is the third time in as many weeks where a person walking on the SkyTrain guideway stops SkyTrain servcie; of course people walk all over LRT/tram track everyday and with ;ding-ding’ of a tram bell, they get out of its way!
Ai??
Man walking on tracks holds up SkyTrain
By ANDREA WOO, VANCOUVER SUNAi??Ai??Ai??March 25, 2010 7:02 PMAi??Ai??Ai??METRO VANCOUVER – A man walking on the SkyTrain tracks between the New Westminster and 22nd Street stations is causing major delays in service.Ai??Ai??Police are now waiting for the man at 22nd Street station.
Ai??Ai??TransLink is setting up a bus bridge to move passengers.
http://www.vancouversun.com/walking+tracks+holds+SkyTrain/2726786/story.html
Trams and shoppers on an Amsterdam shopping precinct
A?ai??i??E?Blank slateA?ai??i??ai??? transit plan bodes well – Um no, Not Until TransLink Stops Playing Dirty Tricks!
Though the transit debate is supposed to be a ‘Blank slate’, it seems TransLink is up to its own dirty little tricks as usual. It has been a long and well established fact that light rail (LRT) can and does carry over 20,000 persons per hour per direction. The claim that it can carryAi??Ai??Ai??Ai??only 6,000 to 10,000 pphpd is completely wrong and shows that the SkyTrain Lobby’s ‘dirty tricks department’ is in full operation.
It is the ability of modern LRT to cater to 20,000+ passenger loads, when there is demand, is one of the reasons it made the much more expensive SkyTrain light-metro obsolete. I wish that TransLink stop this tiresome little propaganda campaign and start to do real planning before it is further embarrassed by future events.
Want good transit planning? AvoidAi??Ai??using TransLink!
From the Surrey Leader:
Ai??Ai??A?ai??i??E?Blank slateA?ai??i??ai??? transit plan bodes well
Published: March 23, 2010 4:00 PM
Although financially TransLink remains in a world of hurt (it needs hundreds of millions of dollars more each year to maintain and improve the transit system, with no funding source as yet identified), conceptually, things may be looking up.
TransLink planners are currently brainstorming how to improve rapid transit in Surrey, and according to project planning manager Jeff Busby: A?ai??i??Ai??Everything is on the table.A?ai??i??A?
That includes creating bus-only lanes, running transit routes through Hydro rights-of-way, using existing rail lines, and developing at-grade light rail.
The idea is to have the priorities already identified if and when TransLink receives more funding.
This A?ai??i??Ai??blank slateA?ai??i??A? approach to transit is a welcome one.
The perennial favourite for government has always been SkyTrain because it carries the most people A?ai??i??ai??? 10,000 to 25,000 per hour A?ai??i??ai??? compared to 6,000 to 10,000 for light rail and 2,000 to 3,000 for rapid buses.
But it is prohibitively expensive to build A?ai??i??ai??? more than $100 million per kilometre as opposed to $25 million per kilometre for light rail. And utilizing existing rail lines would be even more economical.
VancouverA?ai??i??ai???s Olympic experience proved bigger is not always better. The Olympic streetcar that shuttled crowds between Granville Island and the AthleteA?ai??i??ai???s Village was hugely popular. So much so that Vancouverites want to see it stay.
Citizens south of the Fraser would likely have the same reaction to a revival of the old Interurban rail route, which would link the communities of Cloverdale, Sullivan and Newton A?ai??i??ai??? plus connect with the SkyTrain at Scott Road.
As Interurban advocate Allen Aubert says, A?ai??i??Ai??WhatA?ai??i??ai???s not to like?A?ai??i??A?
Most people travelling from south of the Fraser A?ai??i??ai??? 80 per cent A?ai??i??ai??? stay within the region.
Offering a variety of transit options that would make hopping from town centre to town centre a pleasant and affordable option would be a move in the right direction.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/opinion/88967567.html
Two letters in the North Shore News
The usual suspects yes, but an insight to the up coming Evergreen Line/Broadway – UBC metro line debate.
Take the regional view on transit investment
North Shore News
Published:Ai??Ai??Wednesday, March 24, 201o
Dear Editor:
In her March 17 columns Costly SkyTrain Technology Choices Baffle, Elizabeth James, cites U.S. professor Panos Prevedouros saying, “Light rail service can occur at a small fraction of the cost of the proposed fully elevated multibillion dollar system, with similar or better results in ridership.”
If there is any truth in this, she should then explain why from Toronto to Seattle, light rail lines cost close if not as much as the Canada Line per kilometre; why from Buffalo to San Jose, they have failed to attract promised ridership and why the Canada Line ridership is four times higher than the more expensive Seattle light rail one?
Given the dismal state of public transit south of the border, we should take any advice of a U.S. “expert” on that matter with a grain of salt and prefer to stick with the proven track record of our local engineering services. Have you also noticed how the Canada Line was moving smoothly more than 200,000 passengers a day during the Olympics? It is a figure you can routinely expect for the foreseeable future if the province is true to its word to double transit ridership in the region. Could LRT be capable of such a job?
The column — discounting the third SeaBus — seems also to insinuate that all transit investments are “Vancouver centric” and not serving the North Shore. The Canada line zipping through Vancouver helps tremendously my commute, and others’, from the Richmond area to North Vancouver, where I meet people from the North Shore happy to get to the airport in a fast, reliable and timely manner. That is the essence of a regional investment. It is not necessarily happening in the border of your community, but it helps it. And you know what: Everyone aboard the train regrets that more money has not been spent in Vancouver to improve the Canada Line/SeaBus connection.
Parochial rants are just that, parochial.
Viven Chiu,
Richmond
(Editor’s note: Viven Chiu is co-author of the 2003 Study Marigni report The Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Rapid Link Project.)
James right to question SkyTrain technology costs
North Shore News
Published:Ai??Ai??Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Dear Editor:
I welcome Elizabeth James’ column, Costly SkyTrain Technology Choices Baffle, as she asks the same questions the Light Rail Committee have been asking for years. Why are we still building with this extremely costly, “Edsel” transit system made obsolete by modern light-rail decades ago.
Despite being on the market for more than 30 years, only seven SkyTrain-type systems have been built, all done in private deals with little or no public consultation. SkyTrain was even too expensive for the Canada Line, which uses a generic metro system, incompatible with SkyTrain.
Most taxpayers do not know what the real cost of SkyTrain is, as TransLink refuses to divulge the real costs, including debt servicing. What is known, by a very few, is that SkyTrain is subsidized by more than $230 million annually. U.S. transit projects are built with voter-approved, long-term bonds which tell the taxpayer the real cost of the project. To date, the taxpayer has invested more than $8 billion on our metro system, yet there is little evidence of a modal shift from car to transit, with TransLink admitting that more than 80 per cent of SkyTrain’s riders first take a bus to the metro.
For the same cost of the RAV/Canada Line and the proposed SkyTrain Evergreen Line, almost $4 billion, we could have built the following:
1) LRT Steveston/YVR to Vancouver;
2) LRT BCIT to UBC;
3) tram-train from Vancouver to Chilliwack;
4) tram-train Evergreen Line;
5) tram-train to the North Shore.
American transit specialist Gerald Fox’s comments on TransLink’s Evergreen Line business case should send shivers down taxpayers’ spines: “It is interesting how TransLink has used this cunning method of manipulating analysis to justify SkyTrain in corridor after corridor, and has thus succeeded in keeping its proprietary rail system expanding.”
Malcolm Johnston,
Light Rail Committee
Delta
Report from the Rally & Ride, with pictures
By all accounts, the rally was a success!
We handed out hundreds of leaflets, got media attention (CBC and News 1130), and overall raised a whole lot of awareness. There were large numbers of people of all ages taking the train; Bombardier’s volunteer conductors were kept busy with crowd control.
Thank you to all our volunteers!
Report from the Rally & Ride, with pictures
By all accounts, the rally was a success!
We handed out hundreds of leaflets, got media attention (CBC and News 1130), and overall raised a whole lot of awareness. There were large numbers of people of all ages taking the train; Bombardier’s volunteer conductors were kept busy with crowd control!
Thank you to all our volunteers!
From the Tri City News – Olympic transit wasn’t as good as the hype
An interesting letter that appeared in the Tri-City news, reflecting that transit service during the Olympics wasn’t all what TransLink claimed. The reason for reproducing the letter is that Zwei has heard from several people that the regional transit system wasn’t working as advertised and many just took the car instead.
Olympic transit wasn’t as good as the hype
The Editor,
Re. A?ai??i??Ai??Olympics proved ready to roll (with more cash), says CEOA?ai??i??A? (The Tri-City News, March 12).
I guess TransLinkA?ai??i??ai???s CEO did not bother to actually ride any part of the regionA?ai??i??ai???s transit system himself during the Olympics.
My family and I thought we would take the West Coast Express downtown one Saturday during the Games. The earliest train was 1 p.m. and we arrived an hour early just in case. We were told the train was standing-room-only in Mission and officials werenA?ai??i??ai???t sure if there was going to be room when it got to our station. We were then informed that no one got on or off in Port Coquitlam and that they were going to order buses (they hadnA?ai??i??ai???t done so yet?). I heard a least 50 people were left on the platform in PoCo. I saw the parking lot at Coquitlam fill up and then empty as people were turned away, not even allowed to buy a ticket.
We were then informed a bus would be coming and I thought that wasnA?ai??i??ai???t so bad A?ai??i??ai??? a bus ride down town. But I was then told that bus would not take us downtown but to a SkyTrain station. I reminded officials I paid extra for the West Coast Express to be taken downtown, not to an already overloaded SkyTrain system.
At that point, we decided to drive, despite all the warnings not to. There was no traffic and parking was a breeze A?ai??i??ai??? and cost us only $7, not the almost $30 I had paid to TransLink. To top it off, we beat the train downtown. We enjoyed the festivities especially knowing we werenA?ai??i??ai???t stuck to a train schedule going home. Again, on the drive home, there were no traffic issues. In the meantime, people I know who took the train said the first one home was a gong show.
I let everyone I knew not to take transit but to drive instead and heard similar stories of no traffic and easy, cheap parking with no hassles.
So while TransLink can claim it was running double the systemA?ai??i??ai???s normal capacity, it likely didnA?ai??i??ai???t count the hundreds (thousands?) who gave up and either didnA?ai??i??ai???t go or drove instead, or the frustrations and long line-ups as buses or trains went by full.
The Tri-Cities were definitely not well-served during the Olympics and spending over a billion dollars on the planned Evergreen Line to funnel everyone from this area into an already overcrowded system will not help.
I used to take one bus downtown and it would take an hour door to door. The billion-plus investment into the Evergreen Line will mean it would cost me more money to ride, take me longer and more transfers then the bus did. That is progress?Ai??Ai??
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/tricitynews/opinion/letters/87868647.html
A letter in the Aldergrove Star & The Surrey Leader
Affordable transit needed
Published: March 18, 2010
Editor:
I find it surprising that the Mayor of Chilliwack does not want to join the ‘South of the Fraser Rail Task Force’ until after the $400,000 study has been completed.
Certainly she hasn’t shown the mettle as previous politicos a century ago that lobbied and welcomed the original Interurban service.
The Light Rail Committee has been advising the Rail For The Valley group on a possible solution for the return of the Interurban to the Fraser Valley, based on modern light rail in the guise of the very successful TramTrain.
TramTrain is a streetcar that can operate on mainline railways. In other words, we are advising for an ‘interurban’ service, not unlike the interurban service that ran until the early ’50s.
The LRC has been advised by several professional transit planners, that the geometry of the original BC Electric line was designed for short wheelbase interurbans (used by the BCE) which precludes any commuter rail or standard DMU operations.
Modern TramTrain with short wheelbase articulated cars can handle the existing tracks with ease and at speed, with little or no expensive track alterations.
The LRC has been advised by ‘real’ experts that a half hourly Vancouver to Chilliwack TramTrain service can be had for about $500 million, even cheaper if diesel LRT is used.
Now $500 million will buy you about 4 kms. of SkyTrain.
Put another way, we could build TramTrain to the Tri-Cities instead of the proposed $1.4 billion SkyTrain Evergreen Line and a Vancouver to Chilliwack Interurban service and still have money left over for other transit projects in the region.
Affordable solutions for ‘rail’ transit are available, only if we pursue them.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/aldergrovestar/opinion/letters/88447727.html
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/opinion/letters/89136387.html
Costly SkyTrain technology choices baffle – From the North Shore News
It seems that the efforts of Zwei and others have paid off’ asAi??Ai??others in the region are taking note of LRT and TramTrain and the hugeAi??Ai??costs that go along with the SkyTrain light-metro system and subway construction. TramTrain andAi??Ai??especially “Rail for the Valley” itselfAi??Ai??may find some welcome allies to their cause from the North Shore, especially from taxpayers fed up throwing money at Vancouver-centric transit projects.
MaybeAi??Ai??TransLink shouldAi??Ai??rethink the Evergreen Line along TramTrain lines and start looking at the bigger regional picture, with much cheaper TramTrain and LRT. Certainly TramTrain could be part of the transit solution for the North Shore, as well as North Delta, Crescent Beach and Whiterock.
Questions are being asked; affordable solutions are being offered for out current transit malaise and its time to make TransLink and the provincial government listen!
Costly SkyTrain technology choices baffle
Elizabeth James, Special To North Shore News
“Light rail service can occur at a small fraction of the cost of the proposed fully elevated multibillion dollar system, with similar or better results in ridership. So why was the rail alternative largely ignored from any serious analysis? “
Prof. Panos Prevedouros, civil engineer and member of the Honolulu Transit Advisory Task Force, March 8, 2010
Is there any truth to the persistent rumour that Victoria’s ongoing fascination with SkyTrain has frustrated attempts by management of Bombardier Inc. to break into the lucrative light-rail and tram markets in North America?
If there is, that might explain why the company volunteered to loan Olympics-bound Vancouver the European cars that proved to be such an immediate success; we were being given the old marketing soft-sell, so to speak.
But if that is the case, why were cash-strapped regional taxpayers not offered this conversation — about what amounts to a demonstration light-rail system — before they were forced to swallow their third SkyTrain-style transit line at a capital cost of more than $2.4 billion?
Why would any government risk the ire of the public by building a few gold-plated transit lines when, instead, it could have show-cased to the world a region-wide, light-rail system for the same money or less? It does not make sense, never did.
Common sense notwithstanding, it is imperative that the mystery behind the choice of technology decisions for the Millennium and Canada Line projects be unravelled, and fast.
This is because, under another of its infamous cones of silence, Victoria is planning yet another incarnation of TransLink, an incarnation we’ve learned to expect will remove the body even further beyond open and transparent.
Furthermore, B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond already has two more rapid transit lines on the political drawing board — the many times announced Evergreen Line and the East-West line along, or adjacent to the Broadway corridor to UBC.
Nowhere is the unravelling more important to taxpayers than here on the North Shore where, for years, residents have complained that they are little more than a cash cow for an unaccountable, Vancouver-centric TransLink operation.
TransLink and its puppet-master need to know, once and for all, that we are TransLink-taxed to the max; we cannot afford any more of their “$1.35 billion not a penny more” blunders that end up costing us almost twice as much.
Since 1999, when the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority assumed responsibility for transit in the Lower Mainland, TransLink has been a consistent thorn in the side of regional taxpayers, and with good reason.
Underfunded from the start, the capital, operating and debt-servicing costs of the provincially dictated Bombardier Millennium Line and the SNC-Lavalin Canada Line have, more than once, threatened to bring the operation to its knees.
Squeezed between a succession of obdurate provincial governments and an increasing public resistance to being taxed by a body the people could not hold to account, the “old” TransLink board grew increasingly dysfunctional. It had virtually no way to raise funds enough to cover the annual budget shortfalls that arrived with monotonous regularity.
As a result, in 2006, then minister Kevin Falcon ordered a review of the organization, rearranged the deck chairs and changed the official name to South Coast Transportation Authority. (Watch out Abbotsford, the TransLink taxman cometh.)
Assuring the public that his newly appointed, privatized board of transportation experts would still be accountable to a council of elected mayors, Falcon installed Tom Prendergast, the transit-savvy former VP of the New York subway system, as president.
The ship had a new coat of paint but no-one had thought to patch up the hole in the bow. So it was not long before the new TransLink board began to founder for the same reasons as its predecessor — the need to build and operate underfunded capital projects, as and when dictated by the province, but with no ability to wring enough additional dollars out of taxpayers to make up the shortfall.
A mere 15 months later Prendergast resigned and returned home to head up the entire New York transit system. (This time, hopefully, he paid his own $60,000 moving costs.)
Perhaps the most intriguing local development, however, comes out of Langley, where a chomping-at-the-bit Rail for the Valley group, independent of TransLink, has decided to approach the issue the old-fashioned way. Tired of hearing that “people should get out of their cars to reduce air-pollution,” at the same time they were being told to hurry up and wait until increased ridership (development?) was available to justify transit infrastructure, they set about investigating all technology options and arrived at a conclusion: In a nutshell, RFTV wants to introduce a European tram-train — a streetcar that can operate on shared mainline railway tracks — which would run from Vancouver to Chilliwack.
Based on a consultant’s opinion, they say it can be done for a capital cost well under $10 million per kilometre — fraction of the predicted cost of a SkyTrain and/or subway project for the Evergreen or Broadway-UBC routes.
More to the point for North Shore residents is this: Some years ago, I approached District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton, with a suggestion that the three North Shore municipalities look at the feasibility of going it alone on a shared-track, light-rail transit service from the Ironworkers’ Memorial bridge to Horseshoe Bay. The rationale was that, if we were serious about switching from cars to transit, the North Shore needed a seamless, low-level, east-west service outside the congested Marine Drive corridor.
The mayor expressed interest at the time, but the idea fizzled when, not long after, the province folded the North Vancouver ports complex into what is now the Vancouver Ports Authority, thus appearing to tie up the trackage along that stretch.
In view of the RFTV initiative, and bearing in mind the need to replace North Shore jobs lost to the BC Rail not-a-sale, perhaps it’s worth revisiting the idea — but from a different angle.
Since a tram-train runs on regular railway tracks, why not look at the feasibility of using the existing rail-bridge at the Ironworkers’ Memorial location for a tram-train that would connect North Vancouver to the mainline in Vancouver? In fact, judging by the numbers being put forward by the RFTV group, it’s conceivable that a North Shore to Vancouver and all points east to Chilliwack could be built for a fraction of the cost of building the Canada Line.
The main point to consider is that whether or not Langley residents have discovered a workable answer to some of our growing transit woes, they are asking the right questions.
It behooves us all to join in the chorus and repeat our own version of the question asked by Hawaii’s professor: Why has discussion of a popular light-rail alternative consistently been shelved in favour of building SkyTrain at triple to as much as 10 times the cost?
Saturday March 20 – LIGHT RAIL RALLY AND RIDE
Spread the word, Invite your friends in Vancouver – this is not just a Rail for the Valley event
LIGHT RAIL RALLY AND RIDE
Granville Island, Vancouver
Saturday, March 20, 2:00pm Granville Island Olympic Line Station
(Click here for the event on Facebook)
This may be your last chance to experience Vancouver’s state-of-the-art 2010 Streetcar while it’s still in operation. (Rides are free!)
The Streetcar Demo has been a phenomenonal success, but the trial is slated to end on March 21. In light of its success, there is a major push on to extend the service indefinitely. Such a small line (only 1.8 km long, from Granville Island to the Olympic Village) could end up being the tiny seed that begins the construction of a light rail and streetcar network eventually encompassing the whole of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Click here for more background:
Streetcar named desire shows transit future (The Province, Feb. 28, 2010)
http://www.theprovince.com/news/world/Streetcar+named+desire+shows+transit+future/2623789/story.html
So, LET’S RALLY, and Ride the Rails on Saturday March 20 the first day of spring, in support of Light Rail and streetcars for Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Take the whole family, and make it a day. After the rally, visit Granville Island on the first day of spring!
GETTING THERE
For the time being (at least until March 21), getting to Granville Island is transit-friendly:
1) Get onto the Canada Line (If you’re take Skytrain, the connection to the Canada Line is at Waterfront Station)
2) Get off at Olympic Village Station (6th Ave).
3) Ride the Olympic streetcar!
CARPOOLERS: let us know if you need a carpool, or if you can carpool somebody. railforthevalley@gmail.com
Saturday March 20 – LIGHT RAIL RALLY AND RIDE
Spread the word, Invite your friends in Vancouver – this is not just a Rail for the Valley event
LIGHT RAIL RALLY AND RIDE
Granville Island, Vancouver
Saturday, March 20, 2:00pm Granville Island Olympic Line Station
(Click here for the event on Facebook)
This may be your last chance to experience Vancouver’s state-of-the-art 2010 Streetcar while it’s still in operation. (Rides are free!)
The Streetcar Demo has been a phenomenonal success, but the trial is slated to end on March 21. In light of its success, there is a major push on to extend the service indefinitely. Such a small line (only 1.8 km long, from Granville Island to the Olympic Village) could end up being the tiny seed that begins the construction of a light rail and streetcar network eventually encompassing the whole of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Click here for more background:
Streetcar named desire shows transit future (The Province, Feb. 28, 2010)
http://www.theprovince.com/news/world/Streetcar+named+desire+shows+transit+future/2623789/story.html
So, LET’S RALLY, and Ride the Rails on Saturday March 20 the first day of spring, in support of Light Rail and streetcars for Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Take the whole family, and make it a day. After the rally, visit Granville Island on the first day of spring!
GETTING THERE
For the time being (at least until March 21), getting to Granville Island is transit-friendly:
1) Get onto the Canada Line (If you’re take Skytrain, the connection to the Canada Line is at Waterfront Station)
2) Get off at Olympic Village Station (6th Ave).
3) Ride the Olympic streetcar!
CARPOOLERS: let us know if you need a carpool, or if you can carpool somebody. railforthevalley@gmail.com
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