Metro Vancouver transit: Highway 1 needs trains, not lanes
Metro Vancouver transit: Highway 1 needs trains, not lanes
Long-term congestion in Metro Vancouver won't be served by attracting more cars, this writer says.
Yeah, the Liberal Party at a Federal level and the NDP at a provincial level talk big about going green, but then build a pipeline across the provinces and tell private citizens "by an electric vehicle".
How about some plans for high speed rail, instead, assholes!
I realize this is article is primarily about the coast but c'mon, for the most part we're wholly dependant on private industry for inter-city or cross-province ground-based travel, and for awhile we didn't even have that as Greyhound exited the country.
To be fair, HSR across the Rockies sounds extremely expensive and extremely inefficient.
I don't think we're going to be fixing Vancouver's isolation anytime soon.
I would settle for just lower mainland trains for commuting purposes. Chilliwack / Hope to Tsawwassen ferry would be nice. Or to YVR
sounds extremely expensive and extremely inefficient
And yet we need it, eventually.
Not just expensive, downright impossible. The Rockies are volcanic, so boring a level tunnel through the base of the mountains is out of the question. They're also very steep, which necessitates a lot of switchbacks, sharp curves, and even a pair of spiral tunnels at Kicking Horse Pass. We can and do run normal trains through these lines, but the geography severely limits how fast we can move through the terrain.
the NDP at a provincial level talk big about going green, but then build a pipeline across the provinces
I think you misremember the NDP's continued resistance to the pipeline, which ultimately was located on federal land. Remember it was all a ploy to placate the Conservatives, and remember how poorly it did anything when it comes to placating that howling one-tooth mob next time.
and tell private citizens “by an electric vehicle”.
I am pretty sure this wasn't done by an electric vehicle specifically.
Yeah obviously that was a typo of "buy"
Although SkyTrain has been proven successful in densely populated urban areas of our region, SkyTrain cannot feasibly be expanded all the way to Chilliwack. This would incur travel times longer than driving and be prohibitively expensive to construct rather than exploring cheaper, faster regional rail technology.
- it went out to Cultis Lake in the 1940s. It even carried fedex-type packages. It went to NorthVan, and it went to the Sumas border crossing on a spur.
- a similar service was massively extended to similar distances before; and beyond. The most noticeable feature missing here is 'express' trains which pass by (most) local stations without stopping, staying at speed for much of the way and quickly escaping the dense metro.
Pushing people onto expensive regional tickets for their daily commute is a little "let them eat cake" elitist.
I'm surprised this wasn't already leading the docket tbh. Vancouver needs more train lines in general, because just the WCE isn't exactly cutting it.