Details from the Provincial Transit Plan
Posted on January 14th, 2008 in environment, health, links, politics, surrey, transportation, vancouver |
These are all taken from the Provincial Transit Plan
Rapid Transit
- They are including the Canada Line under the Plan. Completion is set for 2009.
- $1.4 billion for the Evergreen Line by 2014.
- $2.8 billion for the UBC Line from Broadway to UBC by 2020
- $3.1 billion to double capacity on the Expo Line - major improvements at stations starting 2009, and 6km extension in Surrey by 2020. Station improvements include:
- Lengthening platforms to handle 6 car trains
- Vehicle storage depots
- Maintenance facilities
- Adjacent transit exchanges
- $1 billion for new rail cars
RapidBusBC
- Frequent, reliable service with regular intervals
- Express service with few or no stops
- Priority movement in traffic by dedicated/HOV lanes, signal priority, and queue jumping
- Contemporary, conveniently located bus stations with nearby amenities
- Seamless integration with other transit options and coordination with cycling and walking infrastructure
- Effective security measures
- 9 lines across BC
- Westbank to UBC Okanagan in the central Okanagan
- Douglas Street in downtown Victoria to Langford on the West Shore
- Highway 1, connecting Lougheed Station to exchanges in Surrey and Langley across the Port Mann Bridge
- Hastings Street from downtown Vancouver to SFU
- 41st Ave from the Canada Line to UBC
- Highway 99 from White Rock to the Canada Line in Richmond
- King George Hwy from Surrey Centre south to White Rock
- Fraser Hwy connecting Langley to the Expo Line in Surrey
- Highway 7 from the Evergreen Line in Coquitlam across the new Golden Ears Bridge
Buses
- $1.6 billion in 1,500 new clean energy buses
- Clean technologies include
- Hydrogen
- Hybrid
- Electric
- Natural Gas
- Low emissions diesel
- Customized sizes and types of buses
- Community shuttles
- Custom transit
- Para transit
- Articulated and double decker buses
- Conventional buses
Cycling
- 1000 new bike lockers at key transit locations by 2020
- Comprehensive cycling strategy to be released in the next few months to complement the Provincial Transit Plan
Security
- Installing electronic gates and closed-circuit cameras at rapid transit stations
- Launching a smart card system for rapid transit and buses that users can reload at vending machines or on the Internet
- Taking action against people who do not pay fares with on-the-spot fines and other measures
- Increasing security personnel in and around rapid transit stations
- Improving safety for bus drivers
15 Responses
I’m generally pleased with the announcement, but the dates seem pretty far into the future. With the Rapid Transit projects, that seem inevitable, but was there any indication when the RapidBus projects will start? 12 years is a long time to wait for transit improvements.
Well, that is certainly impressive; I may have to temper my criticism of the Liberals, although I still think that the Gateway project and the installation of fare gates are colossally stupid ideas.
[...] Gordon Campbell put our money where his mouth is and the proposal is quite satisfying. 9 new RapidBus lines, 3 new Rapid Transit lines, 1500 new clean buses across [...]
Nothing to see here people. Move along, move along.
Fast Cats, meet Transit 2020. Transit 2020, meet Fast Cats. You’re both a collosal waste of money. You should get along.
Why do you say that Buzz?
Do you say collosal waste of money because they are using super expensive SkyTrain - as in, we aren’t getting are money’s worth. Or do you mean, in general, transit expansion is a waste of money?
@ Chris. Keith Baldrey on Global seemed to think that both the Expo Line station refurbs (which are already beginning shortly) will progress immediately, and the RapidBus routes will also go in before the Evergreen Line gets done.
Thanks for the summary Paul.
[...] if you missed the big transit announcement, Paul’s got all the info including a live blog from the transit plan [...]
[...] seen the plan. You’ve viewed the news [...]
it’s a waste of money, paul, because its trying to fix the current problem instead of reaching to solve/prevent future ones.
a skytrain to ubc? that’s a dead end part of the city. you can only pull people from point grey, not from points beyond - these are very rich who are not going to give up a 10min haul over a bridge in their beemer to ride a skytrain.
extend expo to to guildford? great, more people to stuff into the cars. even by lengthening the trains, they’ll still be full before they reach columbia.
transit works in ny, paris, london, because they have a web of coverage. you are near 2 or 3 different lines and have many options to get from a to b. here, you have one choice. use transit? then use this and get stuffed in.
taking a bus would cost me 3hrs a day in commute. my car costs me less than 1hr. these solutions offer nothing to solve my problem, they will only serve to create a larger tax burden on my family.
To say a skytrain to UBC is a waste of money is showing your ignorance of transit patterns in the GVRD. UBC is one of the main destinations in Vancouver. When classes are in session the gridlock on Vancouver streets and transit increases by about a third.
Building rapid transit into the west side is the first step towards finally breaking down the large-lot single family zoning that has kept it inaccessible to so many and make having higher density developments realistic.
Sure, these initiatives are too little and too late but still they are in the right direction. Adding 50% more capacity to the Expo line was needed 5 years ago, but I’m not going to whine about it.
“these solutions offer nothing to solve my problem, they will only serve to create a larger tax burden on my family.”
Nice to see you have a wider perspective about the issue. Really, it’s all about you.
Really, isnt it all about our own individual circumstances? I live in NVan, work in Richmond. 3+ hrs by bus daily, or <1hr in a car - which would you pick?
Point Grey is a dead end of land, spending billions to reach transit to a dead end is pointless, you can’t pull people from beyond that spoke.
I’d much rather see light rail/skytrain extended more North-South.. all we’re doing is duplicating the East-West which is already served.
Buzz, how fast do you drive to get from North Van to Richmond that quickly?
RAV would make that commute quicker and the bus ride downtown is really quite pleasant; I did it for 3 years. It would still be about an hour each way depending on where you live (I lived in Deep Cove) but I’m not going to try to convince you to leave your car behind, nor to move closer because NVan is amazing.
These are the same complaints as by people in other parts of the province (with whom I sympathize) who complain this funding is not addressing their highway needs. Think of it this way: let’s say there was $10 million going toward low income social housing. Would you complain it’s not meeting your needs?
If you’ve ever tried to B-Line it to UBC you’d know that at peak hours, it’s NOT served because it’s so full you can’t even get on. I don’t think SkyTrain is the answer there, though… it should be light rail and yes they should do it N-S as well… put it on Main Street and Commercial, for example. In the meantime, how about a few more buses? I don’t get the sense that speed is such as issue as frequency and capacity, which hardly merits a SkyTrain. And people are such whiners about transferring service… would they feel differently if they could be paying less for LRT with a brief transfer? It’s not like it’s a long wait.
“Buzz, how fast do you drive to get from North Van to Richmond that quickly?”
My commute is during off-peak times, which also explains why it would take nearly 2hrs each way by bus.
RAV wont do me either as our studios are located by the Massey Tunnel. Bus to downtown, RAV to Rmd Centre and then another bus to work is just tooooo many connections.
My coworker said in off-peak times she can get from Richmond to downtown Vancouver and through the core in 18 minutes! In my family it was always 35 - 45 minutes NV to Richmond and that’s off-peak times though not, like, 4am or anything.
Commuting in off-peak times has never been all that fun for me so I’m fortunate to have my buses line up well, but I kind of avoid going out late because after 7 the service for me is once an hour, on top of the long ride already.
Yeah TransLink’s trip planner wouldn’t even let you make that connection!