Calgary Public Transit - Discussion

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by woob

Aren't these awful works going on downtown all for the Green Line? The road "repairs" they do after are driving me mad.

The kind of work that they are doing means that they have to repeatedly tear out the same place, then patch for traffic again, etc.

This generally means temporary patches that aren't great, then when ALL the work is done, they go back and redo the whole area more permanently.

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by toonmaster

Does anyone know how they count ridership? If it's solely based on ticket sales, how do they count monthly pass holders or the un-paid riders? Does transit run a counting algorithm off video feeds?

All newer trains have automatic passenger counters at each door. But Transit also still has data collectors to do counts until all the trains have that technology.

[Jimmy Stang]

If train ridership has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, why are there only 3-car trains on the red line still? Is increased frequency the trade off?

I don't ride the train often, so I'm not sure if things are bursting at the seams during rush hour. 4-car trains seemed like a necessity before Covid, and if ridership has fully recovered, maybe something else has changed like time of day, trip length, etc. that has made 3-car trains "good enough" for now.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

If train ridership has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, why are there only 3-car trains on the red line still? Is increased frequency the trade off?

I don't ride the train often, so I'm not sure if things are bursting at the seams during rush hour. 4-car trains seemed like a necessity before Covid, and if ridership has fully recovered, maybe something else has changed like time of day, trip length, etc. that has made 3-car trains "good enough" for now.

It is the working going on at the storage barns that has required them to run 3-car trains on the Red line. It isn't going to be completed until early 2025. See the last paragraph at this link:
https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans...Expansion.html

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Flacker

It is the working going on at the storage barns that has required them to run 3-car trains on the Red line. It isn't going to be completed until early 2025. See the last paragraph at this link:
https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans...Expansion.html

Interesting - thank you for the info. That makes sense. I could've sworn that they were rolling 4-car trains post-Covid for a while, so it wasn't just my imagination.

[The Fisher Account]

Originally Posted by Flacker

It is the working going on at the storage barns that has required them to run 3-car trains on the Red line. It isn't going to be completed until early 2025. See the last paragraph at this link:
https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans...Expansion.html

Yes thanks. To be fair to CT, I have noticed more frequent Red Line trains which does help.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Flacker

It is the working going on at the storage barns that has required them to run 3-car trains on the Red line. It isn't going to be completed until early 2025. See the last paragraph at this link:
https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans...Expansion.html

Part of me would rather just have more frequent 3-car trains than less frequent 4-car trains. Don't know how viable that is in the long term though.

[ken0042]

That only makes sense. For the rider seeing four of the 3 car trains per hour instead of three of the 4 car trains means less wait time. (Yes, there should be more per hour but keeping the math simple.) However that also means hiring 33% more drivers.

[Weitz]

Are the trains even full? I haven’t been on a full 69th street train (3 car) since pre covid.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Are the trains even full? I haven’t been on a full 69th street train (3 car) since pre covid.

Someone is riding them if traffic is at all time high. But I don't take the train so have no point of reference.

[Shazam]

69th Street never seem to be packed, but they're certainly "full" downtown.

I was in Montreal the past week. I am now 100% pro-subway. Hell I'll double my goddamned property taxes to have this in Calgary.

Montreal actually isn't all that "walkable" per se. It's all sprawled out. But you can get anywhere via Metro, and easily. Having underground stations means that you can just pop a station anywhere.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Part of me would rather just have more frequent 3-car trains than less frequent 4-car trains. Don't know how viable that is in the long term though.

I thought 7th Ave was at capacity, which was the whole pretence of going to 4 car trains.

[jwslam]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I thought 7th Ave was at capacity, which was the whole pretence of going to 4 car trains.

Re: frequency, We're also limited by:
-merging two lines onto the same stations; effectively halving how often each train can come
-people who hold doors/ rush onto a packed train where their backpack prevents door closure
-pedestrians who are narcissistically more important than the "don't cross" signal
-other general traffic concerns due to being at-grade
-the occasional bad drivers / suicidal

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by jwslam

Re: frequency, We're also limited by:
-merging two lines onto the same stations; effectively halving how often each train can come
-people who hold doors/ rush onto a packed train where their backpack prevents door closure
-pedestrians who are narcissistically more important than the "don't cross" signal
-other general traffic concerns due to being at-grade
-the occasional bad drivers / suicidal

At grade becomes a significant problem for the NW line at the 10th Street bridge. The current transit flow can really mess up with morning traffic that is trying to get into downtown using 5th Ave and traffic trying to leave in the afternoon using 4th and 6th. I use 10th Street/5th Ave and sometimes have to sit on the bridge for 10 minutes because of trains. If the frequency of trains was increased it would become an even bigger issue.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

At grade becomes a significant problem for the NW line at the 10th Street bridge. The current transit flow can really mess up with morning traffic that is trying to get into downtown using 5th Ave and traffic trying to leave in the afternoon using 4th and 6th. I use 10th Street/5th Ave and sometimes have to sit on the bridge for 10 minutes because of trains. If the frequency of trains was increased it would become an even bigger issue.

If only there was some sort of mass transit you could use so you wouldn't have to idle away your day.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If only there was some sort of mass transit you could use so you wouldn't have to idle away your day.

And interact with the unwashed masses? Never!

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

At grade becomes a significant problem for the NW line at the 10th Street bridge. The current transit flow can really mess up with morning traffic that is trying to get into downtown using 5th Ave and traffic trying to leave in the afternoon using 4th and 6th. I use 10th Street/5th Ave and sometimes have to sit on the bridge for 10 minutes because of trains. If the frequency of trains was increased it would become an even bigger issue.

The whole 36 St NE says hello!!

It is just a parking lot there during rush hours given how many intersections there are along the 36 St C-train line. Who thought of this brillant idea of stuffing a street-level open train tracks in the middle of one of the busiest streets in the city?

Honestly, about half of those intersections should be permanently blocked off and traffic flow should be better.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

The whole 36 St NE says hello!!

It is just a parking lot there during rush hours given how many intersections there are along the 36 St C-train line. Who thought of this brillant idea of stuffing a street-level open train tracks in the middle of one of the busiest streets in the city?

Honestly, about half of those intersections should be permanently blocked off and traffic flow should be better.

Yet the UCP thinks putting the Green Line below grade is a waste of money and is threatening funding over it.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

Who thought of this brillant idea of stuffing a street-level open train tracks in the middle of one of the busiest streets in the city?

That was Calgary's problem for many years- building something that was good enough for the current size of the city, not thinking that 40 years later the city would be 2-3 times the size.

I also seem to recall there was a plan to elevate the tracks on 36th street- but ground level was cheaper. And I also seem to recall seeing by how much cheaper it was, and it was a laughably low amount like in the low 10s of millions. (Whereas now a single overpass would be that much- even factoring in inflation.)

[The Fisher Account]

I wonder why they haven't extended the Red Line further south yet. Seems like ROW is already there and there is a pretty huge population on both sides of McLeod to support a new station.

Seems like it wouldn't be a huge expense compared to more complex station building/construction work?