SkyTrain ills
Oops, the transit system that never breaks down, according to the SkyTrain lobby was on the fritz again.Ai?? A stuck train caused transit chaos Wednesday afternoon, not a train that has broken down, mind you, a stuck train (glue on the tracks?).
Well, trains normally don’t get stuck but when that do in the case of a tram, it is towed away by another tram to a siding where it can be dealt with, not in the case of SkyTrain evidently.
The key phrase in yesterday’s major inconvenience was; “This happens too often, there is no explanation………….” ; all too often is the message Zwei is getting from frustrated transit customers who have vented all too often.
Well SkyTrain Lobby, welcome to the real world of transit operation, trains break down, but with LRT the problem is generally dealt with quite quickly, unlike SkyTrain because when SkyTrain breaks down it gets stuck.
News1130 Staff February 5, 2014
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) ai??i?? TransLink says a problem train at the Main Street SkyTrain Station has been fixed.
Passengers heading west into the downtown core are warned to expect delays as service returns back to normal.
SkyTrain riders are frustrated, saying theyai??i??re sick of trains breaking down.
ai???This happens too often, there is no explanation. There are hundreds and hundreds of people that itai??i??s going to take at least an hour to clear off this platform,ai??? expressed one rider.
SkyTrain users endure delays as train gets stuck at Main Street station
Photograph by: Vancouver Sun , Vancouver Sun
METRO VANCOUVER — TransLink blamed a “problem train” near Vancouver’s Main Street-Science World SkyTrain terminal for system wide chaos that temporarily left thousands of commuters scrambling to reach destinations Wednesday afternoon.
The delays began in the early afternoon, according to posts on TransLink’s Twitter feed.
“There is a stuck train at Main St (Station) and it’s causing delays system wide. We’re working on it but no ETA as of yet,” read an early post.
Millennium Line trains appeared to only run between VCC-Clark Station and Columbia Station, according to TransLink.
Westbound Expo Line trains were stopped at Commercial-Broadway Station, with passengers transferred to shuttle trains between there and Main Street, then transferred again to a different shuttle for the journey from Main Street to Waterfront Station.
“Good News everyone, SkyTrain reporting problem train has been fixed,” read a TransLink tweet posted just after 4:30 p.m.
But the transit authority warned passengers that there would be continued delays as service returned to normal.
It is not yet known what caused the delay, but TransLink officials say it is not passenger related.
Calls to TransLink and Transit Police for more information were not immediately returned.
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
It is just a matter of time before one of the sky trains flies off the tracks. When it does, the CEO of TransLink and many others working for TransLink (TL) won’t be on it. Ian Jarvis who heads TL drives to work if you can call sitting at your desk all day with a confused look on your face work.
When you watch the second video from CBC, how many TL personnel do you see in the second CBC video? Thanks CBC, at least CBC is doing provocative news on the TransLink fiasco in Vancouver; newspapers being bribed by TransLink sure aren’t going after the buffoons at TL and are blaming the sky train for breaking down rather than the ones who can’t do the preventative maintenance at TL to keep the sky trains in good working order – one serious breakdown every two to three years rather than one every month on average. Any breakdown for sky train under 30 minutes isn’t even mentioned anymore.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-skytrain-track-cleared-after-two-hour-delay-1.2524856
For the 49 km of Millennium Line and Expo Line you have about 530 to possibly 700 staff (with the added staff to manage the Compass system). That’s 10 to 14 people per km of sky train track. Sky train stops are spaced 1,600 m apart on average and sky trains are up to two times faster (on the track but slower door to door) than trams.
This implies that you can move just as many people with trams or LRT having stops every 800 m (twice as many trams as sky trains to offset the slower speed of the trams) as you can with sky trains stopping every 1,600 m. For two way travel you then have two drivers every 800 m for trams. On a km basis to compare apples to apples, there are just 3.2 operating staff per km for trams. Let’s add another 0.8 staff per km for maintenance to be generous, and you have 4 staff per km of tracks for trams compared with 10 to 14 staff per km of tracks for sky train.
Staff make up 80% of the total operating costs for transit (fuel or power and maintenance make up the other). So, sky trains cost about three times as much as trams to operate for the same people move, it seems. Moreover, the added trams cost much-much less than the elevated concrete guide way or tunnel for sky train, That is, both the operating and capital costs of sky train are far more than the trams’ and the trams even take diesel buses off the roads as a bonus to reduce transit costs and pollution.
Sky train, what a bargain. Sky train makes transit slower for 75% of commuters, also. Outstanding.