SkyTrain Obsolete!
One can predict the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the SkyTrain lobby with long time transit advocate, Malcolm Johnston’s recent letter published in the Surrey Now.
One wonders why TransLink, civic and provincial politicians almost worship SkyTrain in Metro Vancouver, as some sort of transit miracle, when the rest of world views it as a rather expensive gadgetbanen and/or a historic curiosity like the Wuppertal Schwebebahn.
What is lost on our local bunch of politico’s, except for Surrey mayor Dianne Watts and recently deposed Langley mayor Jim Green, is that no one, except TransLink,Ai??wants SkyTrain.
Could it be that over 30 years of transit baffle gab, exaggerated truths, and questionable studies have so warped TransLink’s and politican’s understanding of SkyTrain, that they still support this aging light-metro?
I leave you with the following:
ai???If you tell a SkyTrainAi??lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The SkyTrain lie can be maintained only for such time as theAi??province can shield theAi??taxpayer from the political, economic and/orAi??transportation consequences of the SkyTrainAi??lie. It thus becomes vitally important for theAi??province to useAi?? all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the SkyTrain lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the province.ai???
Ai??
The historic Wuppertal Schwebebahn monorail, the first all electric transit transit
system in the world. Only one was eve built.Ai??
SkyTrain is obsolete
Surrey NowAugust 14, 2012
The Editor,The ongoing SkyTrain vs. light rail debate continues in the Lower Mainland,Ai?? which is curious because elsewhere, modern LRT made SkyTrain obsolete over twoAi?? decades ago.
Has anyone noticed no one builds with SkyTrain anymore? Over 33 years on theAi?? market, only seven have been built. Compare this with more than 150 new lightAi?? rail lines built during the same period.
SkyTrain is driverless and that means it costs more to operate than LRT -Ai?? because instead of drivers, SkyTrain has attendants, more than 250 of them atAi?? last count.
And with more technical employees needed for smooth operation, that makesAi?? SkyTrain more expensive to operate than modern LRT.
Combined with SkyTrain’s huge construction costs, SkyTrain is a badAi?? bargain.
South Korea’s Yongin SkyTrain, the Everline, was completed in 2009 and hasAi?? remained idle due to large projected operating costs.
Embarrassed city officials, who have just signed a contract withAi?? Bombardier Inc. (the owners of the SkyTrain system) in June, to operate theAi?? mini-metro for three years. The city will assume all operating deficits.
Closer to home, the Canada Line, a conventional metro (the only metro in theAi?? world designed to have less capacity than a streetcar) was cheaper to build thanAi?? the proprietary SkyTrain.
The SkyTrain minimetro system has become the pariah of transit systems, yetAi?? TransLink, which is sinking fast in a quicksand of debt, still plans for more ofAi?? the obsolete mini-metro. Can’t any civic or provincial politicians draw aAi?? straight line from SkyTrain to TransLink’s financial chaos?
Evidently not. Today, modern light rail has proven to carry more people at aAi?? far cheaper cost than SkyTrain.
Who wants SkyTrain anymore?
It seems only the rubes in Victoria, Metro Vancouver and TransLink do.
Malcolm Johnston, Delta
Read more: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/opinion/editorials/SkyTrain+obsolete/7086200/story.html#ixzz23dSz7vqI
If you’re not going to grade-separate rail transit, then don’t bother with rail at all. Just spend the money adding more buses. People will not pay for rail transit if they cannot time their departures and arrivals to the minute as grade-separated metro does like Skytrian.
And more cities are moving towards driver-less systems. London is expanding the DLR as much as it can and is moving all underground trains to be driver-less. The only reason why there’s a driver on the trains still is due to the unions.
All transit systems generate a net loss. But the benefit to the community as a whole in reliable public transit cannot be discounted.
Zweisystem replies: Maybe in the 1960’s your statement had some merit but not in 21st century. In fact at-grade transit system are favoured by transit planners over grade separated transit systems because they attract more customers and one good reason why grade separated mini-metros have been consigned to history.
As for driverless transit systems, transit authorities are stepping away from driverless mini-metros because thconstructionon, operational, and maintenance costs are very high. Also please note, most major metro systems in the world are automatic, with the driver retained for safety reasons.
The benefits of an at-grade transit system far outweigh that of a grade separated transit system and why mini-metros like SkyTrain have fallen out of favour.
As a rider, the last thing you want on your way to work is for this to happen:
http://skytrainforsurrey.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/tram-block-in-toronto.jpg
Zweisystem replies: Well streetcar lines are at the mercy of the auto driver, but I think this picture is rather suspect, because there are no people in the picture, nor is there a tow truck. With such a backup of traffic I would thought the police and transit authorities would be swarming over the car. Maybe our friends in Toronto can shed some light on the picture.
How is it possible that “more” people ride LRT than SkyTrain-type technologies when more than three times as many people per day ride SkyTrain in Vancouver than ride any LRT system in North America? As for “nobody” building grade-separated rapid transit, why is Paris building literally hundreds of kilometres of new automated metro, the Grand Paris Express? That’s on top of their hundreds of kilometres of existing rapid transit.
Zweisystem replies: Actually the Calgary LRT carries more passengers than the Expo Line (both being about the same length), but really your comparison is mostly apples and oranges. In Vancouver all bus passengers going into the downtown are forced on SkyTrain, which in fact is recycling transit passengers and thus is not a good comparison. Also there are now over 100,000 deep discounted U-Pass fares for post secondary students, which is skewing ridership numbers as other transit agencies have much more strict ticketing policy. SkyTrain carries more passengers than many LRT/tram operations, because we force a lot of people to ride it.
As for Paris, not only is it building more metro lines, it is building a vast network of surface LRT/tram lines. The new metro lines are being automated because they will have the passenger flows that make automation viable (in excess of 20,000 pphpd!). SkyTrain has not even come near to that.
Transit expansion comes at a cost and in a recent article in the ‘transit press’, it seems Paris, because of the financial turmoil, may have to mothball many of its grand metro plans and concentrate more on at-grade/on-street tramways.
For the rest of France there is massive boom in building new LRT/tramways throughout the country.