Vancouver's Canada Line | Page 3

AlvinofDiaspar · Mar 1, 2012

The length of the platform is 50m - about half that of the ECLRT.

AoD

tayser · Mar 4, 2012

^ ah, no wonder it was so bloody cheap to build

AlvinofDiaspar · Mar 4, 2012

tayser:

Well, design capacity related factors is one of many reasons - the amount of tunneling and the technique used, at grade and above ground sections, project management, etc.

AoD

unimaginative2 · Mar 4, 2012

The Canada Line takes advantage of its automatic train operation to run shorter trains very frequently. It cuts down on the capital and operating costs while providing more frequent service for riders. The cars are also extremely spacious--exactly as big as Toronto subway cars--and they have large standee areas to accommodate peak loads, bicycles, and luggage.

officedweller · Mar 6, 2012

carpediem said:
Just got back from Vancouver over the weekend. Didn't like the extra $ to take the Canada Line from the airport but had to bite the bullet on that one. Other than that, the Canada Line is very impressive. I did find that the cars (in terms of length) are rather short... only 3 or 4 cars per train.

Canada Line trains are 2 cars long. SkyTrain Expo Line and Millennium Line are 4 cars (MKII cars) long.

The key factor is that the system's ultimate capacity is sized for the projected demand.

Wrenkin · Feb 18, 2014

carpediem said:
Just got back from Vancouver over the weekend. Didn't like the extra $ to take the Canada Line from the airport but had to bite the bullet on that one. Other than that, the Canada Line is very impressive. I did find that the cars (in terms of length) are rather short... only 3 or 4 cars per train.

The secret is (or was) to go to the 7-11 in the basement of the airport and buy a standard book of tickets, rather than pay for a single faire from the machine at the station (which will apply an airport surcharge). It's an easy way to gouge out-of-towners.

officedweller · Feb 19, 2014

Here are a couple of issues of BranchLine - a Canadian railway magazine with good background summary articles on the Millennium Line (January 2003) and Canada Line (December 2009):

Millennium Line article:
http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/branchline/files/2003/2003-01.pdf

Canada Line article:
http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/branchline/files/2009/2009-12.pdf

Good recent article here:

How Vancouver's Olympic Legacy Is Shaping the Future of Transit

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/co...s-olympic-legacy-shaping-future-transit/8422/

None of this was easy to negotiate. The woman who ran the setup of the project for TransLink, lawyer Jane Bird, says it's a tough job for the public sector to figure out what exactly to demand of the private partner. And it requires thinking about projects differently.

"Governments spend most of their life specifying," says Bird, who is now overseeing the renovation of Canada’s diplomatic mission in London. "All of the engineering profession is trained and culturally attuned to that, saying the chair should be green and it should be this high and it should have four legs." Instead, in a P3, government officials need to think about what they want to achieve, and leave it to the private company to figure out how to get there.

'What are we really trying to accomplish?'

For the Canada Line, Bird recalls that the government partners set out to specify details such as how many luggage racks there should be on each train. But InTransitBC’s designers pushed back. They argued that passengers don't like luggage racks because they want to be close to their bags. So the trains were designed with cantilevered seats for under-seat bag storage, as well as large open spaces where riders can stand next to their luggage.

"It takes more time than it would appear at first blush to figure out what the goal is," Bird says. "What are we really trying to accomplish?"

officedweller · Mar 24, 2014

From SSP.

Condos and office tower being built at Marine Drive Station:

GlassCity said:
Still rising slowly, but progress is noticeable. The office building is starting to get up as well, but you can't really see it from this angle.

IMG_20140305_114525 by AMetalnikov, on Flickr