SFU/Burnaby Mtn Gondola | Proposed

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

I wonder if it would be possible to have the grade of SkyTrain increase gradually up the mountain or how long the slope has to be to make it up the mountain.

Sure, but it would be a minimum 5km of track to handle the vertical at a 6%. About the same distance as driving up from Production Way.

A gondola would be approximately half as long, which should make up for the slower speed.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon

Sure, but it would be a minimum 5km of track to handle the vertical at a 6%. About the same distance as driving up from Production Way.

A gondola would be approximately half as long, which should make up for the slower speed.

The Gondola is the best option. The Mayor of Burnaby was being obstructionist as always and until he gets voted out, Burnaby will have to suffer with his fighting the province over pettiness.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Kisai

The Gondola is the best option. The Mayor of Burnaby was being obstructionist as always and until he gets voted out, Burnaby will have to suffer with his fighting the province over pettiness.

Can we please reconsider the hate-on some people have for Corrigan. The reason he voted against the 10 year plan:

He was the only member of the mayors’ council on regional transportation to vote against the new transit plan approved last week, saying it was too expensive.

"It was a wish list, an attempt to get support around the region by promising everybody everything,” Corrigan told the NOW. “I wanted a more realistic, more focused plan. If you keep adding items to a wish list then pretty soon it becomes so unrealistic that no one ever believes it will be done."

Considering the chronic underfunding of TransLink and all the things that are waiting in queue to maybe happening someday... that doesn't seem like such an unreasonable response.

[paradigm4]

Originally Posted by Kisai

The Gondola is the best option. The Mayor of Burnaby was being obstructionist as always and until he gets voted out, Burnaby will have to suffer with his fighting the province over pettiness.

Yes I think people are forgetting that it was citizen opposition in the area, and the resulting anger from the Mayor, that put this project on hold.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

what is with him an Burnaby, in general i mean. Burnaby is the reason that the overpass at Metrotown isn't there. then the SFU Gondola. and his wish-list comment, i think it is a bit off-base of what is realistic. is it pie in the sky? yes. but without a dream like that things dont really materialize. you need some direction to go, the big plan may be over the top, but it sets a goal and quantifies what might be needed. without that, then you are a rudderless ship.

plus, you have to remember that when dealing with the Mayors Council you need to throw in things for everyone or it would never pass...

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[gillty]

Originally Posted by Kisai

The Gondola is the best option. The Mayor of Burnaby was being obstructionist as always and until he gets voted out, Burnaby will have to suffer with his fighting the province over pettiness.

Burnaby seems to do quite well with Corrigan at the helm, and his election results as mayor for 15 years (and counting) speaks for itself.

Speaking as both an SFU student and Burnaby resident, SFU and Univercity is a minority group relative to Burnaby as a whole, a publicly funded is not in the best interest of the citizens of the city.

If SFU wants a gondola, then they need to put their money where their mouth is and leverage their power as the primary stakeholder, i.e. build out Univercity faster, invest in the Burnaby campus, attract P3.

The SFU gondola is in SFU's best interest. Rather we see have seen SFU over the past decades invest outside of the city of Burnaby, and development per the Univercity Community Plan (Approved in 1996) has been at a snails pace.

If the funding and plan was there, I am sure Corrigan would have no problem supporting getting tens of diesel busses off of Galardi Way.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by gillty

If SFU wants a gondola, then they need to put their money where their mouth is and leverage their power as the primary stakeholder, i.e. build out Univercity faster, invest in the Burnaby campus, attract P3.

i would agree with this, same with UBC should be putting money in if the Broadway Extension goes all the way to UBC. otherwise i would end it right at Blanca and be like, well balls in your court UBC; pay up.

Originally Posted by gillty

If the funding and plan was there, I am sure Corrigan would have no problem supporting getting tens of diesel busses off of Galardi Way.

and, well i don't know if that is accurate. see Metrotown Station overpass; Burnaby seems to be the only ones not agreeing to it, for whatever reason.

[gillty]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i would agree with this, same with UBC should be putting money in if the Broadway Extension goes all the way to UBC. otherwise i would end it right at Blanca and be like, well balls in your court UBC; pay up.



and, well i don't know if that is accurate. see Metrotown Station overpass; Burnaby seems to be the only ones not agreeing to it, for whatever reason.

Unlike a gondola at SFU, I actually would argue the removal of the passerelle across Central Blvd. to be a net benefit for the greater city.

It encourages more street level interaction particularly between Metropolis and Beresford, but also Station Square which fell into disrepair as Metropolis came into existence.

If Metrotown is to grow into a successful downtown community funneling the majority of traffic into the mall (as it was in the past) and away from the greater street level community only contributes to Beresford, for example, being a suburban bedroom community, rather than the downtown of Burnaby.

A passerelle makes sense across an arterial street such as Kingsway or Lougheed & Willingdom, but for Central Blvd.?

Honestly I think Central Blvd. could do with eliminating non-transit traffic altogether immediately in front of the station. I would divert bus traffic under the area via an underpass and build a plaza akin to Robson between Howe and Hornby.

I digress.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by gillty

Unlike a gondola at SFU, I actually would argue the removal of the passerelle across Central Blvd. to be a net benefit for the greater city.

It encourages more street level interaction particularly between Metropolis and Beresford, but also Station Square which fell into disrepair as Metropolis came into existence.

I disagree because both Metrotown and Station Square are inward-facing developments that have no engagement with the street whatsoever. And that's despite the fact that Station Square was just completely redeveloped.

It would be terrific if the malls had more interaction with the street, but that option is basically off the table for the life of the buildings. In the meantime Central Blvd. is very busy serving as the major feed for traffic from the south, and a passerelle would make for a much more palatable option for transit users.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Yeah, there's not much point in street-level interaction if there's no street to interact with. There's an empty greenway on one side, and a second story concourse on the other; the only thing demolishing the overpass does is make people bunch up at the crosswalks (to get to Metrotown) and clog traffic.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Yeah, there's not much point in street-level interaction if there's no street to interact with. There's an empty greenway on one side, and a second story concourse on the other; the only thing demolishing the overpass does is make people bunch up at the crosswalks (to get to Metrotown) and clog traffic.

No kidding... as for Burnaby... Corrigan doesn't like to spend money and runs a very fiscally conservative ship... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but let's be honest, SFU doesn't have many voters, and the older people get, the more set in their ways they get... and Corrigan isn't going anywhere anytime soon as long as he panders to his base.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by gillty

Speaking as both an SFU student and Burnaby resident, SFU and Univercity is a minority group relative to Burnaby as a whole, a publicly funded is not in the best interest of the citizens of the city.

Indeed. Considering how much money TransLink doesn't have to spend, they have to consider which project is more important. How many more are helped by:

* SFU gondola vs Evergreen extension
* SFU gondola vs Broadway extension to Arbutus
* SFU gondola vs Expo extension to Surrey / Langley

TransLink still have the SFU gondola as something they want to do but they have more pressing concerns right now.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Yeah, there's not much point in street-level interaction if there's no street to interact with. There's an empty greenway on one side, and a second story concourse on the other; the only thing demolishing the overpass does is make people bunch up at the crosswalks (to get to Metrotown) and clog traffic.

I actually wrote to the city to complain and that was my main point. There's wave after wave of people crossing at the two crosswalks and traffic is stop and go through the whole stretch. There are crossing guards to help the buses get in / out of the bus loop now 'cause otherwise they'd end up sitting there for ages.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Can we please reconsider the hate-on some people have for Corrigan. The reason he voted against the 10 year plan:


Considering the chronic underfunding of TransLink and all the things that are waiting in queue to maybe happening someday... that doesn't seem like such an unreasonable response.

The Gondola was a reasonable item that would cost less to operate than the buses it replace. Corrigan only rejected it because anything he can do to poke the eye of the Liberal government he will. The same reason Burnaby didn't get Cameron Station http://www.burnabynow.com/news/burna...ation-1.412533

You'll keep hearing this line every time the Mayor screws Burnaby out of something:

should be the responsibility of the provincial government.

The Corrigans have done nothing to to help Burnaby since the last Municipal election and have sold out to the foreign luxury condo investors a long time ago before that. Mayor Corrigan doesn't even show up at things he's supposed to be at, so I hope he retires.

[xd_1771]

I'm kind of wondering why exactly this project fell off the map. I recall that there was quite a healthy discussion around it, but it was stopped short somewhat - and then furthermore it was not included in the Mayors' 10 year vision, which I think really hurts the ability to make progress.

Last I heard the Gondola was analyzed to be costing X million dollars more than just continuing to run buses on the 145. However I do believe this was a cost analysis, not a cost-benefit analysis. I think we deserve to see a proper cost-benefit analysis. A gondola could improve those uphill travel times while improving reliability and reducing emissions.

Perhaps it'll take getting something like the SFSS behind the gondola to really put it on the map.

---

I lost the link by the way but I remember reading somewhere that Metropolis was purposely designed to connect to SkyTrain via the (old) passarelle, as it was mentioned by the developer himself. They weren't built independently of each other; Metropolis was developed on the condition of one.

[SpongeG]

eaton centre now known as metropolis only opened in 1989, skytrain opened a few years before that. Metrotown mall next door (which opened in 1986) had no connection to eaton centre until about 1989/90, so to get to metrotown you had to exit eaton centre and walk along kingsway or use the other street. They added a simple passerelle between the malls which was quite annoying to navigate as they had heavy doors to open and close etc. For a few years skytrain was a pain to get to the mall.

[officedweller]

WRT the SFU Gondola - I wonder how much SFU itself would contribute?
(The same way I would expect UBC top contribute to a SkyTrain Station on campus)
There has to be efficiencies gained through the reduction of cancelled winter classes and greater accessibility for residents.

[Kisai]

More talk about looking into the SFU Gondola again
https://globalnews.ca/news/3809701/t...er-university/

October 17, 2017 6:06 pm

TransLink is trying to find a cleaner way to get people to Simon Fraser University according to CEO Kevin Desmond.

Desmond said the transport company is in talks with the academic institution to get an electric-powered gondola on Burnaby Mountain.

“The idea is if there is a gondola, it would replace the major bus route that goes from Production Way Station to the University. It would be a more reliable service, possibly as much, if not more capacity than the buses allow.”

[waves]

Hopefully this actually goes through this time. I can't recall exactly what the estimate was on the systems capital cost but I think is was about $22 million. This seems like pennies for the connection benefit it would provide. Also what is this about Desmond going on about an "Arbutus Line". Does he not mean the Broadway Extension from Arbutus?