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Canada Line

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Template:Future infrastructure

"RAV" redirects here. For other uses, see RAV (disambiguation).
File:RAV route.jpg
Map showing the planned route of the Canada Line.

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 is being built and will be operated by a private sector engineering firm, SNC-Lavalin, for 35 years. 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. Despite the fact the line will use different technology, it is unclear whether or not it will be branded "SkyTrain". The line is planned to connect downtown Vancouver to the Vancouver International Airport and Richmond City Centre in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Governance of the project is through RAV Project Management (RAVCO), a subsidiary of TransLink.

Timeline

  • In 1995, BC Transit (a crown corporation responsible for public transit) expressed desire to create a special service of either bus rapid transit (BRT) or automated light rapid transit service connecting the cities of Richmond, Vancouver, and the Vancouver International Airport in one of the transit improvement plans.
    • Underground rights-of-way were reserved at the Concord Pacific development close to the Cambie bridge.
  • In 2003, ten companies or consortia submitted 'Expressions of Interest' in this project.
  • In December 2003, this was short listed down to three who were given a 'Request for Proposal'. These three consortia were:
  • On June 30, 2004, after twice voting to cancel the project, the TransLink Board approved the RAV line but maintained the right to cancel the project if none of the bids meet the approved budget of $1.35 billion.
  • On November 19, 2004, RAVCO recommended that the SNC-Lavalin/Serco (now known collectively as InTransitBC) proposal for a fully automated, grade-separated system be accepted. This 'Best and Final Offer' bid was $343 million over the approved budget. The project was, however, brought to within the funding allowance, through various cost trimming measures, including design changes, the contractor agreeing to lower their bid, and the province contributing another $65 million.
  • On December 1, 2004, the TransLink board gave final approval for the project.
  • On July 29 2005 the final contract to design, build and operate the RAV Line was signed between InTransitBC and Translink. Serco is no longer a partner to InTransitBC and 2 pension funds have been brought into the partnership.
  • In October 2005, the utilities relocation and roadwork was started.
  • On November 25, 2005, the design of the new trains was unveiled and Rotem was announced as the supplier of the trains.
  • The line is expected to be operational in November 2009, just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver.

Project funding and management

RAVCO was set up by the agencies funding the transit line to oversee project design, procurement, construction and implementation. The public contributions to 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.

These sums are all in 2006 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 to the public funding, the line will be built as a private-public partnership where the private contractor, InTransitBC, will provide the project for a fixed price. InTransitBC will be responsible for the remaining costs to construct the project, including any increases in construction costs (other than changes to the scope of the project). Since the contract was signed, InTransitBC's $300 million contribution has escalated by $400 million due to increases in construction costs. The total private sector funding of the project is approx. $700 million.

The private sector will operate the line for 35-years in return for a share in the operating revenue of the line.

Approved changes in scope that have increased the cost of the project include the addition of a pedestrian and bike path to the North Arm bridge and the double tracking of the line near the future Capstan Station. A decision on the installation of fare gates is expected in fall 2006.

Route description

The Canada Line (red) as part of the Greater Vancouver's rapid transit network in 2010.

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 as far as 64th Avenue with the two directions either side-by-side or stacked on separate decks.

From there, the line will be elevated, crossing the North Arm of the Fraser River via a new cable-stayed 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. A portion of the airport branch will be at-grade in order to accommodate a future elevated taxiway for aircraft over the line.

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

Template:Future building 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, may 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 north 50 metres, so it will be closer to Broadway. Moving the station 50 metres will cost an extra $3 million, which is to be shared equally among the City of Vancouver (which has approved the expenditure), Translink and InTransitBC.

Station platforms will be only 40 metres long, extendible to 50 metres long. The YVR terminus and the Richmond-Brighouse terminus will each be single-tracked, whereas the Waterfront Station terminus will be double-tracked to accommodate the shorter headways required for interlined service from the two branches. King Edward Station will be the only station with a stacked configuration and Broadway-City Hall Station will be the only station with a double height ceiling over the platforms. Vancouver City Centre Station will be linked to Pacific Centre Mall and Vancouver Centre Mall in addition to having street level access. There will be no direct connection from Vancouver City Centre Station to the Expo Line's Granville Station. All direct transfers to the Skytrain will be made at Waterfront Station.

All stations will be configured to allow for the future installation of fare gates if required.

Every station will have elevators and an escalator travelling up, but will not necessarily have an escalator going down (except for the airport stations, which will have escalators travelling in both directions). [1]

Vancouver section

File:DSCF1504.jpg
Construction taking place on the south shore of False Creek, at the site of Olympic Village Station. This is where the tunnel boring machine will begin its work.

Richmond section

Canada Line construction in Richmond, near No. 3 Road at Capstan Way.

Trains outbound to Richmond's commercial centre will stop at:

  • Bridgeport (north of Bridgeport Road in Richmond; major transit exchange for suburban buses; link to Airport branch)
  • Aberdeen (No. 3 Road at Cambie Road)
  • Lansdowne (No. 3 Road at Lansdowne Road; 3-4 blocks away from the Richmond Olympic Oval speed skating venue)
  • Richmond-Brighouse (No. 3 Road at Cook Road, adjacent to the Richmond Centre shopping mall)

Airport branch

Trains outbound from Vancouver to Vancouver International Airport will split from the main line after Bridgeport Station, stopping at:

  • Templeton (likely to be located north of Grant McConachie Way, near Templeton Street)
  • Sea Island Centre (likely to be located on Grant McConachie Way, near the Air Canada service centre)
  • YVR-Airport (adjacent to the main terminal of Vancouver International Airport)

Post 2010

Vancouver

  • 33rd Avenue (Cambie Street at West 33rd Avenue, next to Queen Elizabeth Park)
  • 57th Avenue (Cambie Street at West 57th Avenue)

Richmond

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 scope of the Request for Proposals process for the Public-Private Partnership, the terms of which refused to allow Bombardier to include efficiencies in combining operations or rolling stock orders for the new line with those for the existing Skytrain lines. This placed all bidders on a level playing field. The RFP also required that the system have an ultimate capacity of 15,000 pphpd (leaving the choice of technology and platform length to the proponent) and required a minimum travel time between YVR and downtown Vancouver of 24 minutes. [1]

Vehicles

File:BannerFront.jpg
Artist's conception of the RAV Line Vehicle in 2009.

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. Married pairs of gangway connected cars will be 41 metres long and 3 metres wide, both longer and wider than the ART fleet used by the current SkyTrain lines, and will have electronic ‘Next Destination’ signs on each train.

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 [2], 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.[3]

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. The City of Vancouver wants to run a future streetcar line down the Arbutus corridor and recently won a Supreme Court of Canada decision against the CPR upholding the City's right to rezone the lands for a transportation corridor (the CPR had wanted to develop the corridor with housing).

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. InTransitBC's winning proposal included cut-and-cover tunnel along Cambie Street under the northbound roadway, rather than the theoretical bored tunnel that had been previously discussed in public consultations. This construction method was not widely publicized until the environmental review process. Business owners along Cambie Street feel that digging up the street to build this tunnel would significantly affect traffic and force many smaller businesses 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. InTransitBC's winning bid also allowed extension of the tunnel to 64th Avenue, well past the minimum requirement of 49th Avenue set out in the RFP. Placing the tunnel under the roadway also saved excavation of the treed median, as was proposed in the RAVxpress's proposal for a permanent open trench in the median for the guideway south of 49th Avenue. The original InTransitBC cut and cover proposal was to use precast tunnel segments, but this has since been changed to cast in place sections, since precast sections must be connected linearly from one end to the other, and with the tight time frames, the ability of cast in place construction to be built in a piecemeal fashion (i.e. if unforeseen delays were encountered along the route) provided more flexibility for the construction schedule.

Serco left the InTransitBC partnership with no public explanation as to why. InTransitBC has brought in additional "private" partners comprising public pension fund management companies to help finance InTransitBC's share of the project (now upwards of $700 million) following increases in construction costs. There are those who feel that since the main purpose these companies was to guarantee the loans and help finance the project, the public ownership of the public pension fund management companies exposes the public to additional risk, 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.

Name of the line

Initially called the "RAV Line", the line is now officially known as the "Canada Line".

Other names were also considered:

  • Olympic Line: Although not officially tied to the 2010 Winter Olympics, hosting the Olympics was a part of the rationale for building the line.
  • RAV Line: The Richmond-Airport-Vancouver line.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Best and Final Offer Stage Report & Recommendations (PDF)
  2. ^ Come clean on RAV line, MacPhail tells CampbellLarry Campbell's RAV Reward
  3. ^ Privatization: Cabinet leak proves Liberals will do anything for a P3
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