And the cost is only going to go up... it needs to get done, period. The cityprovincefederal government needs to bite the bulletget their s$#% together and actually contribute on this one and get it done. Screw the SE and that crap leg of the LRT. Do the 8th avenue subway then the North-Central line
Whoever the heck has the dough to get it done, just do it. This subway was needed long ago. So glad I don't have to use the train anymore. Couldn't put up with it's unreliability.
Reliability seems like just another problem that the downtown subway could help solve.
- No more issues with frozen switches.
- Problems on one line would far less affect the other line.
- Fewer medical issues caused by overcrowding (i.e. people forced to stand when they shouldn't, claustrophobia etc.)
- Fewer pedestrian/auto/cyclist incidents downtown.
- System would have capacity to recover from an event, instead of a persistent traffic effect when something goes wrong. It would be possible to clear out backlogs.
Remind me again why this isn't a priority?
The Train car themselves would last much longer if they weren't constantly exposed to the elements, dirt and road salt as well.
Other lines I have used in foreign cities have cars that were put into service in the 60's, being underground greatly expands the service life. Think about what replacing train cars costs.
In a region where our weather is borderline terrible for much of the year, the building of outdoor platform stations, besides cost, makes little sense either in regard to attracting increased ridership from the masses who are use to dual zone climate control in their suv.
And lastly, Chicago's own problems trying to introduce their $454m digital fare system. Plenty of issues including double and triple charging riders and federal ID's tricking the system. Hopefully once our system is in place we don't have these issues.
I had seen cost estimates for the express bus lanes and the later conversions to LRT somewhere, but I couldn't find them. Will $520 million for 10 years be enough to cover the cost of the bus lanes completey?
How much would it be to upgrade to LRT right away, would that be possible if the province put up some money?
I would think we'd be better off building it right the first time, even if we can only build part of the way, and then keep working on line extensions as funds come available.
Location: Close enough to make a beer run during a TV timeout
Exp:
Frinkprof or others could give more details, but basically it would cost $2-4 billion to build the SE LRT. The good thing about the SETWay is the bridges, tunnels, and crossings will be built to LRT specs. So 95% of the money spent today will be a net savings when/if the LRT gets built.
Also be being able to decrease the SE BRT travel time to 40-45 minutes instead of the current 60-65 minutes; you increase ridership and show demand. Right now, ridership doesn't justify building the LRT.
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Frinkprof or others could give more details, but basically it would cost $2-4 billion to build the SE LRT. The good thing about the SETWay is the bridges, tunnels, and crossings will be built to LRT specs. So 95% of the money spent today will be a net savings when/if the LRT gets built.
Also be being able to decrease the SE BRT travel time to 40-45 minutes instead of the current 60-65 minutes; you increase ridership and show demand. Right now, ridership doesn't justify building the LRT.
I would hope that CT is not stupid enough to try and estimate LRT ridership on the BRT alone. A significant number of travelers to downtown use express buses and local buses to Sommerset/Anderson.
Both options are typically faster then the BRT from anywhere south of Quarry Park.
Location: Close enough to make a beer run during a TV timeout
Exp:
Sadly, they are. And they always have been. Which is why I like this project; it gives us parasites a chance to show CT, the city and the province we will use the LRT if they build it. In the mean time, we will continue to use the south line, and drive to get downtown.
Only been working/commuting downtown just under a month now, so I'm new to this whole thing. Delays in the morning haven't been bad yet, only had one significant delay so far. However, is it just me, or do most of you have at least a couple crazies on your commute home fairly regularly? I'd say around a quarter to maybe even a third of the time, there's a group of some hammered, trashy looking schlubs in my train during the 5pm commute home. Just yelling at the top of their lungs, being losers; "Hey! HEEEEEYYYYYYYYY!!!! BLAHHH!!" It's ridiculous how common its been for me to this point.
I didn't realize getting fratboy hammered at 4:30pm on a Wednesday was such a popular pastime.
Frequency improvements for routes 4, 8, 72, 94, 100, 199, 300
Route 302 extended to South Health Campus
Route 445 Skyview Ranch is having its service ramped up. Now has weekday evening service. Look for weekend service, big buses and frequency improvements to be added in subsequent seasonal changes.
Connect card in the news again, with a quote from the mayor...
Quote:
'Here’s hoping we’ll be able to have the Connect card — or as I prefer to call it, 'the prairie oyster' — very, very soon.'- Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi
Since I have started to take the train/bus home recently I was wondering if it was CT policy not to heat the shelters at CTrain stations.
Ive been taking the train for about 2 months now and the shelter at the Chinook CTrain station never seems to be heated. At first I figured it was down for maintenance but now after so while and no notice posted I am wondering if this is the new policy at all new CTrain stations.
I havent been along the West LRT or any other station with an enclosed shelter so I dont have any frame of reference.
Thanks
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Since I have started to take the train/bus home recently I was wondering if it was CT policy not to heat the shelters at CTrain stations.
Ive been taking the train for about 2 months now and the shelter at the Chinook CTrain station never seems to be heated. At first I figured it was down for maintenance but now after so while and no notice posted I am wondering if this is the new policy at all new CTrain stations.
I havent been along the West LRT or any other station with an enclosed shelter so I dont have any frame of reference.
Thanks
It's CT policy to pay a lot of money for substandard maintenance. Same reason Fortis has to rebuild the escalator at Dalhousie every 3 months.
Yeah, the escalator thing has always been a mystery to me. It's not just Dalhousie. At several other stations I often see them either in a state of not operating (temporarily becoming stairs), blocked off by signage or actively undergoing maintenance.
I'm not sure it's quite at the rate of them working half the time and the other half not, but it's way higher than would seem reasonable.
Yeah, the escalator thing has always been a mystery to me. It's not just Dalhousie. At several other stations I often see them either in a state of not operating (temporarily becoming stairs), blocked off by signage or actively undergoing maintenance.
I'm not sure it's quite at the rate of them working half the time and the other half not, but it's way higher than would seem reasonable.
It's not just "not operating" or closed off with the Dalhousie escalator. 3 times this year they've actually removed all the stairs from the escalators and piled them up in the corner. No idea why. I've never seen another escalator get this treatment, let alone multiple times in such a short period of times.
Maybe someone in CT's management watched this too many times.
Last edited by NuclearPizzaMan; 12-18-2013 at 07:56 PM.
It's not just "not operating" or closed off with the Dalhousie escalator. 3 times this year they've actually removed all the stairs from the escalators and piled them up in the corner. No idea why. I've never seen another escalator get this treatment, let alone multiple times in such a short period of times.
Yeah, I've seen them pulled apart often too. Was just adding that they are unusable in some way or another extremely often.
