Transit Fantasy 2019 Update
When I had posted my previous transit fantasy, I was fully expecting that the Surrey LRT was going to happen. Well, that didn’t happen. And thank goodness it didn’t! Overall my vision for the city has changed and now I no longer want to resurrect the Evergreen line ever since Waves made some revolutionary posts about the topography of the region, and the feasibility about building under the Burrard Inlet. And this was just coincidentally timed with the consideration of extending the Skytrain line down King George.
I have a new fantasy for you!
Expo Line
I know exactly what you’re thinking: Expo Line to the north shore? WTF? After reading Waves’ post about increasing the tunnel and station depth dramatically with a line heading north to cross underground adjacent to the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge; I thought to myself it could be possible to increase the underground depth if we extended the Expo line east, and then have it make a hard left turn to make the same crossing.
The eastern extension would serve East Vancouver along Hastings street. It would all be underground before hooking north and crossing into North Vancouver where it would then head west to West Vancouver. All of this, except for maybe some portions into West Vancouver would all be underground. North and West Van have complicated topography and a busy Urban network that it would almost be more complicated to make the Skytrain surface until it gets past Taylor Way on Marine Drive.
The connection to the North Shore will serve as the perfect relief for the Sea Bus. The Sea Bus would technically be the quicker connection to Waterfront Station. However if someone had just missed the Sea Bus, they could catch the Skytrain heading to Waterfront and get there sooner than they would have, if they had waited for the next Sea Bus to dock. This would provide relief. Also there would be folks that would prefer to stay on the Skytrain until it reaches Waterfront also providing relief; for example, people travelling from Park Royal. The fact remains that most people commuting to Vancouver are commuting to downtown Vancouver and since it isn’t likely that we will get a Skytrain directly across to the North Shore from Waterfront station.
And then we all know about the obvious extension into Langley.
Millennium Line
I still think that the Millennium line is a great solution to a lot of problems in the future. Which is why I have extended it eastwards hitting the southern parts of Vancouver. Then eventually it crosses over the river, over Annacis Island and then finally connecting in Surrey and at the Guildford Town Centre.
This extension eastwards terminating at the Guildford Town Centre will provide an East-West rapid line for Surrey along its busiest E-W corridors. And it will more importantly serve as a relief line to the Expo and Canada lines by taking University students/workers off of those lines that travel from the South of Fraser municipalities.
The next problem that the Millennium line will solve is reducing congestion from Maple Ridge commuters with its connection to Pitt Meadows North of the Fraser river.
King George Line
Represented by the Red line, the King George Line serves the people of White Rock and connects them to the rest of Surrey. To me this makes a lot of sense to have in Surrey as we are anticipating that Surrey will soon become the largest metropolitan city out of Metro Vancouver eventually. Every city has a busy N-S route and for Surrey it is KGB. This is very obvious and this Skytrain route will connect Newton and White Rock to Surrey Central, and eventually to the Guildford Town Centre.
Canada Line
This underbuilt line will need to fix its mistakes that the NIMBY’s crippled way back when before it moves anywhere beyond Richmond-Brighouse. Firstly we will need to double track the line after Aberdeen Station and fix Richmond-Brighouse Station to make it a more accessible and convenient station.
After we correct our errors with the infinite imaginary funds that I am envisioning, then we can move onto extending the Skytrain throughout Richmond. Elevated all the way through, this line will make its way to the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal, serving the people of Ladner along the way.
At the airport, a new station will be made as the terminals have expanded at YVR. For me, it is important to keep in mind that one of the most popular transit destinations will continue to expand and we will need to update the infrastructure to support it.
In my fantasy I am imagining that we are really going to start feeling the pains of the underbuilt Canada Line when the Millennium line extends to UBC. Therefore I also think that the COV will be desperate to find some sort of a solution. One of which is a new Skytrain relief line…
Main Street Relief Line
This relief line, represented by the colour orange, is brought to you by the inefficiencies of the Canada Line! The idea behind this line is that it uses the same size of platforms that the Expo and Millennium lines use and that it uses train stock for 4-6 car trains.
Before I had always vouched for extending ALL of the Canada Line platforms to incorporate longer trains and we all know that that the billions spent re-doing all of the stations would probably equal out to the same price of a relief line. Now what if I told you that if we just extended 5 Canada Line Stations (Bridgeport, Sea Island Centre, Templeton, (Future) Domestic Terminal, YVR Terminus) that we could also use this relief line as a relief to the airport traffic? Outside of Downtown Vancouver, the two most popular transit destinations are UBC and YVR Airport and the Main Street line would meet that demand.
In terms of the engineering, unfortunately I think that most of this line would have to go underground along Main. In my fantasy I made sure NOT to connect it at Marine Drive so that we wouldn’t have to re-do 6 Canada line stations. It only surfaces and connect to the Canada line just before Bridgeport station. But before we see this Skytrain relief line, the COV will probably build another relief line…
Arbutus Greenway LRT
…Let me introduce you to the Arbutus Greenway LRT. In my fantasy I am thinking about
why we are building transit solutions. This solution is a desperate answer to the over-crowding on the Canada Line (which is a problem we face TODAY) combined with the Millennium extension to UBC.
Seeing the Arbutus Greenway as a quick and cheaper solution, the COV will look to get this thing built ASAP after the Millennium extension starts running (and maybe even before then!) since it will be faster and cheaper than a full-blown relief line. The Arbutus Greenway will be built along the Arbutus Greenway which is already an active transit path, and it will integrate itself appropriately with bike lanes and walking paths.
The fantasy part really kicks in when this line crosses into the downtown core and travels north on Granville street. Eventually I would like to see it connect at Waterfront station, underground, in a single track, single platform Spanish-solution with the Canada Line terminus at Waterfront Station. But I am willing to settle for a similar connection at the Vancouver City Centre station.
At the end of the day, this line does get used relatively frequently as people will use a different transportation method if they find another route is too crowded. For example, plenty of people from Port Moody still use the WCE even though it’s more expensive. But once this LRT line has been built, it will not be needing any further expansions anytime soon.
W. 4th LRT
For me LRT should be a means as to address capacity. A lot of times I agree with the fact that we can achieve the same solutions with articulated buses. But when we get in bed with LRT, we may as well continue to use the technology to our advantage which is why the COV made the W. 4th and Granville Island LRT lines: to try and “sell” that LRT is still useful.
The W. 4th LRT is designed to be a “relief” line to the Millennium line by connecting to UBC. Yes, it will slower and mixed with traffic along W. 4th. Which is why I am using the term “relief” very loosely since I personally feel that a proper relief line uses grade-separated technology.
But the main advantage here is the connection to Stanley Park and to Waterfront Station. This eliminates the need to transfer trains at Broadway-City Hall for those that are trying to travel to UBC from downtown Vancouver and would encourage people to use this line for the convenience of not having to switch trains. When this train approaches Waterfront Station, it heads underground and connects to a platform concourse that would also connect people to the Main Street Line and Expo Line. From there it will continue heading west, maybe even surfacing to terminate at the edge of Stanley Park. It would get used fairly often since it passes through Kitsilano’s W. 4th Street and through Olympic Village.
West End/Granville Island LRT
This LRT gets built as a means to just keep the West End quiet about not getting rapid transit built. Honestly speaking the West End is incredibly walkable; I even consider the entire downtown peninsula walkable. But I digress..
The West End LRT is built to handle larger capacities and to take passengers to other connections in Metro Vancouver. However because the West End and downtown is so dense (which is a good thing!), there is a lot of questions as to how the West End portion of the route would be designed. The most LRT friendly corridors I found were along Pacific Street. And the only real connection to the other rapid transit infrastructure would be at Yaletown-Roundhouse Station and at Olympic Station where it shares the same tracks as the W. 4th LRT.
When this line approaches English Bay, it will go underground for two stations, terminating at Stanley Park. Since this line shares the same tracks as the W. 4th LRT as it passes through Olympic Village, the only construction would be along Pacific Street, the two underground stations, and then the last station on Granville Island. This line would end up being mostly used by tourists which would actually make this line have a unique business case. Tour Guides could sell packages that take people to eat at Granville Island and then bike along the sea wall all within one day.
SFU Gondola
Moving on from LRT technologies.. Not much needs to be said here. In my fantasy, I just want the Production-Way University Station to have a smooth transition to the Gondola. Most direct and cost-effective route possible.
West Coast Express
You’ve been waiting for it! I think I have figured out how I want the WCE to expand. But before my fantasy happens, we need Translink to buy some tracks first.
Now before you put a gun in your mouth, let me explain my reasoning for why it looks so wonky: I basically don’t know what I am doing. What I want is some extensions that terminate at White Rock, Abbotsford and Chilliwack. What I did was study the tracks and transportation corridors on google-maps so you know that my vision is absolutely un-matched
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My WCE vision is a commuter-rail solution that supports the entire Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver system by giving passengers another transit choice for going to Downtown Vancouver. It does this by reducing the amount of stops to give passengers a faster service than Skytrain while serving communities much further out. All train lines will service each station with one train per hour with a last train leaving Waterfront at midnight. We have to remember that the most popular transit destinations for Metro Vancouver is Downtown.
The WCE-A line will stop at Langley Central (connecting with the Expo Line) and at White Rock (connecting at the King George Line). The WCE-B Line will stop at YXX Airport and at Downtown Abbotsford. The WCE-C line will then stop at Mission, Hatzic, and terminate at Chilliwack.
Cascadia High Speed Rail
And now for the most controversial of them all!
Represented by that obnoxious Pink line, the Cascadia HSR passes through Surrey and then terminates at Waterfront because when we build this, we are going to build it right! Of course I would be willing to settle for a terminus at Pacific Central Station. There was an article about the terminus station possibilities floating somewhere in cyberspace that I can’t find..
Not only will this line bring in billions in revenue but we can also run a local service on it from Surrey to Downtown Vancouver again providing a deluxe commuter-rail solution for Surrey.
Stations
Waterfront Station
Waterfront station would need that mega-face lift that has been floating around here. Only I want it to be better than just some pretty design. In my fantasy, Waterfront station would be equipped with a concourse that allows perfectly coordinated passenger flow for transfers to the Cascadia HSR, Expo Line, Canada Line, Main Street Relief Line, W. 4th Avenue LRT, Arbutus LRT, Seabus, and the WCE. To achieve optimal passenger flow, I would suggest implementing the Spanish solution at every possible platform for easy transfers between different Skytrains.
For example for the Arbutus LRT and Canada Line terminus platforms, you can single-track the Arbutus LRT for its terminus and have it share a platform with outbound Canada Line trains. Another example would be implementing the Spanish solution for the Expo Line and having those platforms share with the Main Street Relief line trains. It would be strategies like this that would make transfers easier and convenient.
Commercial-Broadway Station
The only thing that I would add is a Spanish solution on outbound Expo Line trains. A lot more people will be transferring to the Millennium line at Commercial Broadway when the UBC expansion first opens.
Broadway-City Hall
For this station I would want a Spanish Solution on the Millennium line part (depending on the design of course!) combined with multiple station entrances. If we really want to cheap out, then I would like the other entrance to be diagonally-north from the current Broadway-City Hall station entrance along with a pedestrian scramble.
Bridgeport, Sea Island Centre, Templeton, YVR Domestic (future), YVR Terminus
These stations all need to extend their platforms to accommodate for the longer Main Street Relief trains. After that the YVR terminus needs to be double tracked to include the Main Street Relief terminus trains. Bridgeport station needs to be significantly looked at as it is already a very busy station.
Surrey Central
The Northern entrance upgrades were well appreciated. However this station has a long way to go before it can properly host itself as a nexus for the municipalities south of Fraser. In my fantasy Surrey Central is hosting 3 different skytrain lines on one station. Due to this it will probably need an additional central platform and the infrastructure to support smooth transitions.
Guildford Town Centre
As the new terminus for the Millennium line and for the White Rock line, this station serves an additional purpose of being the connection to the Cascadia HSR. This transit station will sprout TOD in Surrey like never seen before.
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