Green Line LRT | ?m | ?s | Calgary Transit

Best direction for the Green line at this point?

  • Go ahead with the current option of Eau Claire to Lynbrook and phase in extensions.

    Votes: 41 59.4%

  • Re-design the whole system

    Votes: 22 31.9%

  • Cancel it altogether

    Votes: 6 8.7%
  • Total voters
    69
UrbanWarrior said:
Haha I would love to see that. Would also help prevent deaths of idiot jaywalkers on the Centre Street portion.
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Combo for both use cases

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Interior layout looks a lot like Toronto’s and Edmonton’s Flexity LRVs. When there’s a lot of people, it can be a little awkward to navigate around the area where the bogies are. Passengers in Toronto also don’t seem very keen on the quad seating.
 
I like that the seats face each other like the old school C-Trains.

Is it true that these are actually made of wood?
 
The facing seats can be tough; I'm a big and tall guy and it's hard for me to not take up too much space in a configuration like that; someone who is interested in sprawling can easily block off four seats for themselves (and their feet). But with that said, I assume that those seats and the big under-seat cabinets are where the wheels and stuff that make the train go* have to be located, since the train is much lower to the rails than our existing high-floor fleet. Not every space has to work for everybody, and I like the design overall. I do miss the rotating hand-holds that are on some current trains rather than the straps; they are much better for bracing against the train's jerk. Also, whoever designed the curve of those seats needs to look less at anime and more at actual human anatomy; if your butt curves like that, see a doctor.

* apologies if I got the technical terminology wrong, I'm not a mechanical engineer
 
artvandelay said:
I like that the seats face each other like the old school C-Trains.

Is it true that these are actually made of wood?
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I'm assuming that only the mockup is using wood (and probably cheaper grades of steel) since it's only intended to show what a real LRV would look like and will never be used operation and need to handle that stress.
 
Correct. Only the mock-up is made of wood. I'm not sure what the actual trains will be made out of. In terms of the seating arrangement, the facing quad seating arrangement is definitely a bit tight. I'm tall (6'2") and sat directly across from another person (6'0") and our knees didn't touch but it definitely felt like someone was in your personal bubble. In terms of the curvature of the setbacks, they were actually extremely comfortable but I'm taller and so it matched the curve of my back nicely. I'm not sure if someone who is a bit shorter would say the same. Speaking of being tall, the interiors have a lot of head room, which is great. I have to duck out of the way of the video screens that are hanging down from the ceiling on the new S200s but on the Green Line LRV I could walk underneath the screen easily. The suspended sections (no wheel bogies) are the ones that have the bench of 3 seats on one side and the leaning post on the other. The mock-up only had 1 set of doors but each suspended section will actually have 2 sets of doors with the 3 bench seats in between so there should be lots of standing room by the doors during the rush hour crunch.
 
Reminds me a lot of the Alstom LRVs for Ottawa's LRT. One thing I like better on these ones is the floor incline to the raised level doesn't look to be as pronounced or sharp. The Ottawa LRVs had kind of a sharp incline that gave it an awkward feel.
 
Surrealplaces said:
Reminds me a lot of the Alstom LRVs for Ottawa's LRT. One thing I like better on these ones is the floor incline to the raised level doesn't look to be as pronounced or sharp. The Ottawa LRVs had kind of a sharp incline that gave it an awkward feel.
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Speaking of the Ottawa LRT...

As we suffer through the long process of the Green Line you hope the actual construction isn't rushed.


I had no idea it has had two derailments!

A light rail train derailed at Tunney's Pasture in August 2021 after a wheel broke off the axle due to a bearing issue.

There were no passengers on the train — unlike the second derailment on the main line that happened the following month —and no injuries. The derailments were a key reason the province called the public inquiry a year ago.

But while we learned that the second derailment that September was due to human error, there is no "root cause" known for the first derailment, 16 months after the fact.

Still, the commission found that "evidence suggests that the August 2021 derailment was related to the ongoing issues with the wheel/rail interface," a known problem before the Confederation Line was launched.

In a preliminary report from last May, train-maker Alstom blamed the design of the track for causing excess stress to the train parts.

In particular, the sharp curves on the track in the eastern side of the system — which where laid too flat, the company testified during the inquiry public hearings — cause friction underneath the bearing of the axle, leading to premature failure.

I mean, damn, the curves of the track cause the wheels to break off!

Between that and Edmonton's pillars... yikes. Good luck to the Green Line folks. We're pretty good at building roads, maybe we just stick with that (tongue firmly planted in cheek).
 
And the crazy thing about the Ottawa LRT and it's issues, is that it's not used...at least from what I've seen. Part of that may be due to the pandemic, and people working from home but part of it is due to it's unreliability. I work some people who started taking it when it opened, but after a few too many times of it breaking down they decided not to use it as part of their routine. Aside from the derailments, I was told it gets stuck or has malfunctions when ever it snows.

As for the Ottawa ridership issue, that could pick up once people start working back in the office more, and I'm assuming they'll eventually work out the design/mechanical issues. I took it twice, once from a downtown station at around 7:30pm on a Tuesday and was literally the only person in the station. I thought maybe it wasn't running after hours or something. When the train did arrive there were only two other passengers in the whole three car system. I also took it on a Thursday at 4:30pm in the heart of rush hour from Rideau station, which is one of the busiest. There were at least some people, but really not very many. Again, it may pick up later, but for now it feels like it might be a lot of money for little bang.

Wow, those are some crazy costs for the Ontario Line. Makes me feel like the green line is a bargain. I haven't seen costs for other transit projects around North America, but I bet spiraling costs are becoming a common theme.
 
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