The S.E. gets the short end ...again

[Radio]

Who cares about the SE..

NE Represent'n or whatever us NE gangstas are supposed to say..

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Building the SE LRT can't happen without a subway downtown. If the line is a go, the subway is part of it.

Yes, but not the subway under 8th ave most people think of. The SE line will enter the core via 10th avenue and will need to go underground starting at Macleod Trail, it then goes to 2nd street and runs north, terminating at Eau Claire.

The first phase of SELRT is not contemplated to go underground, but end at Olympic Way at grade. A future phase will take it all the way into the core to Eau Claire and will hopefully in the future continue underground and turn into the North Central line.

The 8th ave subway project will be for the South-Northwest line. 7th avenue will continue to serve the Northeast-West line.

[Ducay]

Can we good citizens simply vote to secede from Calgary east of Deerfoot? I hereby declare that territory to be "South Edmonton"

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Can we good citizens simply vote to secede from Calgary east of Deerfoot? I hereby declare that territory to be "South Edmonton"

South Edmonton only goes from Peigan to Memorial. Well, maybe McKnight.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by J epworth kendal

You would really think they would want the LRT line to the South Hospital, and wouldn't a possible solution be to have minimal stations from downtown to the hospital and add stations in between later on? Would be more similar to the GOtrains in Toronto that would just serve the communities further away from downtown.

Stations will not be added afterward. Besides, the way the SE line will be built, the station structures won't take up a huge amount of the budget. The SE LRT won't be built like a commuter rail line (GOTrain example). However, according to current plans, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, etc. will be served by such lines.

Originally Posted by mykalberta

How many people 100K 200K? Past history says people wont take the bus from the Train to get to work so how many people in the SE could theoretically use this service (City of Calgary only) for transportation to downtown, university etc? I am for public transportation but the costs have to be justifiable and not just a way to increase someones property value.

Just over half of the LRT's ridership comes from people accessing it by feeder buses. 10-15% come from Park N' Ride, and the rest is made up by a combination of walking, biking, and being dropped off ("Kiss N' Ride"). Not sure on buses from the train, but I think it could take.

Property value is a legitimate way of justifying costs. For one, it means healthier tax revenues. Also, the value wouldn't be going up if there wasn't a reason behind it. Good public transit access is an attractive amenity to have, and this is why people are pushing the city to build it.

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Part of me thinks that there's probably as much demand, if not more, for the SE LRT compared to the WLRT. Loads of people work in the Foothills Industrial area, plus all of the residential that extends into the deep south.

Not saying that we don't need both, but I can't see the SE LRT being anything less than a slam dunk in terms of ridership.

When WestLRT was prioritized by council, SELRT was actually projected to have higher ridership in the medium term, but it was at a higher price tag than council could afford at the time. WestLRT was the best bang for buck for the money available, and was also the line that was most prepared to go ahead.

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Random thought: I wonder if there is a way to add a surcharge to the SE LRT to help fund itself? Obviously, it would have to be built first, but a portion of the cost could be recovered by having an extra $1 or 2 tacked onto the ticket price for those using that line for 2, 3, 5 years. For people to buy into that I think that it would have to go directly to paying down the debt from the project, and for a finite length of time.

In a roundabout way, this is what certain types of P3 can accomplish, and an example is the Design-Build-Operate model of the Canada Line in Vancouver.

Originally Posted by pepper24

I think they should push to get the downtown LRT underground or above ground (+15 level) first.

There will never be elevated LRT in downtown Calgary. There's lots of reasons why, but one is that it would be logistically impossible given the existing +15 skywalk system.

Originally Posted by SebC

If the 7th Ave corridor is at capacity already, are the additional LRVs just to cover the expansion to four cars?

IMO it makes more sense to expand capacity then buy the cars to fill it... a track with less than saturated service is still useful, whereas a car with no track capacity to run on isn't.

Also "replacements"? Really? I had no ideas the LRVs were disposable.

Also, leeches! Calgary really needs to team up with Edmonton to get a pro-urban party into the provincial legislature.

Yes, some of the additional LRVs would be for 4 car operation. The capacity is being expanded. The entire system will have 4 car capacity by 2014. Yes, replacements. The oldest LRVs in the fleet are almost 30 years old, and many are on reduced availability as it is. They will slowly have to start being replaced.

Originally Posted by Bunk

Yes, but not the subway under 8th ave most people think of. The SE line will enter the core via 10th avenue and will need to go underground starting at Macleod Trail, it then goes to 2nd street and runs north, terminating at Eau Claire.

The first phase of SELRT is not contemplated to go underground, but end at Olympic Way at grade. A future phase will take it all the way into the core to Eau Claire and will hopefully in the future continue underground and turn into the North Central line.

The 8th ave subway project will be for the South-Northwest line. 7th avenue will continue to serve the Northeast-West line.

I don't think the any phasing of the SELRT is official, and the idea of it ending at Olympic Way was just an idea of how the $800M from Green TRIP could be used. Otherwise, correct.

[MotoRacer]

long term se lrt... sure

how about expaning the 2 deerfoot lanes!!!! Yes, it is TWO lanes in the south.

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by MotoRacer

long term se lrt... sure

how about expaning the 2 deerfoot lanes!!!! Yes, it is TWO lanes in the south.

Oh man. I took them 2 months to repave (and repaint). I think they'll be able to build the se train in the 10 years it'll take to build an extra lane or two.

[Yanda]

1 Project at a time dammit wait your turn.

This year it was Stoney Trail
Last year it was the Glenmore Expansion
Next year will be the SW LRT.

The city can only do so many improvements at once while upkeeping maintinence.

SE LRT is in the next 5 years not the next Decade.

Also any money spent to improve buses is a waste of money because nobody uses buses, and the people that do dont want to be using the bus. Calgary is a driving city so instead of improving buses just improve parking and traffic conjestion.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Also any money spent to improve buses is a waste of money because nobody uses buses, and the people that do dont want to be using the bus. Calgary is a driving city so instead of improving buses just improve parking and traffic conjestion.

I have seen numbers posted on CP that show that Calgary has one of the highest transit use numbers in North America.

How is that a 'driving city'? Is it just because you don't want to take the bus?

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I have seen numbers posted on CP that show that Calgary has one of the highest transit use numbers in North America.

How is that a 'driving city'? Is it just because you don't want to take the bus?

Just because people take the train downtown to work doesn't mean they don't drive their cars everywhere else.

[koop]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I have seen numbers posted on CP that show that Calgary has one of the highest transit use numbers in North America.

How is that a 'driving city'? Is it just because you don't want to take the bus?

I'd love to see those numbers, because I have a hard time believing that.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Also any money spent to improve buses is a waste of money because nobody uses buses, and the people that do dont want to be using the bus. Calgary is a driving city so instead of improving buses just improve parking and traffic conjestion.

The way you improve congestion is by giving people other ways to get around. You do that with more trains and yes, buses. The more people that use public transit, the less cars on the road for you to deal with, and less parking lots to fill up.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Super-Rye

A massive park and ride lot has just opened up in Mckenzie Towne and is filled up mon-fri.

Dude - it's barely even close to being filled up Mon-Fri.

The BRT is a collosal failure in McKenzie Towne.

[algernon]

Originally Posted by koop

I'd love to see those numbers, because I have a hard time believing that.

90 million riders per year?

Dude - That's closed to 100 milllllll-yun! rides for a City of 1 000 000 people.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by algernon

90 million riders per year?

Dude - That's closed to 100 milllllll-yun! rides for a City of 1 000 000 people.

What the hell happene in 2001?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by MotoRacer

long term se lrt... sure

how about expaning the 2 deerfoot lanes!!!! Yes, it is TWO lanes in the south.

That's just the connector from anderson to deerfoot.

[username]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I have seen numbers posted on CP that show that Calgary has one of the highest transit use numbers in North America.

How is that a 'driving city'? Is it just because you don't want to take the bus?

I would argue Calgary is a driving city because we have one of, if not the most expensive parking rates in the country. You think our parking rates would be so high if people were taking city transit.

If the city would have used the money to upgrade city transit rather than building interchanges and widening roads this would be a transit city.

Do you think anyone would drive to work if we had a subway system like Montreal where you can literally get across the city in 25 minutes during rush hour?

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by flameswin

What the hell happene in 2001?

Strike

[HalifaxDrunk]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Dude - it's barely even closed to being filled up Mon-Fri.

The BRT is a collosal failure in McKenzie Towne.

To be fair, if it is "closed to being filled up" cars can't get in. Therefore how could it be close to being filled up?

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by HalifaxDrunk

To be fair, if it is "closed to being filled up" cars can't get in. Therefore how could it be close to being filled up?

It's not close to being full. Don't you live in Halifax? This is a local issue, son!