Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenC12
All this tells me is that the Canada Line was a massive success compared to the last line built, the M-Line.
We can jam this ridership into the naysayer's faces, and hindsight is always 20/20, but we would never have gotten something with M-Line station sizes built. Period.
This just shows that rapid transit is popular, and should be a priority. And hopefully Translink has learned something about negotiating P3 contracts.
I've been on the C-line more lately since I'm very close to Yaletown station. It's busy during rush hour, big surprise. I've never been passed up at any station. mr. x your panic doesn't help.
|
The M-Line is half-built. Its ridership projections for breaking even were based on the assumption that the Evergreen Line (or what was then called the PMC Line) would have been built a few years after the Millennium Line opened. The NDP ran out of money and decided to turn the Millennium Line into three phases instead of building it all at once. More importantly, the M-Line was built in mind with the future Broadway extension flooding riders into the system.
I've been riding the Canada Line about 3-times a week lately, and that means 3 weekly round trips or 6 train rides per week. I've had to wait for another train most of the time as it's simply too full to even get in.
I have always been adamant that the Canada Line will have capacity issues in 20-30 years when it reaches the max. design capacity of 15,000 pphpd, and that today's current capacity issues are a result of a lack of trains running in the system because of the inflexible (and likely expensive) P3 concessionaire agreement. Whereas with the publicly operated BCRTC SkyTrain, there isn't any of this nonsense.
And these issues shouldn't be swept away under a rug. I'm frequently harping on them because I don't want to see the same mistakes happen all over again for the Evergreen and especially the UBC extension. I'm thrilled that the Canada Line capacity issues are hitting the front covers of newspapers, I've been expecting this to happen for quite awhile - that the media will pick this up, and it would eventually turn into a fiasco of its own.