Five Car Trains – Much Ado About Nothing
Five car trains, is the current clarion call by TransLink. With lots of hype and hoopla by the mainstream media, the public is made to believe this is some sort of technical break through.
It is the old Goebbels Gambit at play; “repeat a lie often enough and the public are bound to believe it.
What is laughable as the “trailer” sections, gangwayed at both ends have been around for for a long time. The MK.2/3/5 car trains uses the old Bombardier universal “Innovia” body shell, which comes with “driver’s”, with one vestibule and “trailers” with vestibules at both ends for through communication. TransLink purchased the former and only purchased a few of the latter.
What TransLink has done is taken over twenty-five year old designs, tarted them up with new front ends; new paint job; and market the hell out of them.
What TransLink doesn’t tell you is that this sort of metro car, gangwayed throughout, has been around for thirty years and there is nothing new at all, just TransLink being decades behind the times, which is the real story the mainstream media will not report on.
Why the hype and hoopla?
Operating five car trains (with three trailers) means a 5-car train can fit the current station platforms without major and very expensive refurbishment; something to think about with cash strapped TransLink.
Sadly all the hype, all the hoopla, all the media splash cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear because the problem with the SkyTrain light metro system is that the massive demographic change, post Covid means a lot of potential transit customers are now going to destinations ill served by transit, means at best, ridership will stagnate or at worse, decline.
It is very difficult for a light metro system to adapt to change, unlike the much cheaper tram where a proven ability to adapt has kept in the forefront of urban transport.
Question, has Translink announced the cost and completion date for OMC (operations and maintenance centre) #5 yet?
Although you don’t have to have it completely operational for the Langley extension to work and function, you sure going to need it for timely maintenance. I guess you can always store the overflow trainsets on main lines and operational sidings at night or pre position serviced trainsets at the beginning of the lines but wow, that’s quite a daily juggling act.
Remember OMC #5 isn’t included in the costs for the Langley extension and you guys currently don’t have enough maintenance and storage capacity for your new 5 section trainsets. The last estimate I heard was around $530 million to $550 million for the yard, is this still the case? Especially since all the inflation from the reopening of the economy after Covid 19 as well as the war in Ukraine.
Or all of a sudden, do they not need the yard as much as Translink originally stated. A few years ago they were sure screaming how much they needed OMC #5 to be operational, oh well, I guess they overstated the need to make the taxpayer spend more money. What I suspect is that they, Translink, got told by the provincial government to make the Langley extension work without the yard #5, at least for few years anyway.
Oh yes, one thing I forgot. Without OMC #5, there is no extension to U.B.C. possible.
The one disadvantage of larger trainsets we learned here in Ottawa, when your individual trainsets grow in size, oh boy, you need more storage space then you really thought you did.
Not to mention, when the end of your lines continually get extended horizontally outwards, instead of there being new lines created already close to the existing yards, as in the UBC or Langley extensions. You need more yards at or near the end of these lines or you somehow have to figure out where the greater amount of time is going to come from, for each serviced trainset to leave the existing yards and start service at the end of these far flung extensions. This produces a multiplier effetc of stress on the existing maintenance schedule. When your short on maintenance capability to begin with, your maintenance staff start screaming at you using four letter words, mainly at management, when each trainset has to be launched out of the yard even earlier to maintain the operating schedule.
I learned a few big rules in my time in transit planning. Regardless if you like them or not, your maintenance staff are littorally and figuratively, worth their weight in gold. Abuse them and they will leave! Then you are really up excrement creek without a means of propulsion!
TransLink and the Provincial government remain mute on the OMC#5 issue as well as any tangible news about the Langley extension. My guess is that the cost has again jumped due to inflation and the contract will be in limbo until after both the provincial and federal elections as the light metro slices through voter rich territory.
I also have been told that the cost estimates crossing the Serpentine Valley are way to low as this boggy bit of land will need both environmental and fisheries reviews. The current cost estimates are based on at-grade light rail and not light metro on a viaduct. The extra cost may be closer to $1 billion and in fact several local politicians are whispering that the final cost will be $6 billion!!
Harken back to the recent Hive’s article about forgetting the Langley extension and continue the subway to UBC. As the Hive is TransLink’s mouthpiece I would say they were floating an idea.
I have also heard that my cost estimates for the 21.7 km have riled many in government but they cannot contradict the over $11 billion figure. Now if the OMC#5 is not built, the over $11 billion number becomes over $10.5 billion and would be considered a fudge factor.
I also can report that several Valley mayors are getting cold feet with the cost of the Langley extension and with the Township of Langley endorsing a Valley rail system, using the existing rights-of-way. Until after the provincial election, we will not get any clear answers and with Trudeau in freefall, there will be promises a plenty, but as he is held in such high odor locally I doubt that will sway many voters.
It seems the closer Translink gets to the Langley extension’s planned 2024 construction start date, the more buyers remorse is taking place. My single question to Translink would be, can you confirm that the 16 km long Langley Skytrain Extension Project is still the same price of around $4.1 Billion (which is not including the price of OMC #5)?
I have been told by a confidential source that TransLink has been told no more SkyTrain after either the subway is completed to UBC or the Langley extension. Evidently the province has been told that Alstom will not support SkyTrain after 2026.
Nothing will be said or done until after the provincial election but it is turning out that SkyTrain is not the vote getter that the NDP thought it was. The Liberals are getting the same message.
When is the provincial election in BC?
Zwei Replies: He can call an election any time! The current premier Eby was acclaimed Premier on November 18, 2022 after past Premier Horgan resigned.
It was an acrimonious campaign with the leading contender being barred from running for Premier by the NDP party brass. According to sources, polling has not been stellar and the seemingly unprepared NDP’s with this summers massive forest fires has tarnished the party.
The Langley extension was going to be the “photo-op” announcement for the election but the creeping costs for the project and the public realizing that the D/L extension will not do much, if anything to alleviate traffic congestion, this too may become a classic politcal white elephant at the polls.
I would put my money on a November election but with the continued dry weather and evacuation orders rescinded, he may wait until 2023.
I have again heard that the final cost of the S/L extension will be nearer $6 billion without the OMC#5, due to the boggy Sepentine Valley as the cost for a viaduct that stretch could be well over $500 million on top of the present $4.1 billion.
There is talk of building it at grade, which brings a host of new problems. Thousands of tons of concrete do not set well on peat bog. Also the growing support for some sort of Valley Rail using the former BC Electric R-o-W is gaining traction as tax conscious voters are pressuring politicians to curb any and all tax increases. Again, this points to the S/L as politcal trouble.
New MK 5 Signals, many things for the region: Retirement all of the older MK 1. Higher capacity, Unique seating layout With flexible space, Lean seats, Sideways seating return, Multiple bike Secure Apparatus, Digital way funding and free Wi-Fi. Mechanical side: Modern design facial front, New linear motors, a new inverter And everything else same MK 3.
OMC 5 Extra maintenance, An extra storage for option of 400 car = 40 train set MK 5
SL Expansion is completed Expo Line 56 Train sets during rush hour. And for Millennium line 47 train sets or during rush hour.
Zwei replies: It is hard to decipher your post ~ MK.5 signals?
A 5 car rake of MK.2/5 cars is only 8 metres long than a 8-car rake of MK.1’s and being gangwayed throughout will have a slightly higher capacity, maybe 100 or so customers. I doubt the LIM’s are of a new design because no one wants them I would find it strange that Bombardier and now Alstom would spend money investing into a new motor, as Vancouver is now the only customer, Bombardier is out of the game and Alstom doesn’t care.
Your math is also wrong (400 car = 40 train set MK 5) actually 40 – 5 car sets = 200 cars.
I guess you have not read Thales news release as the Millennium Line will be signaled for a maximum capacity of only 7,500 pphpd and for some quick arithmetic, only 20 5-car train-sets will be operating on the Millennium Line or 30 or so 2-car and 3-car train-sets considering the Millennium line only operates 2 car train-sets at present.