I just shake my head at this government, they just do not have a clue about transit.
After listening to NDP Minister of Housing and Attorney General, David Eby about housing, I was absolutely gobsmacked how ignorant he is about transit. If Eby is ignorant about transit, one can assume that the entire NDP government is as well!
The provincial and federal governments are covering most of the cost of the almost $3 billion cost of the SkyTrain extension and construction is underway. But Vancouver has yet to approve the plan to add “thousands and thousands of units” of rental housing along the route.
At this rate, says Eby, “the subway is going to be done before the Broadway corridor plan is approved.”
SUBWAYS ARE NOT BUILT TO BENEFIT LAND SPECULATORS AND LAND DEVELOPERS, SUBWAYS ARE BUILT WHEN TRAFFIC FLOWS ON A TRANSIT ROUTE EXCEED 15,000 PERSONS PER HOUR PER DIRECTION ON A TRANSIT ROUTE.
Again, the peak hour traffic flows on Broadway are under 4,000 pphpd; the Broadway 99-B Line bus has only a maximum capacity of 2,000 pphpd!
I ask this question, tongue in cheek, but is closer to the reality than many would think.
How many people in $2,500 a month and up, condos along Broadway are going to take transit (subway) to work in the Tri-Cities (Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam)?
Not many. In fact, I predict the subway will force more people off transit than attract to transit. Not a car will be taken off the road.
The Broadway subway is being built for two reasons, with the first being politcal prestige and the second, Vision Vancouver’s (the NDP’s farm team in the city of Vancouver) gifting of a $3 billion subway to land land speculators and land developers for building high rise condos and towers for the overseas money laundering crowd to further launder illicit international drug money.
Remember, Premier Horgan’s chief advisor is a former Vision Vancouver Councillor and big, big subway booster.
Is a financial embarrassment of TransLink at hand?
Monday morning I dropped my wife off at a suburban bus stop to catch the express bus going to the Canada Line. The bus had no more than seven people on board. The reason she took the bus, is that we are a one car family and I needed the car for an important appointment. My wife used to commute by bus daily but after the Canada Line opened, her commute to town increased 15 to 20 minutes.
A new local job, just before the Covid emergency, meant she only needed to commute to Vancouver once a week. With Covid she drove instead and could get to her work in under 50 minutes, compared to the 90 minutes using transit. She only works one day a week in town and using the car is no great extra cost, when compared to the bus.
The 602 came and being the last stop before its dash to Richmond there was a total of ten customers the bus, with two others boarding with my wife.
I have noticed the same phenomenon with other suburban routes, with express buses having no more than ten customers on board trundling back and forth.
What has happened?
The main culprit is covid-19 and two years of mask only travel; remote education and working at home has taken their toll.
One comment from a former commuter who emailed me was more blunt:
Until I started taking the car again to work, as I did not realize how crappy the bus service was.
A blunt assessment of the bus service which our cancel culture mainstream media would not allow on air or publish.
Something else that happened last week that puzzled me, New Westminster Mayor, Jonathan Coté announced he would not run in this year’s civic elections. Mayor, Jonathan Coté also happens to be the Chair of the Mayor’s Council on Transit a prestigious position to hold, especially at election time and he is not running and no one seems to want the job.
Could it be that bad news is in the offing? News that could cut short a politcal career?
The “good news, bad news”, chair of TransLink has been doing pod casts, singing hosannas about himself desperately trying to be the Mr. Rogers of TransLink.
Again, I wonder if he is trying to isolate himself from bad news?
I think, as do many others, that TransLink is tilting on a financial precipice, caused by lack of revenue generated by a lack ridership; lack of a user friendly transit service and a lack of affordable planning. Presently, all TransLink can afford is a $2.85 billion, 5.8 km subway under Broadway. The 16 km Expo Line to Langley is more than a billion dollars short of funding and TransLink is desperately trying to reduce operating costs by rationalizing bus service in both the City of Vancouver and metro Vancouver.
Both last summers heat dome and November’s monsoon rainfall, causing massive damage to the highway and rail infrastructure and the floods in the upper Fraser Valley, means there will be little, if any financial relief in the next few years.
Shilling for higher taxes for TransLink in a civic election year is a big politcal no-no.
My problem is a simple one…I can’t pay it!” Harry Mage February 23, 1952
TransLink by skill of their media manipulation has kept the dire financial news from the public as Covid, vaccinations and the daily dose of goody two shoes news from the mainstream media has masked transit problems ……. for now.
The day of reckoning is coming, either increase taxes, as Trudeau is planning to do on the on paper value of houses or cut back on transit and transportation mega projects and build what is affordable and what is useful.
My prediction that the news of tax increases will come in December of this year, right after the civic elections as newly elected civic politicians will be safe for another four years.
TransLink is just too large, just too corrupt to fail.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made absolutely clear, we cannot go back to normal, as it has forever changed how people behave. Covid-19 is a prelude for great change in BC.
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Last summer’s heat dome and subsequent wild fires shows we cannot go back to normal.
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The recent atmospheric rivers resulting in massive floods and land slides, demonstrates we cannot go back to Normal
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Metro Vancouver’s regional transit system has been greatly affected by the pandemic as thousands of of people stay home, with many either working or studying from home. This has put a massive finical strain on TransLink, which now claims a deficit of at least $75 million a month.
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From the onset of “social distancing” TransLink seemed OK operating empty buses, without any hint of a “plan B” for operation during times of emergency. TransLink is now asking the provincial and federal governments for more money to keep empty buses operating and to keep huge executive salaries being paid.
TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit are still pretending to proceed with their pet $2.83 billion, 5.6 km Broadway subway and their $3.95 billion 16 km extensions to the Expo and Millennium Lines, despite clear evidence that both projects are nothing more than “gold-plated” prestige projects, designed to further the profits of land speculators and land developers who support many of the mayors at election time. Both projects will only improve transit on paper and nothing more.
The proposed Broadway subway is being built on a route without enough ridership to justify its construction and the flip flop from LRT to light-metro in Surrey, will be again be built on a route where the ridership will not justify construction costs. TransLink has not offered an estimate of the increased operating costs or increased annual subsidies for both projects.
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Questionable ridership projections are based on future condo tower development, based on foreign investment and this is not guaranteed! The already huge cost does not include the proprietary Movia Automatic Light Metro (erroneously called SkyTrain) cars, nor the inflationary cost increases for cement and specialty steel, needed for subway and viaduct construction.
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It is no secret that the often renamed and now called Movia Automatic Light Metro (MALM), as used on the Expo and Millennium Lines is obsolete, as it has been obsolete since the late 1980’s, being more expensive to build, maintain and operate than its chief competitor, light rail.
Only seven such systems have been built in the past 40 years and only three are seriously used for urban transit, despite the system being rebranded six times!
Today, modern light-metro systems such as Ottawa and Seattle use light rail vehicles, because of their cost effectiveness and their ability to operate on lesser rights-of-ways, yet because MALM uses Linear Induction Motors, it is impossible to use LRV’s on the proprietary MALM system.
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MALM cannot be built cheaply, nor can it be operated and maintained cheaply. The taxpayer pays a first class cost for a second class system and this cannot continue, post Covid-19.
The recent sale of Bombardier to Alstom puts into question the future availability of MALM cars and spare parts! With Covid-19 and a major economic downturn, production of niche transit systems like the proprietary MALM light metro, maybe discontinued. Alstom has already shown that it has little use for proprietary transit systems by discontinuing production of the TVR guided bus used in several European cities, leaving operators scrambling for spare parts.
Vancouver is now the only customer for MALM, as the systems built in Korea and Malaysia have mired Bombardier and SNC Lavalin (the patent holders of the proprietary railway) in legal misadventure, due in part, to healthy “success fees” paid to lobbyists and politicians, to ensure MALM was to be built!
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The Broadway subway and the Expo Line extension to Langley extensions to the SkyTrain light-metro system are grossly overpriced for what they will do as light ridership on both extensions will greatly increase operating costs. Broadway, current peak hour transit customer flows are under 4,000 persons per hour per direction (pphpd). The North American standard for building a subway is a transit route with customer flows of at least 15,000 pphpd and operational subsidies increase dramatically with smaller customer flows.
Despite deliberate and misleading statements by TransLink and the City of Vancouver, Broadway is not the busiest transit corridor in Canada, as a representative of TransLink stated in a letter, Broadway was “our region’s most over crowded bus route“
TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit have never been honest with the long term costs of the project, which over a fifty year period, will have grave implications for the metro Vancouver and BC taxpayers.
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According to the Toronto Transit Commission, who have a long experience operating subways, the Broadway subway to Arbutus, alone, will add $40 million annually to TransLink’s operating costs.
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The fifty year costs for subways and grade separated transit are staggering, estimated more than $1 billion per km for the subway portion and just under $600 million per km for the elevated sections of the light metro system. Already the original Expo Line desperately needs a minimum $2 billion to rehab (full rehab about $3 billion) the system and increase capacity beyond Transport Canada’s Operating Certificate maximum of 15,000 pphpd.
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TransLink has ignored these costs, for fear of pointed questions about the massive future costs including tax increases.
The following is the 50 year costs of various transit modes, by Ontario’s MetroLinx.
Spending $7 billion for 16 km of light-metro pales, when one could instead invest $1,3 billion on both, the proposed Fraser Valley Rail project reinstating a 130km Vancouver to Chilliwack passenger service and $1.5 billion rehabbing the E&N, reinstating a Victoria to Courtney 183 km passenger service and still have $4 billion left over to invest in regional transit projects in Metro Vancouver.
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Going into three years of the Covid-19 emergency has created long term financial hardships for taxpayers, not just TransLink. Even though there are generous government support, each month of lock down generates more and more fiscal instability for the taxpayer as future tax increases to pay for the emergency are certain.
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The taxpayer will very soon, be in no mood, to fund Vancouver’s and Surrey’s $7 billion gold-plated, prestige transit projects, nor will the taxpayer and the transit user be willing to pay higher fares and other taxes for transit that about 85% of the population will not use.
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As Premier, you must step in and say “enough” as TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit have isolated themselves from public oversight and ignore public debate.
In 2015, 62% percent of the people voted against TransLink’s demands for money, yet they have done nothing but play the taxpayer and voter for fools by offering virtually the same plan with no real public input. TransLink’s public oversight is nothing but a charade; a smokescreen to carry on with their hugely expensive rapid transit agenda.
In the post Covid world TransLink must plan for affordable transit projects; build user friendly transit projects and refrain from doing the same expensive thing over and over again hoping for different results.
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2022 and beyond will be an age of higher taxes, to pay for today’s emergency funding and rebuilding the provinces road infrastructure from the results of atmospheric rivers; more people will work at home, thus fewer people will use public transit; social spacing will see different travel routines, again reducing the need for gold-plated transit options.
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Then the reality of unintended consequences of today’s reality will come into play and those could prove very expensive.
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TransLink needs to rethink its planning; the Mayor’s Council on Transit needs to rethink how transit is provided and funded; and the provincial government must rethink its rubber stamping Metro Vancouver’s questionable transit planning.
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The taxpayer and the transit customer deserve far better than the current sham planning, complete lack of oversight and failure to correct the current mess maybe felt at the polls in the next election three years hence.
After 23 years the taxpayer is still held hostage to expensive and myopic light-metro planning.
This news item explains the huge cost of metro Vancouver’s transit construction. Though the article thinks that $500 million per kilometer, for the Broadway subway is reasonable, it must remembered that the subway it is being built on a transit route that has only a fraction of the ridership deemed necessary for a subway.
Much cheaper transit options have been ignored!
Pre Covid, the Broadway 99-B Line bus had a maximum capacity of only 2,000 pphpd and the entire Broadway route saw maximum traffic flows under 4,000 pphpd, far less that the 15,000 pphpd deemed to be the North American minimum for building a subway.
The per kilometre cost of the Broadway subway may seem reasonable but building a subway on such a route is not.
The SkyTrain light-metro system history is checkered with political meddling.
The initial Expo Line from downtown Vancouver to New Westminster cost as much as the original Vancouver to Richmond, Lougheed Mall and Whalley plan.
The then BC Social Credit party entered into a political deal with the then Ontario Conservative government, to purchase an already obsolete proprietary light-metro system (renamed from ICTS to ALRT) from the Ontario Crown Corporation, the Urban Transit Development Corporation. It later transpired that the Social Credit government acquired the expertise of the Conservative government’s politcal “Blue Machine” to win the next provincial election in BC
The full cost of the 1978 LRT plan, $430 mil. to $550 mil. was much less than the 1982 $890 mil.Vancouver to New West Expo Line.
The SkyTrain Millennium Line was the result of the NDP government being seduced by SNC Lavalin and Bombardier, instead of the original and cheaper Vancouver/Lougheed Light Rail project, connecting LRT to the Tri-Cities. Bombardier acquired ALRT, when they purchased the UTDC at a fire sale price after Lavalin (which purchased the UTDC) went bankrupt trying to build a renamed ALM (formerly ALRT) system in Thailand.
The formerly called Evergreen line was the uncompleted portion of the Millennium Line, which cost far more than the originally planned LRT.
As soon as the Evergreen Line was completed, it was promptly renamed the Millennium Line!
The Canada Line was build hat the behest of the BC Liberal government, resulting with the only heavy-rail metro in the world, built as a light-metro and having less capacity than a simple streetcar line, costing a fraction to build!
The Expo Line extension to Langley is more of the same. The false claim by Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, that the Expo line could be extended to Langley at the same cost of LRT and the subsequent promise by premier Horgan to build the extension to Langley, has been mired with the fact that the 27 km phase 1 & 2, LRT (connecting to Langley), now costs much less than the now 16 km, Expo Line extension, which is currently underfunded by over $1 billion!
Sadly, the taxpayer is not paying for good transit, rather taxpayer is paying a a lot more for politically inspired transit projects.
Why Canada gets less for more when it comes to building transit
By Laura OsmanThe Canadian Press
Sun., Dec. 26, 2021
OTTAWA – In early September, Conservative candidate Jennifer McAndrew stood outside a suburban Ottawa transit hub in the battleground riding of Kanata-Carleton to make a major campaign promise.
“A Conservative government will support and prioritize Phase 3 of the LRT extension right here to Kanata and beyond,” a smiling McAndrew said in a video posted to her Facebook page on Sept. 2, just as the campaign was heating up.
Not a day later, her Liberal opponent, Jenna Sudds, posted her own video to make the very same promise.
While some transit advocates would be overjoyed to see cross-party commitments to build new light-rail infrastructure, it was a disappointment to Toronto transit researcher Stephen Wickens who spent more than a year warning governments against those kind of campaign promises.
The reason is that Canada pays a higher price to build light-rail transit compared to our international counterparts, driven chiefly by the depth of underground tunnels, the grandiosity of the stations and labour costs.
But several experts agree it has just as much to do with something else: politics.
“That’s the heart of it,” said Wickens, who authored an investigative study on the soaring cost of Toronto subway projects commissioned by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario last year.
But in Canada, the costs seem to go off the rails.
By Levy’s calculations, Toronto’s Ontario Line should cost $735-million per kilometre. The Blue Line extension plan in Montreal? About $775-million per kilometre. Vancouver’s Broadway SkyTrain seems almost reasonable at nearly $500-million per kilometre.
Political meddling at all levels of government — by all parties — can cause a knock-on effect on the price tag of projects.
For example, the cheapest tunnelling method is also the most annoying for the neighbours, so local councillors will up the cost to avoid complaints from constituents.
Just over a decade ago, Vancouver opted for a cheaper tunnelling option when it built the 19-kilometre Canada Line by digging a trench at street level and covering the top. The cut-and-cover method, as it’s known, led to big savings, but also disruptions, controversy and even lawsuits.
“The memories apparently remain so unpleasant that city leaders have made clear the Broadway Line will be entirely tunnelled, even with project estimates running at about $500 million per kilometre, or about 4.5 times what was paid for the Canada Line,” Wickens wrote in his report.
Political promises can also lock governments into commitments that may not offer the best value. As a 2019 study by the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance put it, the best projects based on the available evidence take a back seat to political considerations. Civil servants are forced then to give what researchers dub “decision-based evidence” to justify a political promise.
“Who is a lowly engineer to say ‘we don’t actually need that’ or ‘let’s cut this station,’ or ‘I know you’ve promised this interest group something so you need to break that promise because that’s going to cost us another half a billion dollars,’” said Levy in an interview with The Canadian Press.
It’s not just a Canadian phenomenon.
Levy and other researchers at the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University have found Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and United States overpay compared to peer counties like Spain, Italy and France.
Marco Chitti, a Montreal-based associate researcher on the project, said one domestic factor that may drive up costs is our federal political system that offers significant power to single parties trying to win votes from the public.
He said parliaments of other nations are afforded more power to water down proposals from the ruling party and get more bang for their buck.
Another problem is that Canadian cities and provinces often lack the in-house expertise to offer technical advice and oversee projects, Chitti said. He pointed to Italy where civil servants with technical expertise draw up detailed, costed plans before politicians make any commitments.
Chitti said the path to lowering costs on transit projects starts with admitting there is a problem that needs fixing.
“Most politicians in Canada are not aware that Canada has a huge problem, a huge, tremendous problem on cost,” Chitti said.
“I really hope that in a couple of years there will be much more discussion in Canada about the fact that we have ballooning costs, and that they are really out of control.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 26, 2021.
Alon Levy, a Berlin-based transit researcher and writer, calculated that globally, the median construction cost for an urban subway was less than $300 million per kilometre in 2019.
After three years, the news about rapid transit goes from bad to worse.
The Expo Line extension to Langley is now costing more than the revised cost of $3.95 billion and despite much false information that the line is fully funded, it is not. The claim that Prime minister Trudeau’s Liberal government will fully fund the Expo line Extension, is grossly overstated, as all what the P.M. will fund is 40% of the cost of the less than 16 km extension. This means that TransLink and the provincial government must ante up 60% of the costs.
With the recent massive flooding in the upper Fraser Valley, Merritt and Princeton, combined the biblical deluge that smashed three major highways in southern BC, which rebuilding is going to cost the province an estimated $5 billion (heard on the Radio) or more, I doubt that the province will ante any more money to this now contentious and over budget project.
The provincial government is not going to look kindly on TransLink, when they could have had a 27 km of LRT (phase 1 and 2), up and running by 2027 and a cheaper cost of 16km of SkyTrain that may never be built!
Now there is a new push for the 2030 Olympics, which means completing the Broadway subway to UBC will be a priority. The cost will be a minimum of $5 billion and add the much needed $3 billion mid life rehab for the Expo and Millennium Lines, means the government and TransLink must source $8 billion.
Added to this issue is that Alstom now owns the MALM system and may pull the plug at any time as Vancouver is now the sole customer for the proprietary railway. what this means is that the costs for the SkyTrain light metro system may escalate out of control and new civic and provincial politicians may pull the plug on all expansion.
The sad end is that the glowingly disgraced Mayor of Surrey, by cancelling LRT, may have screwed Surrey’s chances for any sort of rail transit for the foreseeable future and condemned the city to endemic congestion and gridlock.
Well its done, the idiots delight of new politicians in Surrey have voted to stop light rail.
Now they think they can build SkyTrain to Langley for the same cost as light rail.
Laughable.
The HATCH Report, planning to build SkyTrain to Langley put the cost at $2.95 billion, in 2017 dollars.
Well, in 2021, the cost to build the Expo Line extension to Langley has soared past $3.95 billion!
So Surrey’s new batch of Councillors are going to forgo a fully funded light rail line and instead will try to source $1.55 billion in new funding to build SkyTrain to Langley.
Mayor McCallum is on record saying that;” they can build SkyTrain at grade to reduce cost”.
SkyTrain at grade? You must be joking, the Movia Automatic Light Metro, as used on the Expo and Millennium lines is a LIM powered, automatic railway requiring a substantial guideway and if built at grade must be heavily protected by cement walls and chain link fencing to prevent egress.
Really, doesn’t the mayor realize that the guideway for the driverless light metro must be protected by a 10 foot, razor wire topped fence, as it is in Vancouver? Building SkyTrain at-grade is akin to building a Berlin Wall!
Surrey will be now mired in endless congestion and its associated costs.
As for Metro Vancouver, it is fast becoming L.A. North.
Rail transit will not be built in Surrey until 2035 or more; rail transit will never get to Langley.
Officially, the project has been delayed 2028, but with recent events, this delay may continue until the project is abandoned.
This article shows the full breadth of work that needs to be done when expanding a major rapid transit line, above, at or below grade.
This will happen to all stations on the Expo and Millennium lines, when the much needed system $3 billion rehab takes place and must take place if the Expo Line extension to Langley is ever built.
The real question is; “does TransLink have the funding to do it?”
Metrolinx puts out call for teams to work on Finch Station as part of Yonge North Subway Extension
Behind-the-scenes work in areas that aren’t often seen by transit riders is key to getting Finch Station ready for major construction on the Yonge North Subway Extension. Metrolinx is starting the search for experts interested in delivering this work through a ‘Request for Qualifications’ that was issued today (Dec. 14), marking another step forward for the new transit project.
Metrolinx officials announced today (Dec. 14) they are looking for teams who are interested in completing early upgrades at Finch Station before major construction on the Yonge North Subway Extension begins.
The early works include upgrades to portions of the station that will connect existing Line 1 service to the future subway extension. (Metrolinx photo)
The Request for Qualifications asks any interested teams to share their qualifications and construction expertise so they can be included when the bidding process begins next year. This ‘early works’ will create the foundation for major construction set to start in 2023, and help Metrolinx keep the project running smoothly. The Yonge North Subway Extension will extend Line 1 roughly eight kilometres north from Finch Station with four new stops along the way that will serve North York, Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan.
“We’re excited to move the Yonge North Subway Extension another step toward major construction.”
Stephen Collins, Metrolinx project sponsor
A lot of the work will happen behind the scenes in parts of Finch Station that are seldom noticed by transit riders – but they’re an important part of the progress being made on this project. The early works include upgrades to portions of the station that will connect existing Line 1 service to the future subway extension.
A train approaches Finch Station. (Metrolinx photo)
What’s Included In This Work?
The most noticeable work will happen at street level, where improvements will be made to the electrical system that powers the rails. Heavy-duty cables that will travel from an existing traction power substation – a building where electricity is converted to a form suitable for providing power to the subway – on Hendon Avenue to Finch Station, will be secured inside a protective casing and installed underground. A new fire department connection will also be installed near the intersection of Yonge Street and Hendon.
The ‘tail tracks’ that support existing Line 1 service provide temporary parking space for subway trains while they’re not taking riders to and from their destinations. The changes Metrolinx is making to the tail track area will prepare it to become part of the main subway line. This involves extending the waterless sprinkler system from the existing service tracks through the tail tracks, along with new cables and other equipment that will link the future subway extension into the existing communications and support systems.
The rooms where transformers and other electrical equipment are housed will get an upgrade, too. The systems inside provide Line 1 with the power it needs to keep the city moving. Minor renovations will be made to these areas to accommodate the additional power cables that will travel underground from the traction power substation.
Metrolinx will collaborate closely with the City of Toronto and the TTC to keep customers and road users up-to-date on the work taking place and to keep people moving.
Construction on the early works at Finch Station is expected to start in the fall of 2022.
“We’re excited to move the Yonge North Subway Extension another step toward major construction,” says Metrolinx project sponsor Stephen Collins.
“Our future project partners will be part of a team that is building a transit legacy in this region for generations to come.”
Visit the Yonge North Subway Extension web page to learn more about the project and sign up to receive the latest updates via email and over social media.
Metrolinx project leaders will answer questions from an online audience as they share a progress update at a virtual open house event on December 16th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Some things have changes since this item was posted in 2019. Alstom now owns the proprietary Movia Automatic Light Metro system, when they finalized purchasing Bombardier’s rail division earlier in the year.
The estimated cost for the Langley extension is now over $3.95 billion mark and heading north of $4 billion.
The Langley extension is underfunded by now, over $1 billion.
The province, not TransLink, are in charge of the Langley extension.
A four lane boulevard/highway has been bulldozed through on the extension’s route through the ecologically sensitive Green Timbers Urban forest.
A massive weather fiasco, starting with this summers “heat dome” and continuing “atmospheric rivers” of rain and the associated destruction of the Fraser Canyon Highway, the Coquihalla Highway and the Nicola Highway, plus the massive flooding in the upper Fraser Valley has put a massive strain on the province’s fiances.
The $4 billion+, 16 km Expo Line expansion to Langley has been delayed past 2028, now is costing more than the original Phase 1 & 2, 27 km Surrey LRT, which was due to open in 2027.
The problem with TransLink is that you can never believe what it says; TransLink never produces a report based on the same set of assumptions.”
Former West Vancouver Clr. Victor Durman, Chair of the GVRD (now METRO) Finance Committee.
One hates to keep reminding people of TransLink’s lack of honesty, but dishonesty continues as nauseum.
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. In the US, all new transit projects that seek federal support are now subjected to scrutiny by a panel of transit peers, selected and monitored by the federal government, to ensure that projects are analyzed honestly, and the taxpayers interests are protected.
No SkyTrain project has ever passed this scrutiny in the US.”
Gerald Fox, noted American Transit Engineer.
Again, one hates to keep reminding everyone that TransLink is just not honest with transit planning.
To counter the drive to reinstate a Vancouver to Chilliwack passenger rail service, operated as a regional railway, using mostly the former BC Electric interurban tracks, but using 21st century EMU’s, possibly powered by the “made in Canada” Ballard hydrogen fuel cells, TransLink blundered ahead with its own anti interurban plan.
This is the same TransLink who would tell all who listen that Broadway was the “most heavily used transit route in Canada and North America”, but after being caught on this exaggeration, they now claim “This is our region’s most overcrowded bus route.”
After two critiques of TransLink’s “Interurban Passenger Rail”, by UBC Professor Patrick Condon and from Mr. Haveacow (a Canadian transit specialist), TransLink is not being honest with the Mayors Council on Transit and the taxpayer.
I will comment on three important points.
1) The folks currently promoting the “return of the interurban” are not Rail for the Valley, but a separate group promoting this vital transportation link. To date there are at least three separate groups promoting the reinstatement of the former interurban service.
TransLink’s rebuttal seems to be about the letter Zwei sent to the two Langley’s comparing an affordable Vancouver to Langley rail link that could be built far cheaper and far quicker than TransLink’s underfunded ($1.4 billion underfunded) SkyTrain planned extension .
2) Those mandarins sitting in Translink’s expensive digs in Sapperton, haven’t even bothered to tour the interurban line and to see personally the many destinations that the rail service would cater too. Like the “Lotus Eaters”, they live in a pampered taxpayer paid world of their own.
3) TransLink is hugely afraid of publishing the projected costs of SkyTrain to Langley, which using TransLink’s own figures, now will exceed over $200 million per km to build. Nor is TransLink being candid with the operating costs of the extension and the $2 to $3 billion rehab of the Expo Line to cater to somewhat higher ridership.
Today, the cost for a reinstated rail service from Vancouver to Chilliwack, using EMU’s or DMU’s, range for $750,000.00 for an hourly service to $1.5 billion, for a deluxe three train an hour service per direction.
Three trains an hour per direction is more than many bus routes TransLink operates!
This spring’s massive hike in gas prices are due, in part, to SkyTrain’s huge annual subsidies. In 1992, the subsidy for the Expo line from Vancouver to New Westminster was $157 million. TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit, utterly refuse to give a clear figure to operate the light metro network.
A source told Zwei that the annual subsidy, including payments to the SNC Lavalin lead consortium operating the Canada Line, is over $100 million annually!
Why are they so afraid to tell the truth?
The Mayor’s Council on Transit are like rubes at a fair, buying the magic elixir, a cure all, hawked by seasoned con artists.
Parochial politics, seasoned by politcal intrigue, supported by dirty laundered casino money is driving both SkyTrain extensions and it is time to say stop!
Who is in charge of the clattering SkyTrain?
The axles creak and the couplings strain,
and costs are too high, as fiasco nears,
and sloth hath deadened Translink’s ear,
and the warnings flash through the night in vain,
for the Premier’s office is in charge of the clattering SkyTrain.
With the spectre of global warming wreaking havoc on our province, it is time to get serious about doing what we can to alleviate emissions from internal combustion engines. At the same time we must invest in ways other than asphalt solutions to mitigate endemic traffic congestion. Today, only a rail based transit system can achieve this by providing an affordable and user friendly alternative to the car and retaining the ability to carry freight.
In 2009, Rail for theValley engaged Leewood Projects (UK) to do an independent feasibility study about the viability of using the former BC Electric railway route, reinstating the former interurban route from Vancouver to Chilliwack.Released in September 2010, the Leewood Study showed that not only was a passenger service viable, reinstating a passenger rail service was affordable.The Leewood Study can be accessed on the Rail for the Valley website atwww.railforthevalley.comIn 2021, adjusting for inflation, a regional passenger rail service is still very affordable, when compared to extending Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain light-metro lines, which now has a base cost in excess of $200 million per km to build!
The Leewood Study found that a Scott Road Station to Chilliwack passenger service, adjusted for inflation for 2021 dollars, would be $594,847,133.00) or $6.07m per km).
The service would see a maximum of three trains per hour per direction (20 minute service), with a total journey time of 90 minutes from Chilliwack to Scott Road.
Upon advice from Leewood Projects, the use of modern light diesel multiple units (DMU’s) was envisioned, as there are many suppliers, providing a wide range of product. Modern low-floor DMU’s have wheelchair accessible W.C.’s and some models also offer a “Bistro Car” option, serving light refreshments for longer trips.
A German DMU .
Today’s modern DMU’s are modular and capacity can be increased by adding a module to the vehicle. Second hand DMU’s can be obtained at very reasonable prices, due to the fact many have been retired early when the lines they operated on have been electrified.
A Victoria to Courtney, via Nanaimo passenger service using the E&N is the affordable approach of providing a user-friendly transportation alternative to the car and the modern DMU has become dominant on regional railways.
The Leewood Study provides the framework for an affordable and proven 21st century transportation solution for Vancouver Island, instead of bigger and wider highways, which will attract more cars, leading to even greater future congestion and pollution.
Using existing railways greatly reduces building rail costs, enabling a larger rail network, providing more destinations, which is a proven winner in attracting new ridership; especially the motorist from the car. In the UK and Europe, abandoned, disused and mothballed railway lines are being reopened for passenger service and this trend of opening long lost passenger railway routes is steadily increasing.
New Jersey’s River Line, operating in the gutter lanes of a roadway.
The estimated cost of the 234 km refurbished to operate a modern DMU service, with a maximum of three trains per hour would be under $1.5 billion from Courtney to Victoria. The Port Alberni rail connection could be reopened soon after.
Put another way, a refurbished E&N would cost less than half of the now $3 billion, plus, 5.8 km Broadway subway or one third of the cost of the potentially $4.5 billion, 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley! A refurbished E&N would also, by its very nature, attract more new customers to transit than both of the proposed Metro Vancouver light-metro lines combined!
In the age of Global warming, where severe weather conditions are becoming the norm, Vancouver Island politicians must demand the provincial government spend the money to provide an affordable and attractive alternative to the car and that can only be a rail based decision. Vancouver Island has been treated as a pauper by the provincial government and it is time to give the Island its fair share of transit investment.
One just cannot blacktop their way out of global warming!
Do not be left at the station, waiting for exotic solutions that will never come or vague politcal promises that are never kept, but jump on board a modern 21st century DMU, calling at all stations to Victoria!
Rail for the Valley
A RegioTram DMU in southern Germany
Addendum
The Stadler Flirt DMU, now being used on Ottawa’s Trillium Line. The modular design allows the DMU to increase capacity affordably, by adding modules as ridership grows.
A 2020 50 year cost comparison by Ontario’s Metrolinx showing the 50 year financing on a per kilometre basis. The proposed Valley Rail would be less than that of a bus and the same would be true for a refurbished E&N Railway.
The Comparative cost of BC railway projects.
The 5.8 km Broadway subway – Now over $3 billion
The Expo line Extension to Langley – Now over $4 billion
The mid life rehab of the Expo and Millennium Lines – $3 billion
The Extension of the Broadway subway to UBC – Now over $5 billion
The North shore Rapid Transit Extension – Now over $5 billion
Rail for the Valley, Vancouver to Chilliwack – Under $1.3 billion
The E&N refurbishment with a Victoria to Courtenay DMU service – Under $1.5 billion
With the devastation caused by this years heat dome, wild fires, tornado, atmospheric rivers, flood and of course our modern day plague, Covid, the provincial government must rethink its plans to spend over $10 billion to build less than 22 km of the SkyTrain light metro network.
$10 billion you say? Yes, $10 billion and probably a little more.
The 5.8 km Millennium (Broadway subway) to Arbutus is now said to cost over $3 billion.
The 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now topping $4 billion.
The much needed mid life rehab for the (especially for) Expo and Millennium lines, may cost $3 billion.
Added up, that is over $10 billion for a mere 21.8 km of light-metro line. 21.8 km of new line will do very little taking cars off the road or reducing pollution, especially from autos and commercial vehicles.
There must be another way and there is, but our planners, engineers and especially our politicians remain deaf to a proven affordable alternative and that is TramTrain, a modern tram that can quite happily operate on both streetcar tracks and on regular railway tracks.
TramTrain could be built up the Fraser Valley for around $1.3 billion, connecting Vancouver to North Surrey/Delta, Cloverdale, Langley, Abbotsford, Sardis/Vedder and Chilliwack.
On Vancouver island, TramTrain could be the answer for the E&N. An estimated $1.5 billion could see a rehabilitated E&N offering a two train per hour service serving the communities between Victoria and Courtney and with more investment have small tram/streetcar routes in Victoria and Nanaimo, which would attract even more customers to transit.
Global warming is real; catastrophic weather events are becoming more common place; traffic congestion is becoming endemic both on the mainland and on Vancouver Island. The province needs real solutions to solve the growing climate crisis and the pablum of doing the same thing over and over again, ever hoping for different results has long ended.
We cannot blacktop or SkyTrain our way out of global warming, yet this is what the current government is doing, as they sleepwalk from one global warming fiasco, to another.
We must send a clear and concise message to all politicians, we must do a lot more for a lot less money.
TramTrain fits the bill wonderfully.
A Karlsruhe TramTrain on a cross country railway in the Black Forest
From December, 2020.
Zwei has been a member of the Light Rail Transit Association for over 35 years and with membership comes a subscription to the most excellent magazine Tramways & Urban Transit.
The following will be of most interest for those wanting an affordable rail connection from Vancouver to Chilliwack using the existing and former BC Electric passenger line connecting to Chilliwack or reinstating passenger service on the E&N Railway.
Today six years after the this article was published in T&UT much has happened with TramTrain. today there are over 30 TramTrain systems operating around the world, with a further 30 plus systems being planned.
TramTrain is evolving and with newer, Greener propulsion systems and cheaper and safer signalling systems, TramTrain is no longer a niche transit system, but a safe, affordable and user friendly transit mode, that can expand ones transit system into lower population areas, providing an efficient and cost effective public transport service.
There are several candidates for a TramTrain service in BC, yet the provincial government and civic politicians still want massively expensive and financially ruinous extensions to the current light metro system as they love to cut ribbons in front of mega-projects at election time.
The time has come to seriously consider TramTrain in BC, but I am afraid with Horgan and the NDP, the affordable transit train has long left the station.
From Tramways & Urban Transit
Tram-train / JUNE 2014
www.tramnews.net.www.lrta.org
TRAM-TRAIN:A PROMISE UNFULFILLED?
Micheal Taplin
Prologue
“On 25 September 1992 dual-voltage LRVs began running between Karlsruheand Bretten… within a year passenger numbers were up 400%, and today the model works over nearly 500km (310 miles) of track.”
TramTrain and regional passenger train at station.
During 125 years of electric tramways, the tram as we know it has generally been developed as a vehicle suited to alignments on, or based on, city streets. Of course there were interurban lines that ran across country, particularly in North America, where they reached their apogee in 1915, before being decimated by the inexorable rise in motor vehicles. Some of these originated as steam railroads, and others entered cities on the tracks of urban tramways or rapid transit lines. In Europe, particularly Switzerland, such interurbans were called light railways (to distinguish them from their mainline cousins), and again running on to city streets was, and is, quite common. The former NZH in the Netherlands is another example.Japan, with its plethora of private railway companies, followed the US interurban pattern, though the boom there coincided with the decline in North America, and Michael Taplin gives a brief overview of the tram-train concept and asks if political and institutional issues form a greater barrier to its further implementation than technical concerns.
During 125 years of electric tramways, the tram as we know it has generally been developed as a vehicle suited to alignments on, or based on, city streets. Of course there were interurban lines that ran across country, particularly in North America, where they reached their apogee in 1915, before being decimated by the inexorable rise in motor vehicles. Some of these originated as steam railroads, and others entered cities on the tracks of urban tramways or rapid transit lines. In Europe, particularly Switzerland, such interurbans were called light railways (to distinguish them from their mainline cousins), and again running on to city streets was, and is, quite common. The former NZH in the Netherlands is another example.
Japan, with its plethora of private railway companies, followed the US interurban pattern, though the boom there coincided with the decline in North America, and Michael Taplin gives a brief overview of the tram-train concept and asks if political and institutional issues form a greater barrier to its further implementation than technical concerns.most lines survive today as rapid transit operations, with some penetration of city streets or subways. None of the above models were referred to as tram-trains, though the principle is not dissimilar.
Germany The modern tram-train concept, which saw its inauguration at Karlsruhe in Germany, uses a tram-based vehicle capable of operation on both mainline railway tracks and city tram tracks. Track-sharing between trams and trains was not unknown before, but the railways involved could hardly be deemed mainline.Karlsruhe had its own interurban operation, the Albtalbahn, which had track-sharing with Deutsche Bahn (DB) on its northern arm.
The possibility of travelling to the city centre without a change of vehicle was very attractive to passengers. Thanks to the German concept of the Verkehrsverbund joint tariff area, the financial consequences could be uncoupled from the commercial interests of the operators (AVG and DB), and work concentrated on the legal and technical hurdles to be overcome to permit through operation.On 25 September 1992 dual-voltage (750V dc and 15kV ac) light rail vehicles began running between Karlsruhe and Bretten, switching between city tram tracks and DB tracks at Grötzingen.
Within a year passenger numbers were up by 400%, and today the Karlsruhe model works over nearly 500km (310 miles) of track. There are 151 dual-voltage cars, 121 from Siemens, and 30 just being delivered by Bombardier (with options for up to 45 more). The tram-train model was truly a success, and good business for the Karlsruhe-based consultants involved.
Other German examples followed, in Saarbrücken, Chemnitz, Zwickau, Kassel and Nordhausen, though not exact copies. Saarbrücken runs 28 Bombardier Flexity Linkdual-voltage cars through the streets and then on DB tracks south to Sarreguemines,
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