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The Greater Discussions
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Добавлен 15 июн 2020
Welcome to The Greater Discussions, a Vancouver-based channel with the goal of providing quality video essays on a variety of local topics. Join me, Arden English, in exploring the city I grew up in while discussing its past, present, and future.
Is Regional Rail the Future of British Columbia?
Passenger rail is often neglected in North America, and TransLink’s West Coast Express is no different. That being said, not every city has the same issues as Vancouver and there are some ambitious plans for a network of regional rail lines throughout the Lower Mainland. But is it realistic?
Special thank you to Lee Haber and Reece Martin from @RMTransit for their help with making this video!
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Music Used:
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HoliznaCC0
Special thank you to Lee Haber and Reece Martin from @RMTransit for their help with making this video!
MVX Nexus Document:
www.mvx.vision/assets/nexus-min.pdf
Support the Channel:
www.patreon.com/thegreaterdiscussions
My Socials:
thegreaterdiscussions
Twitter (X)
x.com/theardenenglish
Music Used:
RUclips Audio Library
HoliznaCC0
Просмотров: 41 058
Видео
We’re FINALLY Replacing this 65-Year-Old Tunnel! - The Fraser River Tunnel Project
Просмотров 59 тыс.4 месяца назад
Built in 1959, the George Massey Tunnel is a true feat of engineering and certainly was a marvel for its time. But that was then. Now we have issues that can’t be easily fixed. Thankfully, the Fraser River Tunnel Project might just have the solution. Special thanks to YVRmaps for some visualizations found in this video! Check out his work on Instagram: yvrmaps?igsh=b3J0YmhpcnU5eG5...
Burnaby's Unique Transit Solution - The Burnaby Mountain Gondola
Просмотров 34 тыс.9 месяцев назад
It seemed like not enough people were talking about the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Project, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. The question is… what do I think of it? Wanna know what’s the holdup? Email the following Burnaby representatives to show support for the project. It can truly go a long way. Burnaby MLAs: - Katrina Chen (Burnaby-Lougheed) katrina.chen.MLA@leg.bc.ca - Janet R...
Are White Rock's High-Rises THAT Bad? - The White Rock High-Rise Dilemma
Просмотров 70 тыс.11 месяцев назад
Are White Rock's High-Rises THAT Bad? - The White Rock High-Rise Dilemma
Vancouver's Ideal Transit System - CLC12 Capstone Project
Просмотров 16 тыс.Год назад
Vancouver's Ideal Transit System - CLC12 Capstone Project
If we can spend so much money on building highways, we definitely have the money to invest and improve public transit. Public transit is a positive externality, and it saves people time and money, and is clean. ALL "city planners" should learn about induced demand - building better transit will increase its desirability, and the demand will increase as more people love transit. Its time we start planning and start building more lines to future proof cities.
Ill explain why the Tsawwassen route should exist -- build it and it will develop its the typical chicken and egg dilemma if you build it now and build with future proofing in mind it will be significantly cheaper now then later and it will open up more much needed development opportunities along the route. the big route missing from this discussion is having a high speed rail line between hope and Vancouver via the same route as the #1 highway mixed as both above and below ground as to increase speed as much as possible, when you add all these other transit options with that the system becomes extremely resilient and allows anyone in the lower mainland to live just about any where and get fast service to where they need to go within a reasonable amount of time. the fact is the reason people drive to and from the GVA is because there isn't fast enough or accessible enough transit that works for them or transit isn't practical due to what they bring with them daily to work (Construction workers) once this is solved it will improve traffic issues significantly baring they maximize the #1 along side these transit systems or focus on #1 first then transit ideally both simultaneously would be better. additionally we should be looking at using aircraft as well in the long term aka getting heli options into and out of the GVA at reasonable pricing and excessively cheap air travel between Abbotsford airport and YVR.
Who knew that NOMBY aka Not OVER My Back Yard would be a thing in the future but here we are... Personally whatever option is electric and automated wins the day period. Along with digitization these three societal and technological trends will never be undone once we've adopted them. Can anyone tell me they miss their old paper transit passes or tickets or even cash we we have our smart phones that operate as both bank card and transit pass? Heck no! And the gondola project here certainly one that has far too many benefits for it not to be approved and heavily used...
Great video! Personally I think the fast and frequent aspects of regional rail need to prioritized as much as precisely the routes it takes. The proposed regional plan seems to be good on that fact. Trains could and should run both ways every 15-30 minutes on the existing line as long as they could get one free track to themselves with passing sections at stations and IMHO use BEMU/Battery Electric Multiple Units that can fast charge at station stops from 30 seconds to 30 minutes depending on the location/nature of the station... Hydrogen could also be used but the price of fuel is still "too damn high" to make it really economically viable especially compared to the crashing price of batteries... On a side note, in the medium to longer-term a floating fixed-tunnel railway between Victoria and Vancouver seems like a project for a future video. Personally I think that's the best solution to the constant issues with ferries in the lower mainland, replace them with an automated commuter electric railway network akin to Montreal's REM... Driverless trains but with overhead catenary power, standardized 1435 mm railway tracks because of the standard, commonplace off-the-shelf technology it uses rather than more expensive proprietary Bombardier/Alstom technology of the existing Skytrain... If Norway can pull off their current under construction floating road tunnel network than surely even with the moving plates/earthquake issues of the region it can be done...
May I ask, what city of Surrey plans excite you the most for future growth?
My bias leads me to say the Semiahmoo Town Centre plan that will align wonderfully with the BRT plan, but really I'm just enjoying seeing what Surrey is doing with their downtown. It's clear they have a lot of ambition in their pursuit to pass Vancouver in population and they want Surrey Central to be a genuine centre to the city. It's super exciting to see!
Homelessness will continue to increase without socialized housing options which have been rarely built here for a long time. Even the 'affordable' rentals are far outside what people on disability can afford (I am personally disabled and can only stay in a house because its rent controlled, otherwise there is basically nothing within my meagre 1600 per month budget for ALL expenses)
YES 😩
A new bridge would of been built by now if the stupid NDP didn’t kill the project and flush 150 million dollars of taxpayers money down the drain
Give it up
As of rn, the best transit mode is by car, and electric car or phev with regen as going down the mountain is almost a free ride to go up. Tbh, I did find the bus to be better when it needed to detour going down. After a while and the newness of the bus and translink fix for a while, I got back to my automobiles, I just hope they will have a parking down the mountain, and thus increase the ridership, I do think they will get 50% of those crowd and with a parking and visitors etc invrease will be 2x thus 2k people per hour is a easy mark, perhaps on average year round considering holidays a bit less.
As of rn, the best transit mode is by car, and electric car or phev with regen as going down the mountain is almost a free ride to go up. Tbh, I did find the bus to be better hence it needed to detour going down. I just hope they will have a parking down the mountain, and thus increase the ridership, I do think they will get 50% of those crowd and with a parking and visitors etc invrease will be 2x thus 2k people per hour is a easy mark, perhaps on average year round considering holidays a bit less.
Good ideas. Now all we need is the funding to proceed with them.
Hey man, great video. Very informative. My friend recommended this channel to me and he did not let me down haha
Cry me a river. I live on Vancouver Island in Campbell River - BC Ferry Namaimo to Horseshoe Bay - $252.20 Return for car and two adults. We have a single track rail line and right of way but it's been abandoned. The history of an island railway started with the colony of Vancouver Island joining British Columbia in 1866, Canadian Confederation in 1867, and the incorporation of British Columbia (BC) into Canada in 1871. The terms of union required that, within two years, the federal government was to start the construction of a railway from the "seaboard of British Columbia", joining the new province and Victoria with the railway system of Canada. On its part, British Columbia was to grant a band of public land of up to 32 kilometres (20 mi) in width along either side of the railway line to the federal government for it to use in furtherance of the construction of the railway. The Pacific terminus of the railway was not specified, but the proposed plan would have the railway cross the Rockies by the Yellowhead Pass and reach the BC coast at Bute Inlet. It would cross Sonora Island and Quadra Island and reach Vancouver Island by a bridge across Seymour Narrows. the Canadian Pacific Railway placed a low priority on construction of an island railway, as it had low traffic potential and would duplicate an existing 1873 steamer service. all for the want of a horse shoe nail
Hey, love to see your video. Im in grade 12 right now and don't know what to do for my CLC, your video inspired and gave me the idea
They should just ask the engineers at Bombardier to research new trains that can achieve maglev speeds without needing wheels for stability. 😅
this is the stupidest thing the NDP is doing ever it's now 2024 almost 2025 and when the liberals were in power they were starting to put in a new 10 lane bridge where the new tunnel will go this would have started a few years back and would have opened this year instead the NDP won the election and shut down the bridge and decided to build another tunnel which will only be 8 total lanes and won't be ready for 10 more years and when it opens it will already be out of date brilliant brand new and out of date and we have to pay for this stupidity
70 years ago my family lived in South Burnaby and during the summer we used to go swimming at Deas Island -- actually there was a sand bridge connecting the island so it was not really an island. There was a secluded sandy beach at the east end of the Deas slough which was never crowded. In those days Richmond was known as "Lulu Island" bascially rural and agricultural with few inhabitants. I think the Steveson to Ladner ferry still operated in the 1950s. There was also a ferry service between Steveson and Sidney on Vancouver Island.
Just throwing it out there. Once the new tunnel is done, can we not re-fit the old tunnel to run trains, busses, bikes etc, etc?
I've heard a lot of people mention this and I do get the idea. I would imagine the reason behind NOT doing this boils down to A) needing to service two tunnels at the same time is very expensive, especially when one is form the 1950s. and B) the old tunnel is still not properly seismically sound, which poses a great risk to the users in it.
I love and agree with almost everything you say, except Slip-lanes! Can you explain WAY more why we are UNmaking them? I love them, but could be convinced!
It's true that slip lanes are convenient and drivers love them. That's kinda the issue actually. Slip lanes only prioritize vehicle movement at a complete disregard for pedestrian and cyclist safety. Is the time lost waiting one more light cycle for a right turn arrow worth a potential life changing injury? In this context most would say no.
Since you brought it up, please do a video on passenger rail on Vancouver ISLAND!
Waiting for some big developments (or any developments) on what’s going on with that before I cover it. But rest assured I’ll get to it eventually!
Love the way you get your Crayola box out, like Bowinn Ma with her purple crayon to Metrotown, and blithely draw three technicolor connections under Burrard Inlet. You even build a heavy rail link under Stanley Park to join BC Rail with CP at Waterfront. The way the current govt operates cancelling bridges and dragging its feet on a Deas Tunnel and Second Narrows Bridge these things will never get built.
if dutch can do it we can to
This should have been built a decade ago but I hope it’s get done eventually
We need to think bigger, and not just restricted to Vancouver, we need rail service from vancouver all the way to kelowna, and build stations along the way. Also build new cities around those stations. If we can go from vancouver to kelowna using bullet train speed in about 60-90 minutes, it would be tolerable for people to use it for work commute.
Wonder If they could revitalize the old tunnel as a transit and pedestrian only tunnel 🤔 - I night not be thinking right tho, but would if they introduced tolls for passenger vehicles, exemptions for work and cargo vehicles
Not from Vancouver but so glad to see it investing so much in its transit, originally from Seattle so when visiting could take the cascades train up to Vancouver
There were plans to increase speed on Amtrak Cascades but got slowed and downgraded 😢 (which is of the essence because high speed rail probably won't happen for a while) these plans could have made it faster than or more competitive driving which is very important, as there is great demand for trains in Cascadia and Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland have all been investing heavily in rapid transit.
I've taken Cascades between Vancouver and Seattle a couple times now and I find it is much slower in Canada than in the states. It is certainly slower than driving, which is unfortunate. HSR can't come fast enough!
Love your energy btw great videos
As somebody originally from Seattle, trust proper elevated rail like vancouver is better than light rail, but each one has its purpose 🙂
Dude at 6:00 keeps saying "frasier" instead of Fraser.
Bro you could talk about anything and it would sound interesting. Really like the presentation style and the motivation behind what you're doing!
Right so, is there an anti-stop-sfu-gondola group? I'll join. People are so selfish, honestly...
I really don't buy the idea of street-level LRT working in Surrey on those very busy roads. I think Skytrain through Newton is a better idea. Maybe LRT could work in Vancouver though. There's an idea I've had that might work with your routes though. I've wondered if it might be possible to get the state of Washington to chip in some funds if the two routes going south in your plan were connected east and west, with lines going all the way to the border. That would create a transit route that would allow residents of Point Roberts to reach Blaine very conveniently and quickly, as well as letting people from Richmond and Tsawwassen to reach Surrey and White Rock. I think this could also have an affect on housing costs in Metro Van, because it would be easier for people to live farther from downtown in places that are currently not very populated, and still get around easily. People would start moving out of the denser cities and living farther out where homes are more affordable, in turn making homes in the denser areas less expensive by decreasing demand. What do you think?
This young man is doing the hard work, explaining the things people need to know. I don't think this will ever happen. It's sad that our region is the size of a postage stamp and yet doesn't have frequent high capacity electric regional rail.
Let's extend the idea of regional rail to include ferry. Passenger only ferries up and down the coast ... Waterfront stn, Victoria harbour, Nanaimo, Bowen Island, Gibson's, Powell River, Comox. Other areas run trains, Vancouver is a coastal city, let's use the water.
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO WEST COAST EXPRESS NOVEMBER 9 AND ITS GONNA BE 30 YEARS OLD NEXT YEAR
I like your channel and topics. I just like to share my feeling. I have a hard time, trying to look at your eyes, when you speak. May be you are thinking you are giving a speech on stage? I am not sure but I believe treating the camera lens as a single audience will change the way you speak, like the last, "Thank you" you said is very sincere and you look great!
A true legend was born with this video. Keep up the good work.
*cries in Northern BC*
I wish I knew what went on up there so I could talk about it haha
@TheGreaterDiscussions My crying is because there's no transit up here whatsoever and I can't drive, the interior is broadly underserved in this regard sad to say. Nothing ever really filled the vacuum BC Rail left behind.
I miss the days when BC Ferries were considered an integral part of our highway system, especially northern routes.
Great video, very interesting. I am from Toronto and I wish GO transit would expand much much faster, we are really missing out on what could be a game changing experience to regional metro. high frequency and fast. Go trains are nice, but they sure are lumbering lunks of metal. 53 Minutes to go less than 50km to Whitby from downtown all stops. Ding ding ding ding ding ding as they crawl into and out of the stations hehe. 15 minutes headways are nice. Good luck in BC!
Do you think there would be any possibility of getting the state of Washington to chip in some funds if we added a section to our rail transit network that allowed residents of Point Roberts to get on a train and go almost directly to Blaine? Say, if there was a Skytrain extension from Richmond to Tsawwassen, another from North Surrey down through Newton and to Douglas, and a connection between them from Delta to Newton for example? Maybe running trains directly from Tsawwassen to Douglas for the benefit of Point Roberts residents, if only at certain times of the day.
I don’t see there being much of a reason for a train line there. That area is already so sparsely populated that the chances of someone not driving far somewhere is very low. I do however think that US-Canada collaboration for high speed rail between Vancouver Seattle and Portland is very likely in the future. Hopefully just not too far in the future
@TheGreaterDiscussions Don't you think that area could become significantly more populated if there was transit going through it? And by extension, reduce density downtown and bring down housing costs? Seems to me it would be less about servicing the population that's there now, and more about enabling people to move out of the city and live there. The Point Roberts thing could just be a side benefit that could get Washington involved for the sake of their own residents who currently have to cross the border 4 times a day just to go to school or work in Blaine by car or bus. I can tell you right now that I'd happily live in Tsawwassen if the rent was lower than Surrey but there was still Skytrain there linking straight to downtown.
Personally, I think if there was train service out to places like Abbotsford and Chilliwack or even Hope, down to White Rock and the Peace Arch, down to Point Roberts, and up to Squamish or even Whistler or Pemberton, this would be the single most effective thing to reduce housing costs in Vancouver. Be it more Skytrain, more West Coast Express, or both. The simple ability to easily and quickly get to downtown from these much more affordable places would have a lot of people moving out of Metro Van, reducing housing demand enormously, bringing prices down. The way to make it more affordable to live in this region is to give people the means to spread out more, and get across much larger distances without having to be in traffic or on crowded busses for hours.
I love Regional Bus networks. I live in Kelowna and have family in Salmon arm. Vernon Transit runs a #90 bus from Downtown vernon to UBCO 7 days a week and vernon runs a #60 as far as enderby every day except sunday, Salmon arm runs a bus to Enderby on Wednesday only... So for under $10 I can take myself my wife and our 5 year old son to see my mom in salmon arm if we go on a wednesday or any other non sunday day if we have my mom come and pick us up in enderby. as someone who doesn't own and never plans to own or drive a car the more transit we can have the better because I like to be able to get to the places I want to go and for the most part 99% of places I can get to by transit and for the 1% of places I need to go that transit can't get me I save enough to use a taxi service to get to. Also I love trains, I'm just sad that my wife doesn't feel the same way about trains and I had trouble even convincing her that during a recent vancouver trip MORE time on skytrain with our son was better for him than less.
I Would love to come and ride on this train... I would especially love to ride if Naslund Morrison and Bertuzzi were on it with me... Can you imagine a West Coast Express rides West coast express day.
Now THATS a great idea
I was just speaking to someone about wishing our train infrastructure would be available again for passenger service. It’s a great way to travel & opens up communities to tourism & affordable travel.
Yeah as long as it helps. It’s better for vehicles to keep moving than just sitting around and idling. 🎉
No, for many reasons & cities like Kelowna said no to having tracks laid. They were thinking Kamloops (which does have rails) would be the busier city but that didn't happen. They even built hotels outside the city center. Also, there will never be a mainland highway from Vancouver to Sechelt even though it's possible, scale of the project is insanely massive & costs many tens of billions Look into the oil crisis in the 70's , oil companies had record profits due to 'scarcity' so with these profits they bought up solar companies & closed them, they also bought the railroads all over North America & dismantled them just enough it wouldn't be profitable to fix them. Such a shame, corporate greed. They even did studies & found putting more red lights & stop signs made cars burn gas = more profits for oil companies $$$. Europe is smarter & has roundabouts
I'm sure they'll widen the other crossings too, meanwhile telling you there isn't the money for a public transit project