We half expected Gordon Price to drop everything and rush back to Vancouver to comment on the exciting announcement from the Province regarding six potential routes for a new rapid transit link joining the North Shore with downtown Vancouver.
As Simon Little with Global News writes the first part of a technical feasibility study has been prepared by Mott MacDonald Ltd. engineering with the buy-in of the City of North Vancouver, the City of Vancouver and TransLink.
Here’s the good part~this first study examined how to connect the North Shore area with the rest of Metro Vancouver’s transit grid. The options are:
- downtown Vancouver to Lonsdale via First Narrows (tunnel crossing)
- downtown Vancouver to Lonsdale via Brockton Point (tunnel crossing)
- downtown Vancouver to West Vancouver via Lonsdale (tunnel crossing)
- downtown Vancouver to Lonsdale via Second Narrows (new bridge crossing)
- Burnaby to Lonsdale via Second Narrows (new bridge crossing)
- Burnaby to Lonsdale via Second Narrows (existing bridge crossing)
It’s hard to believe that there has been no new fixed crossing to the North Shore since the construction of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge 60 years ago. More importantly, talking about efficient transit linkages instead of more roads for cars displays a direct interest in a more sustainable transit dependent future . As Mayor Linda Buchanan described …“Delivering efficient and sustainable transportation options to North Shore residents is crucial in keeping our communities vibrant and moving.”
The next phase examines and costs the options with an eventual report back on a proposed route. Meanwhile CBC’s Mensa of Municipalities Justin McElroy produced a table of engineering related infrastructure completions, and it’s interesting to see how old the links to the North Shore are, with Lions Gate built in 1938, the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge in 1960, and lastly the “soft link” of the Seabus established in 1977. You can view that here.
I was in Brisbane Australia last year and very impressed by their urban River catamaran ferry service. Imagine having 40 seabuses running all day, up and down the river across the city. Here, with all our waterways, one could get from Deep cove to downtown in less than half an hour, without setting foot in a car, and then get on the bus with your transfer if necessary
The three nodes most worthy of large, dense, mixed-use development are Lower to mid Lonsdale, the north head of the Second Narrows and Park Royal across to the Capilano Road area. They are relatively flat, have desirable natural features, are already well served by public transit and are relatively close to the major centres of downtown Vancouver, Brentwood and Metrotown. They are already going through substantial densification and let’s hold them to getting that right. Sea level rise does need to be considered, of course.
Since the SeaBus already serves Lower Lonsdale very well it seems foolish to duplicate the route with the longest and deepest rail crossing. Rather than one of the proposed crossings, the long term should look at a North Shore loop serving those two communities at the bridge heads and up to mid Lonsdale. This would also take pressure off the SeaBus while maintaining it as a high frequency and convenient connection for those in Lower Lonsdale. So Option #1 and #5 or #6.
You probably already can guess I’m going to suggest LRT as the preferred technology. Elevated tracks across the North Shore? I wouldn’t want it. Subway for the whole thing? Too expensive and subject to massive development pressure that is unnecessary to create a high quality of life at medium densities throughout the corridor. This is at least a couple of decades away and maybe more. Lots of time to start securing ROWs and planning traffic patterns in advance. And maybe, just maybe, by then people will be a little less married to their roads as primarily for use for single occupant vehicles.
Technology will no doubt be part of the exercise. Light rail may be feasible from Park Royal to Second Narrows, but it should still be tunnelled under the Lonsdale section to keep the gradient reasonable. Light rail and regional or intercity commuter rail and the SeaBus could meet at a new Lonsdale station with a North Vancouver – Squamish- Whistler / Pemberton (and beyond) intercity line. This is going beyond the Metro, of course, but there already is a rail corridor on that route that represents a sunk cost. The downside is that if SkyTrain is used on the south side of the inlet, then a very annoying transfer will be necessary at Park Royal and possibly Main Street / Second Narrows rather than a seamless network experience. LRT on the surface vs SkyTrain in a tunnel in the Hastings corridor, which is so much more intensive than North Shore corridors, would stimulate a heated debate like it did on Broadway and in Surrey.
I see LRT on the North Shore similarly to the LRT Vancouver is entertaining on 41st Ave., but I would think it should be a step or two up from the inadequate bus-on-rails tram. That means higher capacity rolling stock, fenced medians, limited crossings that are signal controlled and stop spacing somewhere between SkyTrain’s one km and the typical 200 m / 2-block spacing of bus stops. Rapidbus could suffice for a few years, but as the city grows it will just get more difficult and expensive tom build any kind of rail.
Sea level rise is going to require a very long and expensive mitigation strategy. Thankfully large sections of the North Shore and Burrard Peninsula rise quickly from the water’s edge, so it’s largely a matter of infilling and adding density nearby just upslope. But Richmond, Ladner, and parts of Tsawwassen and Delta are another story. I think they’re waterlogged into expiration in the long run. It makes a lot of sense to join the higher elevation nodes where the population will inevitably be concentrated with rail transit (Surrey Central, Whiterock …). That would be another exercise in long range planning, something we don’t do nearly enough of in BC.
LRT from downtown Vancouver (Cordova or Pender, Thurlow, Alberni?) to Park Royal, Marine Drive, 13th Street Grand Boulevard (all low grade) Keith Road (needs some grading) Across Second Narrows to Brentwood and Metrotown.
It is good that they are addressing a sole rapid transit link and not a new road or combo crossing . Kudos! There will undoubtedly be some flack from road lobbyists, but their view could be countered effectively with cost per rider stats and the historically huge amount of land and financial resources already funnelled into roads and oil dependency.
A couple of quibbles. The First Narrows end could feasibly entertain a bridge too, which would save several hundred million dollars. Specifically, a bored tunnel through downtown and under Stanley Park with a slope up to a portal adjacent to the south end of the Lions gate Bridge, and a parallel bridge flying over the narrows. The bridge could even be an approximate replication of the Lions Gate structure for architectural integrity. The north end of the bridge could transition into a spiral ramp down and cross the Capilano River on an elevated guideway with a station at Park Royal.
The crossing study so far is not entertaining east-west connections between First and Second Narrows on either side of the inlet. Will these gaps be filled with rapidbus service on the North Shore at least? It already is on Hastings. I would hope the entire loop would be completed with SkyTrain service, built in phases — without decades of time in between. One can imagine the resurrection of the original first downtown-Burnaby SFU rapid transit route proposal, and an elevated / tunnelled SkyTrain line from Park Royal to Second Narrows on the North Shore, and possibly a three way N-E-W split at Hastings park.
Though the City of North Vancouver has shown great leadership on the transit / urbanism front, the District is another story. Is it time to amalgamate these two communities under one city council with conditions pertaining to sustainability?
This is a very encouraging exercise indeed, and obviously the province is not shying away from reprioritizing for necessary transit expenditures. But there is one priority that should jump the queue well before carrying the North Shore exercise to completion: extending the Broadway subway to UBC. Then, concurrent with the North Shore consultation, better transit South of the Fraser too.
A cut & cover from from the thurlow portal to denman street , then elevated thru stanley park to a new bridge would be a better passenger experience as well as costing a lot less—— expo line train could go from langley to north vancouver—-
Where did you see that the proposed tunnels or bridges will contain no cars or buses?
Clearly more road capacity is needed too, not just LRTs in tunnels or bridges.
Missing but connected is a highway from Hwy 1 to Richmond ie Boundary Road as a highway plus new Fraser River Crossing to connect with Hwy 91 in Richmond. New West traffic is nuts and that would ease it.
With major ports in Vancouver area and more trucks we need more road capacity too, not just more LRTs to North Shore.
No new road capacity is a basic parameter of this study. Besides, the North Shore doesn’t need any more road capacity over the Burrard, not unless or until one of the two bridges fails.
Single occupant cars take up an enormous amount of resources. They comprise over 2/3 of the traffic on our roads. They are the most inefficient form of transportation ever invented. Roads already consume 30-50% of all the land in all our cities. No, we do not need more asphalt. To remove or shift the lanes within existing road easements to accommodate more transit will cost less per commuter and produce far more efficacious results.
yes, option #5 and #6 seems the most promising to provide a comprehensive rail transit network – since enabling connecting to the existing skytrain grid in Burnaby (ideally Brentwood and metrotown, via Willingdon corridor serving BCiT, which by itself could deserve an upgrade to LRT.
However the north shore, has shown little interest for transit, and basically opposed most of the bus improvement there,
be the Rapid bus in West vancouver, or a new and extended bus depot on the North shore + lack of supportive land development.
So I am not sure it is in the best general interest to throw a multi $Billion investment in a community not providing a supportive policy for transit development, when other communities policies will be glad to capitalize on such.
It’s taken a long time to consider rapid transit to the North Shore because it was excluded from the “Growth Concentration Area” under the 1996 Livable Region Strategic Plan. The population of the North Shore pales in comparison to other areas such as South of Fraser an the Northeast Sector. It’s only been in the past few years that traffic congestion has hit a boiling point that transit options are being considered.
The population of North Shore municipalities (2019) still remains low:
– City of North Vancouver: 57,325 residents
– District of West Vancouver: 43,945
– District of North Vancouver: 89,763
https://www.nsnews.com/news/north-shore-population-growth-stats-revealed-1.24063533
Not exactly enough to support a rapid transit line.
Here’s an LRSP excerpt:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/9dLw72s.png[/img]
On the other hand, the central area of the North Shore is reasonably dense and mixed use already, and definitely closer to other major job and population centres. So it may be more suitable for mass transit which would also have much shorter runs – although it can’t be said that those shorter runs would necessarily be cheaper in this case.
Personally I’m not in favour of the promise of SkyTrain chasing fleeing populations up The Valley. It just leads to a different kind of sprawl.
But high income earners with lots of provincial and city clout.
The moral panic over traffic on the North Shore is just suburbanites’ 1st world problems. In the 80’s the same hens were clucking over satanic messages in music videos. It’s embarrassing to see so many adults stress over an inconvenience of their own design and choosing.
The North Shore ranks low on regional priorities for pricey transit, especially ones that need new tunnels or bridges. My guess is it won’t come until the Ironworkers Bridge is replaced in 20-25 years.
“In the 80’s the same hens were clucking over satanic messages in music videos.”
LOL! I remember the evangelicals, their posters and their sermons in the UBC SUB in the 80s. Black Sabbath wasn’t bad in terms of devil worship. They were just bad in terms of music, as was most 3-chord power death metal of the era. 😉
Perhaps that was my own bias coming down from jazz fusion. Even today Jeff Beck sizzles.
https://i.imgur.com/9dLw72s.png
Do we want more development on the North Shore?
Transit is not just about moving people but creating density. Believe, I know, living close to the Cambie corridor. For instance, Skytrain out to UBC would bring a lot more density to the west side of Vancouver.
Density isn’t necessarily bad. But people should be aware they’re not just improving transportation — they’re promoting density. Eventually the transportation links will return to current levels of congestion as long as population growth takes place in Metro Vancouver.
Yup – Westsiders were out in force to oppose a project at Alma and Broadway:
https://cityduo.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/protests-over-west-side-prison-leaves-vancouver-renters-singing-the-blues/