Monday, November 24, 2008

Province Transit Ad

So, I guess people in the provincial government have been reading and watching the same media stories about the public outcry for light rail and better transit service in the South Fraser and Valley. The first bullet point in the ad is the Surrey SkyTrain extension through Guildford to Fleetwood. As you know SkyTrain is an order of magnitude more expensive than light rail, and it is a technology is not popular with local people and government in the South Fraser due to its cost and inflexibility. Anyways, I have attached the ad for your viewing pleasure.

3 comments:

Corey said...

I only have to wait 20 years for a rapid transit connection to be built nowhere near where I live?!?!?!

Wow, thanks BC!


...yeesh. These guys really don't get it, do they.

Unknown said...

I still await the day when our government actually exists to serve the public and not its friends. We need more power to change a government that's not listening to its people.

Light Rail Guy said...

One point that should stand out is that SkyTrain or light-metro, is obsolete; made obsolete by LRT over two decades ago. RAV is a heavy rial metro, that has been constrained by single track sections and small (50 metre) stations, that its performance is much poorer than light rail!

The best capacity for RAV, as built, is about 15,000 pphpd and to increase this, the stations must be enlarged by, you guessed it, cut and cover construction! RAV is the only metro today that has a poorer performance than a streetcar/LRT line. Any dual track streetcar/LRT line has a capacity of 20,000 pphpd!

The speed argument is based on fewer stations on the RAV line and fewer stations attract customers.

For about $2.5 billion, the cost of RAV, we could have built LRT from Vancouver to Steveston; a line from BCIT to UBC and a 'basic' 30 minute service on a Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban line.

Now, why doesn't Kevin Falcon understand this.