whatchyyc
Active Member
Utility building is getting its roof
|
|
|
Calgary Transit
- Thread starter Always_Biking
- Start date
Joborule
Active Member
whatchyyc
Active Member
Some pics from this morning
- Utility building progress
- Piss ramp's days are numbered, outlines for the south access ramp have been spray painted
- New concrete barrier along Macleod and removing a section of fence feat. U2
- New pedestrian pole & signal (there is another on the north end without the signal itself)
whatchyyc
Active Member
BMO +15 is gone, metal barrier along Macleod removed
The Familia
Senior Member
A small, tiny part of me will miss the piss ramp. Many memories winding my way up and down that thing.
whatchyyc
Active Member
Nothing much yesterday. New traffic poles in on 17th. There might be something happening with a closure on Macleod early Tuesday morning.
Disraeli
Active Member
They need to add another pole with a sign that says: "mind all the poles"
MichaelS
Senior Member
And they couldn't do a different design, to match the newly installed street lights? Or, at least powder coat them to be the black colour?
whatchyyc
Active Member
Say your goodbyes, for The Ramp's time has come.
Finishing the south entrance will make way for demolition of the +15 the weekend after.
Finishing the south entrance will make way for demolition of the +15 the weekend after.
I'll miss the smell of concrete and urine in the morning lol.
whatchyyc
Active Member
Roaring Flames
Senior Member
The Red Line between City Hall and 39 Ave Stations will be closed this weekend and Thanksgiving Monday (Oct 9-11) because of construction relating to the Victoria park/Stampede Station rebuild.
whatchyyc
Active Member
Hallelujah!
Roaring Flames
Senior Member
CBBarnett
Senior Member
Had some thoughts today on Calgary Transit. @darwink's post in the Fantasy map discussion reminded me of the future capital plans:
https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/forum/threads/calgary-transit-fantasy-maps.27981/post-1779111
I get the sense there's been a bit of a strategic drift happening in CT for a while. Perhaps it's Greenline sucking the funding/oxygen from all rooms for a decade, perhaps it was the fare card saga, perhaps it's lack of provincial interest in transit at all, distractions with a BRT network program - and of course the collapse in ridership from the pandemic certainly hasn't helped. Whatever the reasons, the result to me from the outside is an organization with a creeping sense of stagnation.
It seems like it's evolving into an organization that can only really do one big capital project at a time and doesn't have nearly the same long-range strategic lens on operational improvements.
In the 2000s in boom-time Calgary of just under 1 million people, the LRT network was considered quite favourable. Very extensive and well used for a city our size; modern, simple, reasonably fast and reasonably reliable. Things like fare cards and TOD were discussed but never really achieved in practice - "ridership was great and so everything is fine" seems to be the thinking. The downtown at-grade network was fine, because it was cheaper than Edmonton - allowing us to build more lines. The case was solid and we didn't doubt it much at the time.
Long-running issues/risks seemed ignored by decision makers and politicians. Now a decade or two later, unresolved issues that were ignored back then seem increasingly problematic to me:
Today's transit plan is the same plan as the early 2000s - build longer lines and extensions to more places. More and longer lines are welcome - but we don't even mention other ways we can invest to improve the network at all. No mention on grade separation removal throughout the network, no mentions to improve reliability, speed or on-time performance (as far as I know, Calgary Transit stopped reporting anything on performance during the pandemic). Daily train delays from collisions and maintenance happen all the time for decades but nothing concrete or systemic seems to be being invested to reduce the frequency of delays or achieve a higher level of service for a city of 2 million in the near future.
I don't want this to be just a hit-piece on transit - there's been lots of attempts (e.g. bus network redo, Fare app implementation etc.) and lots of blame to lie elsewhere (e.g.TOD land use policies and parking regulations etc.) but I look at the operational improvements that Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have all achieved over the same time (with Toronto and Montreal building very little new track at all) and I can't help but feel we are way behind and losing ground.
I am wondering what you all think? Do I have a point or am I off-base?
Beyond just longer train lines what does your hope for Calgary Transit look like in the future?
https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/forum/threads/calgary-transit-fantasy-maps.27981/post-1779111
I get the sense there's been a bit of a strategic drift happening in CT for a while. Perhaps it's Greenline sucking the funding/oxygen from all rooms for a decade, perhaps it was the fare card saga, perhaps it's lack of provincial interest in transit at all, distractions with a BRT network program - and of course the collapse in ridership from the pandemic certainly hasn't helped. Whatever the reasons, the result to me from the outside is an organization with a creeping sense of stagnation.
It seems like it's evolving into an organization that can only really do one big capital project at a time and doesn't have nearly the same long-range strategic lens on operational improvements.
In the 2000s in boom-time Calgary of just under 1 million people, the LRT network was considered quite favourable. Very extensive and well used for a city our size; modern, simple, reasonably fast and reasonably reliable. Things like fare cards and TOD were discussed but never really achieved in practice - "ridership was great and so everything is fine" seems to be the thinking. The downtown at-grade network was fine, because it was cheaper than Edmonton - allowing us to build more lines. The case was solid and we didn't doubt it much at the time.
Long-running issues/risks seemed ignored by decision makers and politicians. Now a decade or two later, unresolved issues that were ignored back then seem increasingly problematic to me:
- Failure to build a tech-forward transit system/culture or fare card infrastructure has prevented many of the innovations that other transit-oriented systems use (e.g. more complex, nuanced fare options like fare-capping)
- Failure to create a TOD-friendly transit/development culture has led to more sprawl and continued reliance on park-and-rides (always a bad land use, but now all virtually empty wastelands)
- Our transit operating model never was able to advance on things like improving frequency and service reliability. We seemed happy to plow capital funding into pure capacity projects, but rarely prioritizing reliability, speed or network resiliency on what we have already built (e.g. expanded all stations to 4-car capacity, but the trains run less frequently and smaller than before).
- Safety on transit (perceived or real) decreasing because we pretty much relied on a heavily-used system to self-police with "eyes on the street" type logic rather than controlled accesses, station attendants/transit police. Repeated highly-public safety issues now regularly in the news and undermining transit's goals.
Today's transit plan is the same plan as the early 2000s - build longer lines and extensions to more places. More and longer lines are welcome - but we don't even mention other ways we can invest to improve the network at all. No mention on grade separation removal throughout the network, no mentions to improve reliability, speed or on-time performance (as far as I know, Calgary Transit stopped reporting anything on performance during the pandemic). Daily train delays from collisions and maintenance happen all the time for decades but nothing concrete or systemic seems to be being invested to reduce the frequency of delays or achieve a higher level of service for a city of 2 million in the near future.
I don't want this to be just a hit-piece on transit - there's been lots of attempts (e.g. bus network redo, Fare app implementation etc.) and lots of blame to lie elsewhere (e.g.TOD land use policies and parking regulations etc.) but I look at the operational improvements that Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have all achieved over the same time (with Toronto and Montreal building very little new track at all) and I can't help but feel we are way behind and losing ground.
I am wondering what you all think? Do I have a point or am I off-base?
Beyond just longer train lines what does your hope for Calgary Transit look like in the future?