Some time in the near future Translink will be initiating a public consultation process to get public input on what we would like to see our transit network look like in thirty years time. This will be the first time that there has been a formal 30 year plan, as opposed to three-year service plans and ten-year long range plans.

I propose we collaborate on this project and come up with common, well-researched recommendations for new rapid transit alignments. First we brainstorm our ideas. Second we make as solid a case for them as possible. Third, we put our heads together and come up with the transit planning equivalent of political "talking points" to efficiently encapsulate our common recommendations. Once the public consultation process begins we each make a point of registering our recommendations with Translink in our own words. The goal will be to have our ideas "show up" in the consultation process and, hopefully, in the plan itself.

In spite of well-earned public cynicism of public consultations I do know that the feedback that is received is taken seriously by project staff. You would be amazed how often these reports cite specific recommendations or common themes that came from the public consultation. The number of people who take the time to register comments and suggestions is always quite low, which is all the more reason to think that we can make a difference.

What do you say?

I'll start by posting the long term plan I've been playing around with for some time. I've used LRT as a placeholder for all the proposed alignments and I'm not married to that technology. I also don't have very much in Richmond or Surrey since I don't know these municipalities well. If you have any feedback I'd love to hear it.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1922/blueskytransitmaprq3.jpg (http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blueskytransitmapmh4.jpg)
Thanks to imageshack.us

[edit] just realized I forgot to include the White Rock alignment in the legend. It would originate at Guildford Town Centre travel south on 152nd St in Surrey and have a terminus in White Rock.

The Northeast Connector, Northwest Connector, and the White Rock alignment could all also originate at Surrey City Centre.

the northwest connector would make more sense to terminate at braid unless the Evergreen line doesnt end up using skytrain technology in which case, if the northwest connector is skytrain then it could use the spur at lougheed.

also the one down 41st should terminate at joyce or at least have a connection to that station.

a streetcar/lrt from main skytrain, down hastings, denman, pacific would be a good thing to add to make moving around downtown easier

Isn't TransLink considering a ferry service similar to the SeaBus for a crossing farther east as well?

Also I had heard about a Translink pilot project for a run from Bowen Island to Ambleside in West Vancouver and then on to Waterfront Centre.

Isn't TransLink considering a ferry service similar to the SeaBus for a crossing farther east as well?

Also I had heard about a Translink pilot project for a run from Bowen Island to Ambleside in West Vancouver and then on to Waterfront Centre.

I heard about that awhile ago as well, there was a report somewhere that also included information on what type of vessels would be used.


BTW, i'm assuming you run pacificmetropolis.com. Awesome website.

Believe it or not Pacific Metropolis (http://www.pacificmetropolis.com/) was the first "Vancouver" website/blog that I regularly read, along with Price Tags (http://pricetags.wordpress.com/), Bill Rees' blog (http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/), SSP and SSC. I've been eagerly waiting for its summer hiatus to wrap up.

So good work Pacific Metropolis!

Nice map. Here's some of what I'd change.

I'd rather see the Production Way-SFU gondola idea than an SFU loop LRT.

I think the Central LRT line you have would work much better on a Willingdon rather than Boundary alignment. There are not many people who travel up-and-down Boundary, while Willingdon connects two major town centres and BCIT.

If we're going crazy here, might as well serve Steveston, Tsawwassen terminal, Boundary Bay & Abbotsford airports.

Just for reference, here's the GVRD LRSP (http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/growth/lrsp/map.pdf):

http://i7.tinypic.com/68iysms.jpg

UBC students want better bus service
TransLink says it has already improved service on the 99-B Line express

Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007

VANCOUVER - The student union at the University of B.C. is calling on TransLink to improve bus service to the campus in the wake of long lineups for UBC-bound buses.

It also wants bus drivers to report all pass-ups, so there's a record of the number of times drivers have to leave would-be-riders standing at a stop because the bus is too crowded to take on more passengers.

"The service levels we're currently receiving do not accommodate the [number of] students that have to get off and on campus," said Matthew Naylor, the Alma Mater Society's vice-president of external affairs.

"The university's administration has graciously agreed to stagger class starting times so the buses can accommodate people. But there are still huge lineups, particularly at the Broadway and Commercial station, for the 99-B Line. And pass-ups are happening at almost every stop along the line, particularly in the mornings."

TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said the regional transportation authority has no estimates of waiting times or the number of people who boarded UBC-bound buses last week. But he suggested service on the 99 B-Line express bus has improved.

Last year, B-Line buses made 451 trips on a weekday. Snider said some of those buses were regular-size buses, which carry about 77 both sitting and standing passengers. This year, the buses make 450 trips -- and only the larger articulated buses, which carry 110 passengers, sitting and standing, have been assigned to the B-Line. During the morning rush hours, those buses leave Commercial and Broadway every two or three minutes.

"We've got more capacity so we're moving people better this year," Snider said. "Anecdotally, the word from our operators at the communications centre is that it's been quieter this year. They've seen worse."

Snider said drivers on the route reported just six pass-ups since the first day of school last Tuesday, compared with 52 during the same four days last year. But he agreed that not all drivers report pass-ups.

Transit ridership among students has shot up since the adoption four years ago of university transit pass programs at both UBC and Simon Fraser University.

All students pay $22 a month for a "U-Pass" that gives them unlimited access to TransLink bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus services.

According to the UBC transportation demand management department, transit use to and from UBC has more than doubled in the past decade, while the number of trips in single-occupant vehicles has decreased by 18 per cent.

About 40 per cent of all trips to and from the university are now on transit.

Stephen Rees, a transportation economist who worked for TransLink between 1999 and 2004, said he and other planners warned that TransLink didn't have enough buses to carry the additional passengers that the U-Pass program would bring in.

"You can't give people a ticket for which they are obliged to pay and not expect them to use it," said Rees, TransLink's former program manager for transportation policy.

"We knew this was going to happen before U-Pass was introduced. Everyone else who has U-Pass programs, like Seattle and Victoria, had spare capacity before it started. They had buses they could throw at the problem.

"But TransLink has never had enough buses. In fact, at one time, we were going to places like Everett and Seattle to buy second-hand buses to pad out the fleet a little bit."

TransLink now has about 1,400 buses and community shuttles.

gbohn@png.canwest.com

^Another good reason why Translink should quit that useless, and needless talk and wasteful time about another "study" on possible modes of rapid transit along the Broadway corridor. Stephen Rees and Translink, please plan for the Skytrain M-Line expansion to UBC (if not possible, at the minimum, to Arbutus) ASAP, so that it can be built as soon as the C-Line is done.

We don't need another "study". This is simple common sense.

We don't need another "study". This is simple common sense.

But we do need a lot of money.....like $1 billion to Arbutus.


My ideas have always been to either extend the Millennium Line all the way to UBC OR extend it to Arbutus, extend the downtown streetcar down to Kerrisdale along the Arbutus Corridor and also extend it down UBC via Broadway/10th.

I'm actually all for a study, just not one that takes years like the current Translink study.


------------

If it's SkyTrain all the way to UBC, I don't think there's any need for two stations there. Instead, they should just build a 100-metre platform and have two underground passages: one to the new plaza under the bus loop with a connection from the underground bus loop and the other to a second entrance on the southeast corner of Westbrook Mall and University Boulevard.

^if that underground bus loop ever gets built.. there were going to build it during my first year at ubc but they didn't realize how complex it was going to be so it kept getting pushed back and now.. four years later, im graduating and still no plans for the loop

^if that underground bus loop ever gets built.. there were going to build it during my first year at ubc but they didn't realize how complex it was going to be so it kept getting pushed back and now.. four years later, im graduating and still no plans for the loop

i think construction is going on as we speak. this is my first year at UBC and there's a lot of construction at where the bus loop is, and along University Boulevard.

I've never taken the 99 B-Line before. To get to UBC from Port Moody, I just take the C24 shuttle bus to Lougheed Station, the skytrain to VCC-Clark, and then the 84 to UBC. (The other way around on the way home.) I've never had to stand up on the 84 cause I always get a seat & I like to sleep on the bus, and I have never had it pass by me, or anything... so, I'm just gonna stick with that, haha.

(Oh, by the way, it's my first year at UBC too, what faculty are you in, mr. X? I'm in Science.)

The 84 is a far better choice than the 99 even if you're taking the expo line. It may come less often but it only takes 30 min from VCC to UBC, and yes it is rarely crowded.

Is it REALLY the underground loop construction where the blue fences are located at the old bus loop and the parking lot across from Wesbrook building?!!

Finally, that's started. But too bad I've just graduated from UBC this May.

TransLink looks too far: Critic

By Jeff Nagel

Sep 14 2007

TransLink’s new initiative to draw up a 30-year vision for the future – under orders from Victoria – is folly, according to Burnaby’s mayor.

Derek Corrigan argues that’s too distant a time frame to create a plan.

Within 10 years, he predicted, a 30-year transportation document will be dismissed as an “old plan” much the same as Metro Vancouver’s Livable Region Strategic Plan is now deemed outdated.

He also said it will allow the provincial or federal governments to largely do as they wish with the region’s transportation infrastructure, no matter what locals want.

“They can say it’s in the 30-year plan, it’s just advanced to year two,” he said, giving the example of a transit line that might be planned 20-plus years away but becomes politically attractive for Victoria or Ottawa to push forward.

He said that would set the stage for more situations like the Millennium Line and Canada Line, which critics say were favourites of the provincial governments of the day that leapfrogged the region’s top priority, which was and remains the northeast sector’s Evergreen Line.

^ There's nothing wrong with setting some long-term goals for some guidance, even though plans will inevitably have to be modified, is there?

If Derek Corrigan thinks Translink looks too far, then let's not many ANY goals for future transit plans. Let's see how the state of public transit in our city will become.