Should We Convert the Canada Line metro to LRT?
Subways & metros cost a lot of money to build and operate.
The George Massey Tunnel is back in the news, as Premier Christie Clark is using the tunnel as an election gimmick, promising to replace the tunnel within 10 years.
Replacing the tunnel with a larger structure, bridge or tunnel will only send the gridlock to the next choke point, the Oak Street & Knight Street bridges, which will see massive congestion if traffic through the ‘tunnel‘ 
route were to be expanded. What isAi??needed isAi??a ‘rail‘ transit solution the works and can be readily and affordably extended to meet the needs of the everAi??growing population South of the Fraser River.
The proprietary SkyTrain light metro system and the light metro philosophy of operation has done very little in attracting the motorist from the car and its high ridership can be attributed mostly to recycling of bus customers onto the light metro and over 100.000 $1.00 a day U-Passes issuedAi??post secondary students in the region. SkyTrain has done little to ease congestion in the METRO Vancouver area.
The proprietary SkyTrain light-metro system is justAi??too expensive to buildAi??and it just cannot be extended affordably into the outer suburbs to attract new customers.Ai??The extremely high cost to constructAi??SkyTrain light-metroAi??has madeAi??theAi??’blacktop‘ option the cheaper optionAi??in improving regional transportation, as evidencedAi??by the Gateway highways program, South of the Fraser River. As new highways are built, auto use increases, with the only barrier against increased auto use being road capacity.Ai??With major highway and bridge construcion are now coming tolls on new bridges, first with the Golden Ears Bridge, then onAi??the replaced Port Mann Bridge and in the future, maybe all bridges and the tunnel.
What we see is extremely myopic regional planning and showsAi??Metro Vancouver’s complete ineptitude when it comes to regional transportation as the region’s transportation clock has been merely turned back some 50 years when all bridges and the tunnel were tolled in greater Vancouver.
Sadly, thisAi??short sightedAi??and extremely dated planning,Ai??which fits in well withAi?? BC’s ‘black-top’ politics practiced by both the BC Liberal Party and the NDP, will only lead to more gridlock and traffic chaos.
The Canada Line is in reality a heavy-rail metro, operating ROTEM’s heavy-rail electrical multiple Units (EMU’s), built as a light metro. In fact, because of the Canada Line’s automatic operation and small stations, it can only offer a maximum capacity of 15,000 persons per hour per direction, less than half that is being carried today on the main tram (streetcar)Ai??line through Karlsruhe, Germany. It now seems that automatic metro (driverless metro) automatic signallingAi??has ‘hamstrung‘ light metro capacity, making it somewhat obsolete for tomorrow’s transit demands.
To both increase capacity on the Canada Line (an estimated $1 billion alone) and to increase its reach into Richmond in an effort to attract more ridership,Ai??would costAi??about an additionalAi??$1 billion for a total of about $2 billion. By comparison, $2 billion would buy you about 80 km. (at about $25 mil/km.) of modern LRT!
ThatAi??$2 billionAi??would be put to better use by:
- Converting the Canada Line hybrid heavy/light metro to light rail.
- With the money saved by much cheaper LRT construction, extend the the new Canada line LRT across the Fraser river into Delta and beyond.
This is not fanciful musings, rather it very well may be a transit solution that TransLink or a future operating authority may seriously consider.
The Canada line is in a heavy-rail metro andAi??most modern light rail vehicles would easily operate within the Rotem EMU’s Kinematic Envelope (Kinematic Envelope: the space that a rail vehicle could potentially occupy as it moves laterally and vertically on its suspension.), including the subway tunnels.
The expensive and complicated automatic signalling system should beAi??replaced with much simpler and more robust signalling system, doing away with the higher operating costs due to automatic signalling.
Retain ‘third rail’ power pick on the elevated and underground portions of the line by equipping, as done before on other transit lines, the trams with retractable shoes to collect power from the ‘third rail’ and using standard pantographs on non-guideway portions of the line. Simply, the first station the tram stops at on the guideway portion of the line the driver drops the ‘pan‘ and deploys the
power collection shoes. Several tram varieties on the market today have dual pantograph/shoe for power pick up on APS ground level contact-less power supply.
By converting theAi??Canada Line toAi??LRT would makeAi??the cost of extending the Canada Line, first to Steveston and Ironwood Mall an affordable option. It would also be much cheaper to build with LRT for a new crossing of the Fraser River to serve both Ladner andAi??South Delta; then onwards to South Surrey. As well, it would also be a viable option to extend the Canada Line, via at-grade operation to UBC a much cheaper option than bored subway tunnel.
The cost to extend the Canada line to Steveston and Ironwood Mall (about 11 .3 km.), including minor retrofitting, would cost about $1.5 billion. by converting to LRT, the cost would be about $150 million for 30 cars, each having a capacity of 250 persons; about $150 million for re-signalling, an estimated $150 million for engineering, etc.; and $280 million to build 11.2 km (@$25 mill./km.) of LRT, for a grand total of $730 million – just less than half the cost of extending with metro! It is conceivable that for the cost of the Canada Line extending to Steveston and the Ironwood Mall, we could build LRT to both Steveston and the Ironwood Mall, then through a tunnel under the Fraser River to Ladner and Tsawwassen!
It is time for TransLink to start planning for ‘rail’ transit for the region and not just for a small cluster of municipalities that surround Vancouver. SkyTrain, with construction costs exceeding $100 million/km. just cannot be built economically into the ‘burbs‘, but modern LRT, with construction costs as low as $6 million/km. can. It is time for regional politicians declare that building with SkyTrain and/or light-metro has been a mistake and that we must plan future transit on the light rail model. The regional politicians who make up METRO Vancouver should tell TransLink either change their transit planning direction and for a start, seriously look at converting the Canada Line to LRT and extend it across the Fraser River to Delta and beyond.
Or just extend it at grade along the soon to be abandoned Shell rail corridor with over or underpasses at intersections for about $40 million a km. It would be much less expensive than converting it to LRT. Anyway, traffic is actually decreasing through the tunnel so there is little need to expand it.
Zweisystem replies: What a lot of nonsense. The cost to extend the automatic Canada line is about $100 million per km. The foundation for a driverless railway must be much firmer (read: a lot more cement needed) than LRT due to the sensitive signaling. If built at grade, the Canada Line would look like a Berlin wall affair with 8 – foot high fences, topped with barb wire, flanking the line. The cost to extend the Canada line to Steveston, including retrofitting the single track portion of the guideway would be around $1 billion.
Again you spout babble by claiming “Anyway, traffic is actually decreasing through the tunnel so there is little need to expand it.”, as the population is increasing South of the Fraser in Ladner, Tsawwassen and South Surrey, traffic is increasing and gridlock is endemic through the tunnel.
This is too much common sense for translink and their media whores that brain wash people into believing skytrain is the only option. Another lie is that Skytrain is cheaper because they have no drivers.
It makes me cringe to think how much LRT we could of had for the cost of the 3 (and millennium expansion and potential millennium expansion to UBC) ‘skytrain’ lines…. We could of had pretty well the whole lower mainland out to Chilliwack covered…We spend all this money on SkyTrains ans heavy metro running as a light metro (Can Line) and we have really not much to show for it.
Forcing buses to ‘SkyTrain’ lines is another annoyance..I work near Granville and 10th and I used to catch one bus in the morning and evening to and from Scottsdale exchange, now I have to (actually forced) get off at Bridgeport and catch Canada line to city Hall and either walk to Granville or catch the broadway bus. ..it actually takes me longer 30 minutes anyways to get to work and home than it did with one bus (311) plus I have to transfer to Canada line then either walk or transfer to the #9 bus..The only reason I have not gone back to my car is because I do not enjoy driving in rush hour(s)..or I can catch 319 to Scott Station and go in that way but it is a hassle as well..
I also think those U passes should go up too. $1 a day is far to cheap and gives false usage numbers to make ridership look better.
I don’t get Christy saying she will get us a new tunnel in 10 years. What a stupid attempt to get votes, people know she can’t be expected to keep that promise, she doesn’t even have 10 months left in point grey.
Traffic through the tunnel has decreased slightly since 1996 by around 2,000 per day. http://voony.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-george-massey-tunnel-saga/
This will likely continue due to high fuel prices, young people driving less and decreasing ferry traffic. As well, with increased development South of the Fraser driving will decrease because there are more shops and jobs there so people don’t have to drive through the tunnel as much.
Zweisystem replies: Ha, ha, ha, I know your source. It is pure BS that. With ever increasing populations in South Delta and South Surrey, traffic also increases. Living in south Delta, the demand to use the tunnel increases every year and tail-backs grow ever longer. Me thinks your source has a very bad source.
@Richard, young people are not converting to transit users anymore than in the past, and transit use is a function of age, more than anything else.
You can’t succeed in life if you restrict yourself to a job on a transit route – the best paying jobs are in refineries, mines, drilling rigs… sawmills and you need a car. You have to buy a car to make a decent living for your family. You have to become independent and ambitious to do well in life.
Owning a car opens doors and frees you from working for the federal, provincial or municipal government in an un-filling and a boring job in an office located on a major transit route.- making you more dependent on the government and TransLink.
Refer to the 2004 trip diary showing that vehicle use increases after you get a job, take on a mortgage and get married – after the age of 35, see page 12:
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/reports/pdr-supp/Trip_Diary_Summary-TransLink.pdf
Hope this clarifies things for you.
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