My take on the proposed SFU Gondola, from Burnaby Now:
Judge gondola plan on merits
By Gordon Price, Burnaby Now June 10, 2011
Dear Editor:
My office at SFU’s downtown campus is a hundred steps from SkyTrain (I’ve counted).
In less than an hour, I can be at the Production Way/University Millennium Line station for a transfer to the diesel bus which takes me up Burnaby Mountain to the main campus.
Can you guess which part of the trip I dread?
It may be the shortest leg, but the bus is crowded, noisy, polluting and jarring.
When I first heard about the idea of a gondola to replace that little bit of hell, I was an immediate fan – but skeptical. Would it be cost-effective, practical for students, faculty, staff and the residents of UniverCity – and not an unwarranted intrusion for those who lived below?
If there is a good business case – and if TransLink can mitigate privacy concerns for people who live below the proposed path – then the gondola should be built, and quickly.
If, on the other hand, a business case fails to demonstrate savings in transit users’ time, in taxpayers’ money and in increasingly hazardous carbon dioxide emissions, the project will likely get bumped down the long list of transit priorities – delayed indefinitely or lost forever in the crowded file of fabulous ideas that didn’t quite work out.
Either way, that’s the basis on which the SFU transit gondola should be judged: on its merits.
Early reviews of the gondola have returned positive findings. A gondola would reduce trip time by almost half over the current diesel bus service, encouraging more people on the mountain to use transit – and would free up 35,000 hours of bus time, enabling TransLink to reduce bus purchases and staff costs or improve service in other parts of the region.
Using hydroelectric energy, the gondola would save an estimated 1,870 tonnes a year in greenhouse gases, and would reduce the particulate pollution from diesel exhaust.
The construction footprint would be small and the environmental disruption would be a one-time event.
Once in place, the service would be clean, quiet and inexpensive to operate. It would also remove completely the bus line-ups that currently plague us all.
Given that gondola construction and operations will affect the immediate neighbourhood, TransLink has already initiated a public consultation, and in response to concerns has offered to alter the gondola design to prevent riders from looking down into houses, and, in some cases, to pay for changes on the ground as well.
The task now is to weigh the merits of the new service against the effects of location disruption.
There are many thousands of transit users on Burnaby Mountain (the SFU routes currently serve 25,000 individual trips per day) and thousands more potential riders who might get service when the gondola frees up buses.
There is potential savings for hundreds of thousands of TransLink taxpayers.
If residents’ concerns can be mitigated – if, on balance, the service proves a benefit to transit users, taxpayers and to everyone who breathes the air locally or is concerned about climate change globally, it would be a mistake to miss this clean, healthy, efficient, affordable and innovative opportunity.
And it would give this region an iconic form of transportation that would make this user’s trip to SFU something to look forward to.
Have you tried the 135? Isn’t it right outside your door?
Good article Gordon.
I have to wonder if the Evergreen Line project could be replaced by the gondola if it connected Port Moody to the north with SFU as the mid-station.
Are you suggesting a gondola connect with the Evergreen at the bottom of the hill in west Port Moody? Interesting, and more direct!
i love trains and gondalas too but buses don’t have to be smelly, polluting and overcrowded right? As far as I can tell from reading various transit blogs, we could do buses right, but in North America “do buses right” is never funded!
Well reasoned, thoughtful discussion of the process and the reasons to consider this transportation solution. But then, I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Gord. Thanks for this.
Last week I took the 135 Bus from Hastings and Cambie to SFU and returned. It was a satisfactory trip with very frequent service, the only discomfort being a patch of rough roadway on the way back down that let to a jarring ride for about a half a minute.
Has anyone asked how many trips a year the proposed Gondola would have to cancel because of high winds? I hear the Portland Gondola can operate with winds of up to 50+ MPH, but it has been shutdown on a few occasions as an issue of passenger comfort rather than absolute safety.
As far as I can tell, this entire Gondola project is simply someone’s idea of a flashy showcase. Do something a bit different, unconventional, etc., and market the thing with a pile of off-the-rack green hype about diesel buses. It’s Vancouverism infotainment material.
There’s no reason that buses can’t be used to ferry passengers during those rare periods when winds might cancel gondola runs, just as they’re used when the Westcoast Express and other services experience problems. Even if that were to occur several times a year the savings in fuel, maintenance and labour (not to mention time savings for those who use the system) would still make the gondola a terrific idea.
Maybe less than the number of days that buses can drive up the hill?
As Sean mentions, at least buses can run during periods of high wind.
i.e. heavy snow –
With gondola: normal operation.
With buses: no gondola, no buses, no service, students/residnets walk up/down mountain.
i.e. hgh winds –
With gondola: gondola closed, replaced by buses.
With buses: normal operation.
The downside of one scenario is certainly worse than the other.