Toronto is the only city in Canada to retain its streetcar or tram system and today the system is expanding to meet the travel needs of transit customers.
The following videos explains the new Waterfront project with expanded streetcar service.
The Carbon Tax flim-flam in BC and Canada gets exposed by Norm Farrell’s excellent In-Sights blog.
Zwei has always thought the Carbon Tax was mere politcal theater as all Carbon Tax revue is deposited in “general revenue”, spent at the government’s whim.
With a compliant mainstream media, the Carbon Tax scam continues unabated, being nothing more than a funding vehicle for the oil and gas industries provincial and federal subsidies.
Like all taxes, the Carbon Tax ends up as being a tax on the poor while big business enjoys the profits of this tax.
According to a study published by Nature Climate Change, governments of 51 countries spent C$940 billion subsidizing fossil fuels in 2021. The number is likely higher since there are many indirect subsidies, such as Canada’s $35 billion Trans Mountain pipeline, and it is unclear if benefits provided by sub-national governments are included.
In fiscal year 2022, fossil fuel companies in British Columbia used royalty credit programs to reduce payments to the BC government by more than $1.5 billion. In addition, monthly tenders for natural gas and petroleum rights have been eliminated. These sales once put billions of dollars into the provincial treasury.
Royalty reductions and elimination of rights payments have drastically altered provincial revenue. These numbers, extracted from Ministry of Finance documents, include accrued royalty credits but all numbers have been adjusted to 2022 dollars using the Bank of Canada inflation calculator.
Carbon tax is levied in BC to encourage residents to reduce consumption of carbon based fuels. But that is justification for fools, because natural gas not burned here is exported to be burned elsewhere. The trouble, of course, is that we have only one Earth and one atmosphere.
Comments may suggest I oppose carbon taxes. The opposite is true, but it is idiotic to use them as a device to to raise fossil fuel exports and achieve no real improvement in carbon emissions.
Note: Writing this leaves me wondering if the next boardrooms Coalman John Horgan occupies will be those of gas producers. No doubt they believe he deserves generous rewards.
Instead of spending $11 billion, to build a mere 21.7 km of the now obsolete MALM light metro, the government could have spent less than half that amount by building and operating hydrogen powered trains on the former BC Electric interurban route from Vancouver to Chilliwack and from Victoria to Courtney on the Island, providing a maximum of three trains per hour per direction.
The new 400 km regional rail service would have carried far more new passengers than the 21.7 km Broadway subway and the Expo line extension to Langley.
If only the Premier and the Minister of Transportation and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure had a brain.
The hydrogen-powered train will travel between Parc de la Chute-Montmorency and Baie-Saint-Paul. Train de Charlevoix
This summer, North America’s first zero-emission train will start running in Canada.
The hydrogen-powered Train de Charlevoix will run a 90-minute route between Parc de la Chute-Montmorency, the site of an almost 300-foot waterfall located just outside of Québec City, and Baie-Saint-Paul, a picturesque riverside town known for its art galleries and local food scene, reports the Independent’s Joanna Whitehead. Developed by the French company Alstom, the train has been in the works for a decade.
The project is a triumph for North America, though European countries beat Canada to the punch: Germany started testing the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger trains in 2018, going on to roll out a fleet in 2022. The German Coradia iLint trains, also made by Alstom, can reach speeds of 140 miles per hour. A single tank of hydrogen can last for more that 600 miles.
Germany’s trains are a “model for the rest of the world” and “a milestone on the road to climate neutrality in the transport sector,” said Stephan Weil, president of Lower Saxony, last summer, per CNN’s Julia Buckley.
Canada’s Train de Charlevoix will reach speeds of up to 85 miles per hour, while emitting only water vapor, reports Afar magazine’s Bailey Berg. The trains are powered by combining hydrogen with oxygen.
Particularly in Europe, electric trains are becoming an increasingly common sustainable alternative to diesel-powered trains. But as Smithsonian magazine’s Sarah Kuta wrote last year, electrifying train lines can be a challenging and expensive solution, sometimes making hydrogen more realistic.
According to a statement from Alstom, since 2018 its hydrogen-powered trains have traveled more than 100,000 miles across eight European countries. Now, the company is positioned to expand across the Atlantic.
“With only 1 percent of the networks electrified in our region, this technology will provide an alternative to diesel,” says Michael Keroullé, president of Alstom Americas, in the statement. “This project will demonstrate our capabilities to provide more sustainable mobility solutions to customers, agencies and operators, as well as to passengers. It will also provide an extraordinary showcase for Quebec’s developing green hydrogen ecosystem.”
Service on the new trains will begin on the morning of June 17. Starting in Quebec City, the train will stop at seven riverside towns (including Sainte-Anne-De-Beaupre, Petite Riviere-Saint-Francois and Le Massif) on the way to Baie-Saint-Paul, which it will reach in the late afternoon. Tickets start at $99, while children ride for $69.
Travelers can also sign up for the Eco-Agro tour, a set itinerary that brings passengers to tastings at local breweries, where they’ll learn about sustainable brewing techniques.
If anyone believes that the government did not know that subway construction was going to negatively impact businesses along its route, I have shares in the Lions Gate Bridge to sell you.
Both the provincial government and the City of Vancouver have selective amnesia with subway construction as the ills associated with the Canada Line subway have been selectively forgotten. It is the price to be paid to make Vancouver a “world class” city.
Also with selective amnesia is the Vancouver Sun.
The Vancouver Sun, a big supporter of SkyTrain Light metro and the Broadway subway, will not tell its readers that according to a Toronto Report, Transit City, subways ‘sterilize‘ surface businesses between stations.
No mention that the often repeated “Broadway is the most heavily used transit corridor in North America” is a mere myth, with no independent corroborating study to back up the claim. TransLink claims “Broadway is our most congested bus corridor”, knowing full well that the myth espoused by the City of Vancouver and many gullible politicians is not true.
According to the TTC’s Fall 2022 data, these routes are busier than Broadway 99B Bus Route:
(DATA IS FROM TRANSLINK AND THE TTC)
99 B 35,800 Boardings (Fall 2022)
King 514 A&B Streetcar: 48,900 Boardings (Fall 2022)
Queen 501Streetcar: 37,400 Boardings (Fall 2022)
Finch West 36 Bus: 36,900 (Fall 2022)
Lawrence West 52: 36,100 (Fall 2022)
There were 5 other TTC routes (2 streetcar and 3 bus) that came very close to equalling the 99B ridership
(Boarding levels wthin 2000 riders daily)
Nor will the Vancouver Sun tell its readers that the present maximum capacity of the Millennium Line (Broadway Subway) is a mere 4,000 persons per hour per direction, which will be increased to 7,500 pphpd after a $1.47 billion resignalling rehab. Nor will the Vancouver Sun tell its readers that 7,500 pphpd is one half the capacity of the deemed necessary for a subway in North America!
From Thales 2022 News Release: When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, and the Millennium Line will be able to handle 7500 passengers per hour per direction, a 32% and 96% increase respectively.
The Vancouver Sun would never inform its readers that according to Bombardier’s own website (before the sale of their rail division to Alstom) that they did not recommend SkyTrain on any tout with a peak hour ridership less than 8,000 pphpd.
Also ignored is that the Broadway subway is replacing the 99B Line bus, which currently has a maximum peak hour capacity of 2,000 pphpd!
Here we have a $2.7 billion (before inflation), 5.7 km Subway, built on a route which goes nowhere (passenger wise), with a hugely constricted capacity, strictly for politcal prestige for photo ops at election time.
It is now time, not for a judicial inquiry of the Broadway subway, but a criminal inquiry on why the Broadway subway subway is being built on a route with the fraction of the ridership deemed necessary for a subway and which maximum capacity of the subway is one half that is deemed necessary for a subway, strictly for politcal prestige and cute photo-ops at election time.
How about it Premier Eby, you did mention that you wanted government accountability?
‘It’s unfair’: Business group calls for support as more shops shutter during Broadway construction
Drone footage shows construction on the Broadway Subway Project in Vancouver, B.C. on Tues. March 21, 2023. Global News
The Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association is calling on the B.C. government to support businesses impacted by Broadway Corridor construction, citing record new numbers of shuttering shops.
According to the Vancouver group’s executive director, at least 56 businesses along the Broadway Subway Project line are “papered-up” or displaying “for lease” signs in the windows — up from the 40 he counted in January.
“They’re struggling to get customers in the door because it’s difficult to get there. There’s nowhere to stop,” said Neil Wyles on Tuesday. “It’s unfair to these businesses.”
The Broadway Subway Project is a $2.38-billion, 5.7-kilometre extension of the Millennium Line, whose construction began in spring of 2021. To accommodate the work, parking or stopping on long stretches of the street has been forbidden for many months on end, while fences have hidden some storefronts from customer view.
A number of crosswalks and sidewalks have been closed at times as well, although posted signs redirect foot and vehicle traffic, letting customers know the businesses remain open.
“Even though these customers want to be supportive, how many times will they be inconvenienced before they find something else or somewhere else to go?” asked Wyles.
“People can’t afford to be here with declining sales and continue to pay the rent and pay the ever-increasing costs on everything else, and they’re either packing up and going bankrupt or closing businesses.”
Transportation Minister Rob Fleming has previously said “very extensive consultations” were conducted with businesses along Broadway in advance of the project, and the street will remain open throughout construction. The new line is not expected to open until 2026.
In a written statement, Jobs and Economic Development Minister Brenda Bailey said the province recognizes the “added challenges” the project may present to businesses already impacted by COVID-19 closures and restrictions, but did not specify any specific financial support for them.
“While there have been some business closures along the Broadway Corridor, we are also aware that a number of businesses have opened along the Broadway corridor in recent months. We expect to see more positive activity as businesses recognize the increased opportunities this project will create as it moves toward completion,” Bailey wrote Tuesday.
“We will continue working with businesses to ensure supports are in place to help them mitigate the impacts of the project which, once completed, will significantly improve access to the Broadway corridor for people to work and shop close to home.”
Tara Shayegan, co-founder of Uphoria Yoga on East Broadway, said it’s been “really hard” to keep her new enterprise afloat. The studio opened its doors five months before the pandemic began, then closed for 18 months due to health restrictions.
When operations resumed, Shayegan said there was no drop-off or pick-up space in front of the studio due to construction. The team has since secured a limited number of spaces for that purpose, but she said business has “still not been really great.”
“It’s definitely been challenging,” she said. “It was difficult to start with, now it’s kind of moving towards a good direction.”
Shayegan said she would like to see the province provide “whatever” support it can, suggesting reduced construction hours, additional parking spots or financial support.
Broadway Subway “breakthrough” at future Mount Pleasant station
City of Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh said she’s interested in connecting with the province about reducing parking restrictions in the areas without active construction.
Prior to October’s municipal election, Vancouver Councillors had also asked staff to explore financial relief options for those businesses impacted by “cut and cover” tunnelling — a particularly disruptive technique that restricts pedestrian, vehicle and bus access to the merchants, as well as their street visibility.
“We consistently work with the provincial government, who of course is sort of managing the Broadway Subway Project team. TransLink is involved of course when it comes to traffic infrastructure and plans around the construction, (and) City of Vancouver staff,” Bligh said.
“What we’ve heard and what we’ve seen is a request for these groups to come together and be responding real-time to changing conditions … every option has to be on the table.”
At least two Broadway businesses — the Storm Crow Alehouse and a Subway restaurant — have permanently closed amidst the construction.
When finished, the Broadway Subway Project will include 700 elevated metres from VCC-Clark Station to a tunnel portal near Great Northern Way, and five kilometres tunneled below the Broadway Corridor from Great Northern Way to Arbutus Street.
Six underground stations will connect communities to the region, including a connection to the Canada Line at Cambie Street. Traffic decks have been installed at multiple station construction sites to keep traffic and people moving, and the project recently marked a new building milestone: the start of tunneling through to the future Mount Pleasant Station.
Metro Vancouver is making a name for itself on the world stage once again, this time, for not such illustrious reasons. The area has been named the second worst metro area for traffic in North America.
Vancouver has also taken the fourth spot in having the worst traffic in North America.
The TomTom Traffic Index, released Wednesday, shared its rankings for 2022, and lists locations on how long it takes to travel 10 km within city limits.
The index found Vancouverites average about 22 minutes and 30 seconds to travel the distance.
CityNews 1130 Morning Show Traffic Anchor Ryan Lidemark says he’s noticed traffic has gotten worse in Metro Vancouver since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would say in the last 10, 11 months, traffic is back to their pre-COVID [levels] or even worse,” he said.
The index says the average driver in Vancouver spends almost 200 hours a year in rush-hour traffic. Drivers in Mexico City were found to have the worst driving times in North America, followed by New York and Toronto.
When compared to metro areas, Metro Vancouver ranked second in North America, just behind Mexico City, with Halifax in third.
Lidemark notes that the high housing and real estate costs mean many have to live farther out and commute into business centres.
“Many people have moved during the pandemic, and also with the cost of living the Lower Mainland people are going farther and farther,” he said. “Now you see people from deep in the valley, people commuting from Chilliwack, into Vancouver, people from Abbotsford. So, it definitely makes a difference, especially going towards the Port Mann Bridge.”
However, Lidemark thinks Highway 1 has always been bad for traffic.
“I would say in the last 10, 11 months, traffic is back to their pre-COVID [levels] or even worse,” he said.
The index says the average driver in Vancouver spends almost 200 hours a year in rush-hour traffic. Drivers in Mexico City were found to have the worst driving times in North America, followed by New York and Toronto.
When compared to metro areas, Metro Vancouver ranked second in North America, just behind Mexico City, with Halifax in third.
Lidemark notes that the high housing and real estate costs mean many have to live farther out and commute into business centres.
“Many people have moved during the pandemic, and also with the cost of living the Lower Mainland people are going farther and farther,” he said. “Now you see people from deep in the valley, people commuting from Chilliwack, into Vancouver, people from Abbotsford. So, it definitely makes a difference, especially going towards the Port Mann Bridge.”
However, Lidemark thinks Highway 1 has always been bad for traffic.
“It was designed just for people going out of town or going deep in the valley, it wasn’t designed for commuting like is done now,” he said. “They weren’t planning on that many people living out that way. And now, you have a flow, and they’re expanding the highway from 264th towards the Port Mann Bridge but that’s still going to be about another seven or eight years.”
“It was designed just for people going out of town or going deep in the valley, it wasn’t designed for commuting like is done now,” he said. “They weren’t planning on that many people living out that way. And now, you have a flow, and they’re expanding the highway from 264th towards the Port Mann Bridge but that’s still going to be about another seven or eight years.”
Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results
The preceding quote, often misattributed to Einstein, conveys the huge financial issues facing TransLink.
The provincial government’s bailout of TransLink, to a tune of $479 million, is nothing more than per-election politics as a financially floundering TransLink, does make good politics at election time.
The real problem is that former customers are not coming back to transit as predicted and with two very questionable and very expensive transit projects being built, lack of customers may prove very embarrassing in the future.
The $11 billion Broadway subway, Expo line extension to Langley and rehab, will look quite silly if no one uses them.
Instead of facing TransLink’s real problems including a proliferation of electric cars (no gas tax), remote working, and of course a very user unfriendly transit system.
In my local, the transit service, except for the express buses to the ferry, are mainly used by students (cheap fares, including the U-Pass) and those who do not have access to a car. The elderly have all but stopped taking transit, simply because it has become so user unfriendly.
Demographic change has also changed the playing field as more and more business are leaving Vancouver to cheaper operations up the valley. Uber and other like ride-hailing services are also eating away at TransLink’s core business.
Yesterday’s destinations are growing thinner every year and except for post secondary institutions, such as UBC and SFU (which students have the universal $1 a day U-Pass, which also adds to TransLink’s financial woes), taking transit becomes more and more user unfriendly.
Instead of facing facts, the Premier and the Minister of Transportation, abetted by the Mayor’s Council on Transit are doubling down, with photo-op ready, politically prestigious transit projects and not designing a regional transit system that will naturally attract ridership for the future.
By doing the same thing over again, and expecting different results is a coward’s way out.
The B.C. government is stepping in to bail out TransLink from financial shortfalls that could have led to service reductions.
Premier David Eby announced the $479 million cash infusion on Wednesday, saying it will go toward things like infrastructure, avoiding service cuts, and keeping free transit for kids under 12 years old.
“Hundreds of thousands of people rely on TransLink’s service every day to get to work, travel to school, and access all parts of the region,” Eby said. “Failing to act now would lead to higher fares, fewer buses on the road, and reduced service across the board. We won’t let that happen.”
B.C. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Rob Fleming says the province will continue working with the federal government for future funding partnerships to help the transit company.
“Given TransLink’s significant and immediate needs, the Province is taking action with this funding stabilization to address TransLink’s short-term operating funding needs, preventing layoffs and maintaining transit services that will create jobs and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, which benefits residents and visitors to Metro Vancouver,” he said.
Last month, the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council called for a $250 million investment from the federal government, which would be matched by the province.
Brad West, chair of the council and mayor of Port Coquitlam, says he welcomes Wednesday’s funding announcement.
“Every day almost 400,000 Metro Vancouver residents use our transit system. These are regular people trying to get to work or school, or go to a hockey game or a park, all of whom expect governments to keep them moving with good, reliable transit,” he said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, TransLink has received over $850 million in government assistance due to decreased ridership, going from about 450 million users in 2019, to 200 million in both 2020 and 2021.
Subways tend to cause ground subsidence and when two two cylindrical tunnel boring machines (TBMs), six metres wide and weighing around a million kilograms, gnaws away underground, subsidence will occur.
Memo to Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation: It is not vibrations you should be worried about, it is subsidence as the tunnel boring machine chews through the earth below.
TransLink knows this.
The City of Vancouver knows this.
The provincial government, especially the Minister of Transportation knows this.
Yet, no compensation for business owners when the TBM causes issues to their building.
Pretending its not our fault just does not cut it.
Government just does not give a damn.
TransLink, the city of Vancouver and the provincial government, having learned nothing with the Canada Line fiasco, blunder ahead with the subway, with a “what me worry” attitude.
Premier Eby is spending billions of dollars on politcal friends and insiders, to buy himself an election, while ignoring the business folk on Broadway and flipping the bird at their woes.
The NDP, as always, never understood public transit, other than a politcal tool to garner votes at election time.
Vancouver businesses close as heritage building façade crumbles
Business owners in a heritage building in Vancouver have been forced to close their doors as engineers assess the state of its crumbling façade.
“At 3 p.m. on Friday we were instructed that we would need to close our business,” said Allen Ingram, the owner of Home on the Range Organics.
“We closed our front doors at the end of the day, 5 p.m. and as such we have been closed since that point.”
Ingram’s shop is located in a two-storey brick building at 245 East Broadway where a scaffold protects pedestrians. In recent weeks, loose bricks were noted and last week, the engineer decided to act.
“I’m in a 100-year-old heritage building,” said Skylar Stock, the owner of Mintage Mall, a vintage clothing store occupying the second floor. He was also forced to close Friday and remained closed Tuesday.
“The brickwork on Broadway and the brickwork on Kingsway could be compromised,” he said. “Why would I want to put somebody at risk if there’s potentially risk?”
Both owners wonder if construction of the Broadway subway extension could have played a role in their building’s deteriorating condition. It’s a massive project to expand the SkyTrain Millenium Line 5.7 kilometres from the VCC-Clark Station to Arbutus Street.
“Obviously we look to the province to put in a compensation package that should have been there for the (Canada Line Cambie Street construction), that they could definitely do now,” Ingram said.
Between 2005 and 2009, businesses along Vancouver’s Cambie Street complained they were being hammered by construction of the Canada Line. That tunnel was built using the cut-and-cover method where crews dug a massive trench before installing rails and finally covering the tunnel with asphalt.
Businesses sued for compensation and won at the B.C. Supreme Court, a decision that was later overturned on appeal.
The Broadway subway is instead being bored in deep tunnels. Only station areas are being dug out, though this has caused traffic disruptions in construction zones. Ingram’s building sits just east of one of these pits.
Construction of the $2.8-billion project is overseen by the Transportation Investment Corporation on behalf of the provincial Minsitry of Transportation.
On Monday, B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming showed little enthusiasm for compensation.
“It’s an older heritage building,” he said, suggesting the loose bricks are more reflective of the building’s overall condition and not construction nearby.
“The tunnel-boring machine has gone by, vibrations were not observed at all and there is monitoring equipment on site,” he said.
The city has ordered an engineer to assess the building’s condition and determine next steps. Business owners have been told that work could take days or weeks.
“I hope it’s quick and I can say to my staff, ‘days off are over,’” Stock said. “Time to get back to work.”
A subway here, an elevated guideway in the countryside there, begs the question: “Has TransLink badly erred with their transit planning.”
TransLink is completely hooked on the “hub and spoke” philosophy of transit, where buses bring passenger to light metro hubs, to be transported to another transport hub, and the either arrive or take another bus to their destination.
Hub and Spoke transit planning
Contrary to the myth that transit must be fast to garner ridership, the hub and spoke philosophy of transit is time consuming when one adds the walk/wait time to get a bus; then the time on the bus, then the time waiting for a train and the more time if one must again transfer onto another bus.
A local example.
Zwei used to commute daily by bus from South Delta to downtown Vancouver and the entire trip took between 45 to 60 minutes depending on the time of day and traffic. The express buses used to have standing room only and it was not uncommon to be left at the curbside because the bus was full.
Then came the Canada line and part of the P-3 contract was a nasty little clause that made all downtown Vancouver buses, forcibly transfer their customers onto the Canada Line, at Bridgeport Station to complete their journey to Vancouver. For added insult, where prior to the Canada Line, there was direct bus service to Richmond Centre from South Delta, with the Canada Line Richmond bound customers were forced to travel by the Canada Line, again forced to Transfer to the Canada Line then doubling back to Richmond Centre. By forcing customers to transfer onto the Canada Line, added 10 to 15 minutes to ones journey time going to downtown Vancouver and increasing journey times by as much as 30 to 45 minutes going to South Delta!
This put a lie from TransLink that customers would save about 10 minutes in travel time using the new route.
Ten years after the Canada Line opened South Delta Express buses are a quarter full and service has been cut back to a 1990’s level of service as customers have voted with their feet by avoiding transit. TransLink is unrepentant and refuses to address customer’s wants.
In 2019 Zwie was held up by 90 minutes at the stark Bridgeport Station on a very windy and cold Saturday afternoon, due to cancelled buses and unannounced changes made by management. No help was offered to the large contingent of marooned passengers: management did not give a damn.
I have never used a bus since and I am not alone.
I have been told privately by neighbours and long time acquaintances in South Delta of many similiar experiences, with management ignoring customers and in the end, TransLink loses both customers and any hint of public support.
No wonder TransLink is held in high odor by the taxpayer.
It is also important to note that South Delta now has a lot of electric cars, with a recent survey at the local shopping centre, every fourth parked car was electric.
Is the electric car taking ridership away from transit?
From my somewhat experienced eye, it seems to me that the locals have turned their back on transit and instead have gone electric.
This does not bode well for future transit investment.
TransLink wants $20 billion in coming years to both expand and operate the regional transit system, but with the majority of public, seeing TransLink in such a vile light, I doubt they will not get public sympathy and the politicians trying to sell TransLink to taxpayer may find themselves out of office with a populace fed up with TransLink’s insatiable lust for money, but providing a mediocre service outside the Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster nexus.
Thus the question remains: Is TransLink ‘s planning out of date?
The following is from the LRPPro group, which is made mainly of experts in the field of public transport and well worth a read.
The big question for me is: Is today’s transit tech be tomorrow’s transit tech? Those questions should be asked, lest we again invest in a proprietary technology and continue building and using it, when the rest of the world (and manufactures) have moved on?
PRT was the flavour of the month for transit nirvana in 1971!
I have a degree in this industry and ran both para-transit and mainline bus systems as well as owning a bus company at one time so think I have run into every or most every new gizmo that has come down the pike in the past 60yrs or so. and am pretty into the history of the industry.
Batteries are getting better all the time, from lead acid to nicad to lithium ion to lithium iron phosphate etc. and maybe the next one will be from what is now unobtainium. I have no doubt the tech will improve. but will human nature improve along with it.
To play devils advocate here for a bit.
. Electric rail systems will continually run into NIMBY and cost constraints especially as they become more complex. Some countries for legal or social reasons will always have an “operator” if only to watch the computer controls. Where fully autonomous has been used there has been a lot of push back, with the possible exceptions of airport shuttle vehicles.
. Trunk electric buses may become more and more BEB but ground level charging would have to overcome some basic laws of physics to be seriously practical, just look up the function of distance between charging plates and amount of loss of power. will we have that much power available to us to waste 90% to cover a 2cm air gap?? so far no one has found a way around the air-gap problem (except maybe N. Tesla and he took that to his grave unless we can rediscover it).
. AV shuttles of any type have run into a conflict with accessibility laws which in many cases require human intervention. and the mobility technology is getting so varied and complex that automatic systems are not reliable or damage equipment. and as someone who is heavily invested in that industry on a personal basis I see it getting more complex not less so.
Then there are a few “little” things like
. Unions
. Getting sufficient highly skilled workers to maintain this equipment and their salaries
. Parochial rules and laws from country to country and even city to city.
And some that I haven’t thought or overlook or that will surface as this issue progresses.
The number of new items that will come along such as the monorail or Maglev, or does anyone remember the all wonderful Aerobus system, and of course everyone thinks we will have flying cars in our driveways tomorrow (What about that pesky pilots license needed to use them off the ground, I have a pilots license and know how hard they are to get).
I am not saying there won’t be all of these things but even the diesel engine took years to become common in many parts of the world, in fact in many places it is still not the most common with gasoline engines powering many transit vehicles especially in third world countries where diesel fuel is very expensive or hard to obtain.
The future is coming but I doubt we will recognize it as anything we predicted. (Heck I probably won’t live long enough to see it, unless major medical breakthroughs) Battery tech will have a place in our future, the flashlight is over 100yrs old but except for the newer LED bulbs how much has it changed. The basic bus or rail vehicle has changed very little in it’s base dimensions in 200 yrs, I would say standard gauge but that depends on were you are since standard gauge is different.
Here is the USA on the North East Corridor rail route of Amtrak from Washington DC to Boston complex engines are required because 3 different electric systems are used depending on who built the original. and in Europe change of voltage is routine.
One of my concerns is proprietary battery tech, will a BYD battery work on a New Flyer or Protera or ? Will transit systems be “locked” into a single provider of proprietary technology (such as Vancouver?). I have seen it happen and it costs lots of money, ask TransLink in Vancouver Canada, and even in New York city why they need different subway car designs for the numbered vs lettered routes. Who will set the standard and will it work internationally.
Enough you get the point and this isn’t just BEB but applies to LRT and many things outside the transit industry; example:I have many battery operated tools, so why can’t the batteries in my Makita work in a Ryobi etc.
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Broadway Subway “breakthrough” at future Mount Pleasant station
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