Canada Line
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- "RAV" redirects here. For , see .
The Canada Line, formerly known as the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Line ("RAV Line"), is a new rapid transit line of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) currently under construction. The line will be the third in Greater Vancouver, Canada and will be added to the existing rapid transit system but will not use linear induction motor technology. Thus it will not be branded "SkyTrain" and the system will simply be branded the Canada Line.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
These sums are all in 1993 dollars, except for the Government of Canada's contribution which will be paid out when constructed, and is estimated to be equivalent of $419 million 1993 dollars. In addition, the line will be built as a private-public partnership where the private contractors will contribute a significant portion of the construction and operating costs in return for a share in the operating revenue of the line.
The Vancouver section of the line is projected to run underground from Waterfront Station, with a cut-and-cover tunnel under Granville Street between Hastings and Dunsmuir and a bored tunnel under Granville and Davie Streets and False Creek to the 2nd Avenue station on Cambie Street, where it will run as a cut-and-cover tunnel with the two directions on separate decks as far as 63rd Avenue.
From there, the line will be elevated, crossing the North Arm of the Fraser River via a new bridge. At the proposed Bridgeport Station, the line would split, with the main line heading south on an elevated track along Number 3 Road to Richmond City Centre. A branch would connect Bridgeport Station to Vancouver International Airport, crossing the Middle Arm of the Fraser River via a bridge.
It is very likely that the Millennium Line will be extended west along Broadway to Cambie Street, where it will be possible to transfer to the Canada Line at Broadway/City Hall station. As indicated in material presented by the City of Vancouver at public meetings in early 2006, this station is being planned with such a future extension in mind.
Stations are proposed to be built in two stages: 16 stations will be built for the line's projected opening prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics, with up to three additional stations being added after the line opens. The proposed stations are listed below.
Each station along the Canada Line is planned to be slightly different in appearance, and designed to blend in with the surrounding neighbourhood. Yaletown-Roundhouse Station, for instance, will be built in brick to match Yaletown's heritage whereas Langara-49th Avenue Station will fit into a more traditional residential neighbourhood.
There have been recent complaints about the location of the Broadway-City Hall station. Critics say that it is not close enough to Broadway and it is too far north on Cambie St. Officials have taken this complaint seriously and they are debating whether or not to move the station down 50 metres, so it will be closer to Broadway. Moving the station 50 metres will cost an extra $3 million.
Trains outbound to Richmond's commercial centre will stop at:
Because Bombardier's linear induction "SkyTrain" technology will not be used for the Canada Line, the line will not be branded as SkyTrain. It will, however, use the same fare system as the rest of the transit system and be managed by Translink.
The trains (ROTEM LRV) will be designed and built by Rotem Company, a division of Hyundai Motor Group.
In total twenty fully-automated articulated trains are on order. Capacity of the new trains is estimated at 334 people, with a top speed of 80 km/h. They will have wider aisles than the ART fleet used by the current SkyTrain lines, and electronic ‘Next Destination’ signs on each train.
Many people believe that it would be more cost-effective to run the line down the rail corridor that already exists along Arbutus Street and is currently zoned for transit use. The transit planners, however, said that the Arbutus corridor does not have the major concentration of transit destinations and origins that exist along the Cambie Street corridor and are necessary to provide the ridership required for this project to be successful. Also the Arbutus corridor is longer than the Cambie corridor and would cause longer travel times. Some have suggested that the Arbutus corridor be saved for a future street car line.
The construction of street-level light rail trams would have been significantly cheaper than the proposed system, which requires grade separation (tunnels or elevated lines), but the operation cost and the City of Vancouver made it clear they would oppose any grade-level transit along the Cambie Street corridor. Also, the contributions by the federal government and the airport authority were contingent on service times that such a system would not have been able to achieve.
It is claimed that the portion of the cost of this line that TransLink is covering will be at the expense of improving bus service in Greater Vancouver. As the funding is likely to be provided by property taxes collected from throughout the Lower Mainland, this would mean that many communities that would be most hurt by the funding crunch (such as the North Shore, which is served primarily by buses and ageing SeaBuses which need to be replaced) could end up paying for a disproportionate share. (The western North Shore municipalities have the highest real estate prices in the Lower Mainland and therefore the highest property taxes.)
Opponents of the RAV line's public-private partnership believe it was politically motivated and that it will cost more money because of the private involvement. The private involvement has, however, allowed for the costs to be known and largely fixed up-front.
Although the contract is supposed to ensure that no cost over-runs are passed on to TransLink and thus the public, there is a concern that it may somehow cost the public more in the future. The primary risk to TransLink is that it is required to guarantee 90% of projected ridership and to make up the shortfall in revenue if this is not achieved. The other potential risk would be if TransLink were to cause delays in the project by not meeting their responsibilities; they might be required to pay the costs for these delays and to ensure that the project is completed in time.
Another controversy arose after the contract was awarded. The submission to the environmental review committee proposed a cut-and-cover tunnel along Cambie Street, rather than the bored tunnel that had been previously discussed in public. Business owners along Cambie Street feel that digging up the street to build this tunnel would significantly affect traffic and force many smaller companies to close. The contractor maintains cut-and-cover will be cheaper, with less construction uncertainty, and that the stations will now be much closer to the surface and therefore more accessible. A smaller crane than the regular 90 ton crane to place the prefab components will probably be used.
Serco left the InTransitBC partnership with no public explanation as to why. Public pension fund management companies have been brought into the partnership. There are those who feel that the main purpose these companies was to guarantee the loans and shield SNC/Lavalin from the financial risks associated with this project. Therefore reducing the main advantage of a public Private Partnership (that is that private companies assume the financial risk of cost over-runs). The pension funds involved are British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC), who manage the BC Public Service Pension funds, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse), who manage the Quebec Public Service Pension funds.
Other names were also considered:
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From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.Timeline
Project funding and management
RAVCO was set up by the agencies funding the transit line to oversee project design, procurement, construction and implementation. The budget comes from the following sources:
The British Columbia government initially committed $300 million but when the project went over-budget, they contributed an extra $65 million, and TransLink committed an extra $100 million by selling some of its assets.Route description
Stations
Vancouver section
Richmond section
Airport branch
Trains outbound from Vancouver to Vancouver International Airport will split from the main line after Bridgeport Station, stopping at:
Technology
The Canada Line will not use Bombardier's proprietary SkyTrain linear induction technology, but rather another fully automated transit vehicle using more conventional motors than the linear induction motor used in trains on the Expo and Millennium lines. This was largely a consequence of the public-private partnership format (a condition of BC government funding), which favoured the proposal by SNC-Lavalin/Serco over that of the RAVxpress consortium, comprised of Bombardier and others.[Best and Final Offer Stage Report & Recommendations] (PDF)Vehicles
Controversies
The plans for the new line have generated much controversy. Opponents have claimed that the approval process was undemocratic and dishonest. They say that the projected ridership figures were grossly inflated [Come clean on RAV line, MacPhail tells Campbell][Larry Campbell's RAV Reward], which will mean that taxpayers and transit riders passengers will have to cover the shortfall in revenue, that the official claim that the project had nothing to do with Vancouver's bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics was not credible.[Privatization: Cabinet leak proves Liberals will do anything for a P3]Name of the line
Initially called the "RAV Line", the line is now officially known as the "Canada Line".See also
Notes
External links
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