3103 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

He added there are other issues that would make commuter rail less viable. For example, when the Johnson Street Bridge was rebuilt, the railway tracks were removed, meaning passenger rail would have to stop in Esquimalt.

 

I’m going to trust he didn’t actually say that. And the reporter just screwed up.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 August 2022 - 12:56 PM.

[Nparker]

You mean the Esquimalt part, not the JSB part of the quote.

[Victoria Watcher]

Yes.  While I've been advocating for years to just give Vic West to Esquimalt, I do not believe it has happened yet.

[dasmo]

[Victoria Watcher]

And the reporter just screwed up.

 

 

Like this:

 

 

 

 

 

The cost of providing rail ­service just between the West Shore and Victoria is ­“profound,” ­Horgan said.

 

A rail tracks into downtown Victoria no longer exists.

 

Passenger service has not been offered since 2011 because of the poor condition of the tracks.

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ievable-5661747

 

 

 

Let's face it, those rail tracks isn't exist.   And until they can bring a rail tracks into the core, it aren't going to work.

 

~ Ali G.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 August 2022 - 05:14 AM.

[todd]

I don’t think the lame duck cares about much anymore.

[todd]

[Mike K.]

This was dead five years ago.

I don’t think the rail proponents even have a handle on the complexity involved. No plans for a yard, no plans for connecting passengers into downtown, no engagement with CFB workers and where they have to get off/access the base, no vision for a downtown Langford terminal, no park and rides, and no serious studies on viability to operate the thing from Langford, and without securing the ROW further north there won’t be any rail traffic to subsidize passenger operations.

I’ll posit here again, that we have a road infrastructure deficit into the billions of dollars for a region our size. Running a little train from Langford isn’t going to achieve anything, just like missing middle won’t achieve affordability.

Halifax tested commuter rail on an already existing network of rail, existing stations and borrowing rolling stock. It failed. Halifax, like Victoria, is just too small.

[Victoria Watcher]

Is there a single person on the board, or involved, that has any train or LRT technical knowledge?

Have they checked with Toronto or Calgary or Ottawa to see what a new LRT station or rolling stock actually costs?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 August 2022 - 10:49 AM.

[Nparker]

...Halifax tested commuter rail on an already existing network of rail, existing stations and borrowing rolling stock. It failed. Halifax, like Victoria, is just too small.

This is the crux of the matter. There is simply not enough passenger volume to make this viable in our region unless it is about 99% subsidized and we already pay too much for transit services many never use.

[Mike K.]

We sure do. For a system that is lacking severely in services and frequency outside of the immediate urban core.

[aastra]

The key detail is not the size of the place (all cities have different populations) but rather the viability of the route. The existing rail route is too long and meandering and for most of its length it misses the places people need to go. A quick and direct route that hits the right destinations would be successful anywhere. (Although this would apply just as well to buses as it does to trains.)

[Victoria Watcher]

It would be successful if EVERY muni on the route committed to super high density within 200 or 300 or 500m of the track. None will.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 August 2022 - 11:40 AM.

[Mike K.]

The viability of a route still starts with rolling stock, a maintenance yard, and station infrastructure.

For the amount of money we’d spend -just- on a yard and maintenance facility you could balloon BCT’s local bus count by 200 vehicles (about double the current fleet), and pay drivers $50/hour to putt putt those things around for years and years.

[Victoria Watcher]

Rail service support request

Esquimalt and View Royal have sent letters requesting Sidney’s support for restoring the E&N Rail Corridor. Premier Horgan recently expressed doubt about a rail return, but the door isn’t closed yet.

[Nparker]

How does Sidney benefit from rail service in Esquimalt and View Royal?

[moretrain]

How does Sidney benefit from rail service in Esquimalt and View Royal?

 

Easy, if the corridor is restored, housing would be hugely densified along the corridor thus removing Sidney by the Sea from any requirement to expand and lose the 'small town vibe'.

 

 

Ridership could be achieved simply. However, in terms of getting the most effective use out of the corridor would require that the tracks are twinned the length at least from Langford south (ideally Duncan so we could mitigate the whole Malahat issue). The trail that runs next to the corridor prevents twinning, unless a sky train style viaduct was constructed and most definitely removing the bike trail would create a massive uproar. The terminus must be in the downtown, there is currently only one way to do that, tunnel under the water and into downtown. Costs aside, getting this completed would be worse than pulling teeth.

[Nparker]

Passenger rail service will never be restored. I doubt anyone in Sidney cares one way or another.

[Victoria Watcher]

I think maybe tunnel under the harbour, then just carry on that tunnel to UVic.

[Mike K.]

It looks like Sidney is already more dense (2,415 people per sq km) than View Royal at 806, and it’s equally as dense as Esquimalt.

Maybe Sidney just wants View Royal to catch up, and allow their fair share of density before a train ever runs again?