Mr. Human Transit, Jarrett Walker, is fast off the mark in commenting on TransLink’s options for the Broadway corridor, just released yesterday. Notes Jarrett:
The single largest flaw in the whole region’s rapid transit network is the lack of connection between the Millennium and Canada Lines. … The gap is unmistakable:
… it’s important to be clear whether “rail rapid transit” means a SkyTrain Millennium Line extension — the only project that solves this gap problem.
… the most important things to watch out for at this stage of the project are (a) the ever-present danger of light rail deteriorating into a mere streetcar that will be too slow to be useful for UBC trips and (b) the need to focus on the gap in the Millennium Line as a structural problem in the entire region’s network.
These highlights are meant to entice the reader, rather than trying to summarize all of Jarrett’s insights. I therefore insist you go to his Human Transit blog for the full meal deal.
It’s true. I was frankly horrified when I saw the post that Frances Bula made in that it seemed Translink made no reference at all to this problem, and the skytrain option wasn’t even clearly skytrain. It seems they’re talking about watering down the proposed transit expansion there, which was promised with much fanfare, but of course no funding by the provincial government.
That first connection to the Canada Line shouldn’t even be in question, and neither really should skytrain to Arbutus. After that, there can be a reasonable debate about what mode best suits the corridor.
At one point in the late 1990s, Vancouver City Hall and the BC Govt’s MIllenium Line staff had reached agreement on a route for the Millenium line west from VCC to about Granville or Burrard, enough to link it to any RAV line that might be built, and to provide service to the main part of the Broadway business corridor.
A few days later anxious Vancouver City Hall bureaucrats called their rapid transit office counterparts back. Sorry, the deal was off, forget everything they had said. They had now heard from the homeowners and other property owners in the City Hall area and the opposition was so intense there was no way they could go any further. End of project.
Thank you Mr Walker. With all the focus on the local elements (nothing wrong with that) of the Broadway Corridor people are overlooking the regional value of rapid transportation. The connection between VCC-Clark and the Canada Line (~2-3kms) is the most *network* our region could get for the least track.
Especially when combined with the Evergreen Line (continuous technology) the gap will connect travelers from the tri-Cities with Richmond, the Airport, the Cambie corridor, an alternative route to downtown (to reduce crowding on the Expo Line) and closer to UBC.
This short section of track greatly improves the practical travel choices that people make every day and makes transit much more attractive for the many people moving throughout the region. Such a connection should be considered independent of the technology chosen for the Broadway corridor, where there are considerable and reasonable voices which desire a local transit solution.
Rod Smelser’s short story is so shocking, disgusting, and yet completely believable, that it really makes me wonder whether it is true or not. see my post in the comments section on “Streetcars: the missing link”.