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London Rapid Transit (In-Design)

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alexanderglista said:
"The cost of electric buses has gone up $200,000 each, to $1 million for each of the 30-plus vehicles. That adds more than $6 million"

Since when was this project considering electric busses? I had no idea! I'm actually very excited about that component!

I think this also would be a first for Ontario!
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If you don't count the electric buses that operated in Windsor, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cornwall, Ottawa, and Fort William-Port Arthur at various points between the 1920s and 1990s.
 
ShonTron said:
If you don't count the electric buses that operated in Windsor, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cornwall, Ottawa, and Fort William-Port Arthur at various points between the 1920s and 1990s.
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Yes, you're right. Should have said battery-powered electric busses. I think they are eyeing something like Winnipeg Transit is exploring, that being a quick-charge system. Looks like an innovative way to do electric.

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Maximum eight trips per hour, and no conversion to LRT..... I wonder how that matches up to current and projected demand.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
Maximum eight trips per hour, and no conversion to LRT..... I wonder how that matches up to current and projected demand.

- Paul
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8 an hour and a limit of 35km/hr is ridiculous. London transit is trying to serve the student population and they put these conditions on them? Effectively kills BRT. One every 7.5 minutes...why even build the infrastructure?

Plus wanting to build parking garages. Talk about a status quo "demand" list.
 
The UWO ask is also pretty ambitious with respect to taking control of the site plan away from the City. That is pretty audacious. Hope students enjoy their daily walk from Richmond Street - LTC may be dropping them out there.

- Paul
 
muller877 said:
8 an hour and a limit of 35km/hr is ridiculous. London transit is trying to serve the student population and they put these conditions on them? Effectively kills BRT. One every 7.5 minutes...why even build the infrastructure?

Plus wanting to build parking garages. Talk about a status quo "demand" list.
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A bus every 7.5 minutes gives an average waiting time of like 3.75 minutes. Without actually looking at existing and projected ridership I think these frequencies are actually quite good....even on some of Toronto's routes it's like 10 minute frequencies, but you're right there may be some capacity constraints. Assuming articulated buses are used with a pax of 150 that's like 1,200 pphpd or a capacity of 7,200 both directions during a combined 3 peak hours. Considering the amount of people that are enrolled at Western and other employment centres that the line would touch, this may not have enough capacity to serve them with these frequencies.
 
BMO said:
A bus every 7.5 minutes gives an average waiting time of like 3.75 minutes. Without actually looking at existing and projected ridership I think these frequencies are actually quite good....even on some of Toronto's routes it's like 10 minute frequencies, but you're right there may be some capacity constraints. Assuming articulated buses are used with a pax of 150 that's like 1,200 pphpd or a capacity of 7,200 both directions during a combined 3 peak hours. Considering the amount of people that are enrolled at Western and other employment centres that the line would touch, this may not have enough capacity to serve them with these frequencies.
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Right now transit is at this frequency from Western to downtown (plus all the other routes that go through the campus). This rebuttal they gave was a blatant war against transit and for cars.

The 6 bus is every 30 minutes (2 per hour)
the 13 is every 15 minutes (4 per hour)
The 102/106 confusing bus loops are every 10-15 minutes (4+ per hour)

There are already 10 buses going from downtown to the campus per hour. They want FEWER buses and no potential for growth.
 
Western sure is making the RT as difficult as possible. What happens when ridership continues to rise and 8 buses per hour isn't enough? If this is how Western views London's RT then the City should give Western the finger and just run the route down Richmond and let the Western students force the govenors to change their minds.
 
Media hit for SHIFT. Local London North-Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos implies basic funding (for studies/design work I assume) is coming soon.

London politics: Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos spoke with The Free Press about Donald Trump, rapid transit funding.....
....
Q: Let’s talk about something London-centric, rapid transit. How close is Ottawa to committing to funding the $560-million project?

A: I’ve been advocating and I’m quite happy with how the situation is unfolding. The bulk of the funding has not come yet because the second phase of (federal) infrastructure funding hasn’t been set yet. I expect more on its parameters to be announced in the coming weeks. You’re going to see a concrete step in terms of funding for (the rapid transit project) SHIFT. It’s going to be funding support for initial groundwork, and that’s coming shortly. I’m confident of that.
 
I don't have a problem with the BRT plan as I don't believe in this stupid idea that LRT is a must for the sole reason that "everyone else has one". The problem with the BRT and not LRT down Richmond is that the BRT doesn't look like it will have an underground station at the hectic Richmond & Oxford intersection. For those not knowing London, Oxford is one of London's very few crosstown corridors which is very congested and Richmond is the city's premier shopping/restaurant/nightlife corridor along tony Richmond Row and connects downtown with Western and Masonville. The thing that makes this corner even more of a horror story is the CN line on Richmond is right near Oxford. A train going by backs up both roads and makes rapid transit difficult in some times and impossible in others even with ROW.

The CN line at Rich/Ox is why the Richmond corridor {besides it's high ridership levels} was chosen as LRT, to get and underground station to go under this entire mess of an intersection. I don't see them doing this with BRT.
 
ssiguy2 said:
I don't have a problem with the BRT plan as I don't believe in this stupid idea that LRT is a must for the sole reason that "everyone else has one". The problem with the BRT and not LRT down Richmond is that the BRT doesn't look like it will have an underground station at the hectic Richmond & Oxford intersection. For those not knowing London, Oxford is one of London's very few crosstown corridors which is very congested and Richmond is the city's premier shopping/restaurant/nightlife corridor along tony Richmond Row and connects downtown with Western and Masonville. The thing that makes this corner even more of a horror story is the CN line on Richmond is right near Oxford. A train going by backs up both roads and makes rapid transit difficult in some times and impossible in others even with ROW.

The CN line at Rich/Ox is why the Richmond corridor {besides it's high ridership levels} was chosen as LRT, to get and underground station to go under this entire mess of an intersection. I don't see them doing this with BRT.
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So according to the business case released last spring (and that was voted on and approved), the Full BRT option includes the Richmond tunnel (and underground station) that goes under the CP Rail tracks (Source: report page 15, PDF page 31).

I agree with you, this tunnel + station is essential to the success of the project. I've been stuck at the CP Rail line for what seems like forever a few times, as a slowing moving train snarls the busy corridor. I read somewhere (can't find it right now) that the entire tunnel length is around 800m, extending from Victoria Park to past Oxford and Richmond. With this tunnel and underground station, London, Ontario will have its own "London Underground" in a sense haha.

I can't back this up, but I've also heard rumours of CP Rail consolidating its line through London on the southern CN route through the city. I heard the reason being bridge repairs that would be too costly. This could be wrong, but thought I'd post it as its what I've heard (and may have also been posted to UT by another user too). I would be very surprised by this outcome however.
 
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Media hit for SHIFT. Not much new but a good breakdown for the project costs is included.

London city hall: Transit plan gains traction

Here’s a breakdown of where the estimated $560 million needed to build rapid transit in London will be spent:
  • Segments (including building structures): $262M
  • Engineering: $39M
  • Project management: $26M
  • Maintenance: $10M
  • Contingency: $169M
  • Buses: $27M
  • Early construction: $23M
 
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