Calgary Public Transit - Discussion

[SebC]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

"Anderson TOD will create opportunities for people to live, work and play in a community environment that is walking distance to the LRT station."

Come the #### on. I hate pie in the sky bull#### phrasing like this. It's a ####ing parking lot currently. Be a tad more realistic.

What it is currently has very little to do with what it could be. All it takes to live up to that is for one of the retail bays to be a pub!

[TurnedTheCorner]

It could be an amazing plaza and shared greenspace utopia blah blah blah that still has a goddamn train line and major roadway running right through the middle of it. It's never going to be a play destination.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Oh, TTC being a curmudgeon. That's new.

[SebC]

Shaw Millenium Park is in the middle of Bow Trail and has an LRT running through it.

There's a difference from being a "play destination" to a place where people will play. They're not claiming it will be an entertainment district, or a major park, or anything like that.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Oh, TTC being a curmudgeon. That's new.

Admittedly, I will likely be dead or retired in Arizona by the time this is built.

I like the idea of redevelopment of this kind of space, and like what they're doing near the Brentwood and Dalhousie stations. Just tone down the BS a bit. "Yeah, we want to build some higher density housing and some stores, or something. Tell us what you think." Perfectly acceptable. They will not "create memorable public spaces" no matter how good the copy sounds when the editor is done with it.

[GGG]

I cant stand when people near train stations or downtown complain about increasing density. That is what you get when you live in these areas.

Its the same as people in the burbs complaining about traffic.

[Kavvy]

Links don't work for me, quick question, are they removing any of the already full parking at anderson?

[Maccalus]

Originally Posted by Kavy

Links don't work for me, quick question, are they removing any of the already full parking at anderson?

The way I read it is there will still be a parkade for park and ride, but I don't know the size of it in each proposal. I doubt there will be as much parking as there is now after the changes.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by Kavy

Links don't work for me, quick question, are they removing any of the already full parking at anderson?

Thought I read that the parking capacity would be reduced to 600 or so? Don't take this as gospel.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Kavy

Links don't work for me, quick question, are they removing any of the already full parking at anderson?

Yep, a quick solution to the parking problem is just to charge $3 a day for it and all of a sudden the lot won't fill up anymore.

[meanmachine13]

I dont think the parking issue will ever be solved at ctrain stations in regards to customer satisfaction.

[meanmachine13]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

This definitely grinds my gears as well. One simple example is the stop I use in the morning. It has two buses, 76 and 137, both go to the Crowfoot CTrain station. They both come 15 minutes apart, and both come at exactly the same time. So if I miss the 6:54 bus, I've missed both of them, and wait another 15 minutes until 7:09, when they both pull up together. If they could offset the 76 schedule by 7 minutes, I'd have unbelievable bus service.

That's just one example of a general lack of thought that seems to go into bus scheduling. I'm not sure who does it, sometimes it feels like they've just promoted the bus driver with the most seniority...

I have the same issue with the buses by my house. However, that is because my stop is exactly in the middle of both routes. If I lived further down one of the routes, the buses would be spaced out by 10 minutes.

Buses cant come perfectly spaced at every stop.

[frinkprof]

North Central LRT Open Houses

There are three upcoming open houses for North Central LRT.

Tuesday June 11, 2013
6:00-9:00pm
Ascension of Our Lord School
509 Harvest Hills Dr NE (map)

Wednesday June 12, 2013
6:00-9:00pm
Winston Heights Community Hall
520 27 Avenue NE (map)

Thursday June 13, 2013
6:00-9:00pm
Thorncliffe Community Hall
5600 Centre Street North (map)

The focus of these will be on the new study that has just started. It is a more detailed study this time around whereas the open houses a couple of years ago was mainly concerning the routing options.

This study will deal with:

Specifically, the study will determine:

• A route for NC LRT (Centre Street N., Edmonton Trail, or Nose Creek)
• Station locations and amenities (e.g., bus terminals, park and ride lots, and opportunities for transit-oriented development)
• LRT vehicle type and right-of-way concepts (for example, elevated, in-street, separated right-of-way)
• Possible bus and rapid transit network connections (including the future southeast LRT)
• Pedestrian and cyclist needs (to, along and across the LRT route)
• Ridership and traffic projections
• Projected high level costs and land implications

[nik-]

It couldn't possibly be Centre St could it? I can't imagine the work that would need to be done for that. Nose Creek seems like the easiest route.

[frinkprof]

^Unless, of course, anyone wishes to actually use the thing.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by nik-

It couldn't possibly be Centre St could it? I can't imagine the work that would need to be done for that. Nose Creek seems like the easiest route.

Other than the fact that less people would ride it if it were in Nose Creek, it really isn't much easier after considering everything that would have to be done.

New bridges over the LRT would have to be built at every road crossing. It probably means that another subway line would be required in the future (under 7th Ave) in addition to the two others planned (add a billion to the cost). Interlining with a NE line would effectively reduce the maximum theoretical capacity of each line to half of what it would otherwise be.

If the NC line comes out of downtown as an extension of the SE line, it uses a right of way through downtown that would already be there. A nose creek route probably cannot connect as an extension of the SE line, so it would either require it's own right of way in downtown, or you would have to tunnel under 7th ave to allow the NC and the NE to interline and both retain enough capacity for well into the future.

A NC line interlining with the NE line is certainly not possible until after the 8th Ave subway is built, they are already at the practical maximum for number of trains on 7th Ave.

Also, the Nose Creek route would be roughly 5 km longer than a centre street route, meaning that it would take people coming the far north about 5 minutes longer each way to get into downtown.

From what it sounds like, with current planning, is that the first phase of the NC-SE line might be something like 16th Ave North to Quarry Park. They would go past downtown on the north end to help ease the space crunch of busses going over the river from the North. Apparently, they are getting to the point where they simply cannot add any more buses going over Centre Street Bridge.

One last thing, the city doesn't actually own any right of way in Nose Creek either. They would have to purchase some from CP Rail, or the adjacent properties. The city paid CPR something like $200 million for the much shorter strip of land required for the WLRT. And this also assumes that CPR would be willing to sell some of their land. If the nose creek route would directly follow the CP line, it likely would have to be mostly elevated anyway.

[nik-]

What would the cost differences be if they bored it all the way to Beddington Trail over a surface route and all the required changes up Centre?

Sheppard line in Toronto was a bore machine and cost $1 billion 10 years ago. Up Centre would also be almost twice the length.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by nik-

It couldn't possibly be Centre St could it? I can't imagine the work that would need to be done for that. Nose Creek seems like the easiest route.

Nose Creek only makes sense for a communter rail line ala GoTrain for Airdrie and far north residents. Of course Airdrie would probably have to triple in size for that to make sense. Centre street alignment would serve the most existing residents and would probably be the best bet for TOD redevelopment to increase the population.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Nose Creek only makes sense for a communter rail line ala GoTrain for Airdrie and far north residents. Of course Airdrie would probably have to triple in size for that to make sense. Centre street alignment would serve the most existing residents and would probably be the best bet for TOD redevelopment to increase the population.

And further than 10 minutes from downtown.

[nik-]

Yeah, why take a train when you can get to Downtown Calgary by car in 6 1/2 minutes?