3104 replies to this topic

[sebberry]

It's physically impossible for the train to solve the Colwood Crawl, or the Malahat Line-up, or whatever you have.  It simply can  not be done.

 

 

 

 

I know, you ran the numbers on it somewhere.

[VicHockeyFan]

So why do some people continue to say it?  I know not everyone does, some say it's "another piece of the puzzle".

 

I know what would take 2,000+ cars off just two parts of the commute next week.  Higher parking rates at UVic, and pay parking at the military base.

 

http://www.vicnews.c...rking-concerns/

 

There are 1,935 spots along Canteen Road, Lyall Street and at Signal Hill in Esquimalt. There is a mix of 503 assigned and general parking spots at Naden.

About 5,500 personnel work at CFB Esquimalt, though not all are employed at Naden and dockyard.

 

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 05 June 2017 - 07:14 PM.

[LJ]

Or bring back the blue boats, make them mandatory for base workers, problem solved.

[Bingo]

 It's about as accurate as a CFAX poll.

 

But more accurate than a VV poll where only 1%* of the members say the train will never run.

* If I told you once I've told you a thousand times

[Bingo]

Horgan predicts rail in two years
January 30, 2008

A planned rail service between Langford and Victoria signals enhanced commuter train service between Duncan and the capital city sooner than many believe, said the MLA for Malahat-Juan de Fuca.

“By next spring the train will be running from Langford to Victoria and I think a realistic expectation is the train would be coming to Duncan within 24 to 30 months,” said NDP-er John Horgan.

A commuter train service on the E&N rail line between Langford and downtown Victoria could be built for less than $16 million, according to a consultant’s report released yesterday.

The C4CR Group, consisting of the communities of Langford, View Royal, Colwood, Esquimalt, Victoria and Sooke, as well as the Capital Regional District, BC Transit, Island Corridor Foundation and Southern Railway of Vancouver Island Ltd. commissioned the study to investigate the feasibility of establishing a rail service between Langford and Victoria.

It’s estimated it would cost an additional $40 million to get it running over the Malahat partly because the rail bed is in appalling state for the kind of service needed to get Duncan on line.

The $40 million sounds about right to Horgan.

“You virtually have to replace the railway, you have to replace the lion’s share of the ties, you have a greater distance to travel and much of it over a hill,” he said.

Horgan said he believes increased north-south rail service is an overdue transportation option, despite the fact a recent Malahat study indicated that’s not the case.

“I’ve always felt the numbers produced for that study were sketchy,” said Horgan. “Pulling people over to the side of the road in Goldstream Park and asking if they’d get on the train is hardly a comprehensive review.”

The C4CR study estimated there are about 3,600 potential riders from the Valley.

It went on to state careful development of the tram system, beginning in Greater Victoria, could rejuvenate rail on Vancouver Island by creating an iconic, proactive way to manage regional growth and road traffic congestion in an environmentally responsible manner.

“I guess if I had an input in the study, I think those are the words I would have used,” said Cowichan Valley Regional District Chairman Jack Peake.

“To me it’s an absolutely ideal starting point and I think extending and expanding that particular operation would be very simple to do.

“If we would have had control over the study we would have asked it to come all the way back to Duncan, and include that whole area,” he said.

To that end, the local government is about to commit cash to the C4CR.

“We’re looking at extending that study with an extra $10,000 from the CVRD to do the equation for Duncan,” Peake said.

Both Horgan and Peake said they’re frequently approached by Valley citizens curious about an enhanced commuter rail.

“They say, ‘Man, I hate that Malahat drive, I have to go to Victoria in the morning and if the train was running I’d be on that in a second,’” said Peake.

Added Horgan: “People recognize the road is unreliable and if they’re commuting — and an increasing number of people in the Valley are commuting — they want to be as comfortable as they possibly can and who can blame them for that?”

Horgan said the enhanced service could do much more than just move people.

“We have the opportunity to shape growth and address climate change in a realistic way on Vancouver Island,” he said.

“This is the start of a great thing.”

http://www.bclocalne...s/14847866.html

[VicHockeyFan]

Yup that is what is needed a study!

This city f&@!ing insane with the amount of studies it does when it doesn't want to go ahead with somehting. Ridiculous.

 

How's that study coming along?

[VicHockeyFan]

The Island Corridor Foundation is an odd creature. It was set up as a charity in 2003 with the goal of taking over the rail lines on Vancouver Island owned by Canadian Pacific. In 2006, CP handed over the land and got credit for a $236-million charitable donation to the foundation and tax savings worth about $38 million.

 

The Tyee is supported by readers like you  Join us and grow independent media in Canada

And the foundation, directed by a 12-person board — five representatives from regional districts along the line, five from First Nations and two directors at large — started to figure out how to save a dying railway business. They had no experience, no effective accountability and faced huge challenges.

 

Rail fans are devoted, and they cheered on promises to improve the E&N passenger service, which ran, or limped, through a return trip between Victoria and Courtenay each day, supported by about $1.4 million a year in subsidies from Via Rail. The Dayliner trip, thanks to the poor track condition, took 4.5 hours, about 90 minutes longer than driving.

 

The foundation set out to find $34 million to repair the neglected rail lines and bridges, protect passenger service and revive a failing freight business.

 

It didn’t work. The passenger service was briefly suspended in 2007 over safety concerns, then stopped in 2011 because the line was just too run down to operate safely. The foundation first said the closure was temporary, then said the problems were bigger.

 

Various big plans were floated, like a commuter rail trial between Victoria and its western suburbs, but nothing happened. The foundation, with support from local politicians, said it needed $15 million for repairs from the provincial and federal governments, then another $3.2 million from Island municipal governments. Then the trains could run again. It promised, repeatedly and inaccurately that the trains would soon be running again.

 

Both senior governments eventually said yes, but with a great many conditions. And they still haven’t advanced the money.

 

Partly, they fear the ICF’s assessment of the cost of repairing the track is wildly understated. A provincial study put the cost at a minimum of $70 million.

 

The federal government is also concerned about a lawsuit from the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation seeking the return of territory expropriated when coal baron Robert Dunsmuir received land in return for building the railway in the 1880s.

 

And the Regional District of Nanaimo, which committed $945,000 to track repairs in 2012, has pulled the money, citing a lack of confidence in the foundation’s leadership.

 

 

The consultant’s report also found that the foundation’s CEO, former BC Liberal cabinet minister Graham Bruce, has become a symbol of the problems.

 

“Whether it is his salary, the perceived lack of performance in achieving a train service on Vancouver Island, the fact he was found to have been in violation of the federal lobbying code of conduct, or the perception of his controlling and non-transparent approach to management, in their minds, he is a major source of the discontent and loss of credibility with the ICF,” according to the consultant’s report.

None of which is surprising.

 

Bruce’s salary as CEO, for example, is secret, which violates at least of the spirit of Revenue Canada requirements that charities disclose their highest top salaries. Management and administration costs — apparently all provided under contract by his company — were $186,000 last year. And Bruce was found guilty of violating federal lobbying rules by failing to register as a lobbyist for the Cowichan First Nations.

 

 

You have to hand it to Graham Bruce, he's kept this gravy train running, even if he's never even been close to getting a standard train running.

 

https://thetyee.ca/O...Island-Railway/

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 05 June 2017 - 09:09 PM.

[dasmo]

It's not about solving the crawl, it's about providing alternatives. Plus, you said it. Can't solve the crawl. The pinch point is geographically and geologically fixed until we can hyper loop underneath the highlands. So the train seems like a reasonable solution. 

Plus, we are talking billions in real estate sales here. So your disfavour towards this rail line is nothing compared to those forces. It's coming now without question. 

[sdwright.vic]

^I kinda have to agree here. It's worth a shot... We spend money on so many other projects that do anything. Now is rail transit the RIGHT option? No!!!

Should we look at a sky train option? Yes! Should we look at a loop solution above ground that comes in on the Galloping Goose and out on the E&N... built to be twinned in the future... YES

[UrbanRail]

Sorry I havent been able to post here in a while (or maybe no one cares).

 

First I work two jobs.

Second my wife is pregnant and expecting in December, so busy preparing for that.

Third, been working steadily on my designs and drawings.

 

To the point of solving the crawl. It cant be solved (yet). But providing alternatives to it is possible.

With the change in BC politics (yes I know some of you hate the NDP/Greens), it could bold well for rail.

[UrbanRail]

 

 

You have to hand it to Graham Bruce, he's kept this gravy train running, even if he's never even been close to getting a standard train running.

 

https://thetyee.ca/O...Island-Railway/

 

Yeah I know he is an obstacle... which doesnt help the situation 

[johnk]

You have to hand it to Graham Bruce, he's kept this gravy train running, even if he's never even been close to getting a standard train running.
 
https://thetyee.ca/O...Island-Railway/

Every time I've arrived at the station I discover the gravy train has already left. I make do sitting by the phone waiting for the call to the Senate.

[Mike K.]

We are days away now from the scheduled late July release of a feasibility study undertaken by the province in regards to commuter options for the E&N right-of-way.

 

The province issued an RFP to conduct a study that would incorporate a mode or modes for the corridor, which included "commuter train, transit bus, multi-purpose path or a combination of two or three transportation modes along a portion of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway (E&N) right-of-way."

[Bingo]

We are days away now from the scheduled late July release of a feasibility study undertaken by the province in regards to commuter options for the E&N right-of-way.

 

The province issued an RFP to conduct a study that would incorporate a mode or modes for the corridor, which included "commuter train, transit bus, multi-purpose path or a combination of two or three transportation modes along a portion of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway (E&N) right-of-way."

HA Ha Ha!   I am waiting with bated breath.

[Mike K.]

Surely this report will be out tomorrow morning?

[Nparker]

Surely this report will be out tomorrow morning?

[AllseeingEye]

Surely this report will be out tomorrow morning?

This entire episode is wearing extremely thin and epitomizes yet again an example of yet another local major infrastructure project gone awry and/or stagnant.

 

Why is it that other cities can generally get their collective act together and successfully build overpasses, sewage systems, bridges and mass transit options like LRT/Skytrain/C-Train systems etc., at least with the lifespan of your average Canadian, yet in Aw, Golly Gee Shucks by the Sea we somehow manage to bumble and fumble and - more often than not - ultimately drop the ball time and time and time again?

Is Graham Bruce still part of the ICF leadership group?

[Nparker]

...Why is it that other cities can generally get their collective act together ... yet in Aw, Golly Gee Shucks by the Sea we somehow manage to bumble and fumble and - more often than not - ultimately drop the ball time and time and time again?...

I can give you 13 reasons for that...

[AllseeingEye]

I can give you 13 reasons for that...

Certainly that is a critical problem with regard to many issues that plague the broader region particularly beyond the Core 4 - no argument there - but with regard specifically to rail I wonder how much of the seemingly endless delay and deferment on a Go/No Go decision can be laid at that particular doorstep? I'm unsure...

[VicHockeyFan]

How many people are really crying out for commuter rail? To actually take it? Some car drivers would like less congestion. But I'm not even sure we have 500 people that say they will take a train daily.

We only had 14 or so that wanted to take s nice bus. That was faster. And more convenient.