Refurbished Street Cars A Hit In North American Cities

Do any old salvageable street cars exist in Montreal?

Photo Thomas Hawk

Hot tram! Old trolleys are the new classic cars [SLIDESHOW]

A Brookville-restored streetcar in San Francisco. While they have the look and feel of historic streetcars, the restored trolleys are equipped for modern day needs, can have air conditioning, are ADA compliant and meet modern safety standards. Photo credit: Rick Laubscher.

Restored Streetcars Now Desirable

To the delight of many, old streetcars are being restored to their former glory and put back into transit service in New Orleans, Philadelphia and Portland.

“A unique industry is flourishing in Brookville, Pa., an old lumber town about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The sounds of buzzing saws are emanating from a modern-looking warehouse on the grounds of the Brookville Equipment Corp. (BEC). Inside, workers are cutting through the body of a streetcar that’s clearly seen better days. Sitting next to it on the factory floor is an old yellow streetcar, polished to look new. It basically is. BEC is in the business of restoring old streetcars, and these days, that’s a booming business.”

“Behind many of these streetcar projects is the desire to revitalize neighborhoods. When Portland built its line in 2001, the city hoped it would encourage transit-oriented development. The line has done just that. Today, it is credited with leading to $3.5 billion in new construction, 10,000 residential units, and more than 5 million square feet of office and hotel space. Even though it’s still under construction, the New Orleans Streetcar project has already stimulated hotel renovations, new apartment construction and retail projects along Loyola Avenue. The city currently operates three streetcar lines using vintage and replica trolleys, which the city’s transit authority calls “a piece of movable New Orleans history.””

Full story.

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Complete Streets: It’s About More Than Bike Lanes

From Streetfilms

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Beach Volleyball

Montreal’s transportation party, Projet Montreal, is having a party, and you are invited. In case you can’t read this poster the address is Beach Volleyball Centre, 110 Square Gallery, off the Lachine Canal next to the Wellington bridge. Wednesday from 6 to midnight.

Look for the blue picnic table.

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AMT Needs Management Overhaul

This page at the Gazette has a bunch of stories about commuter travel in Montreal and, for the most part, it is just not a pretty sight. Train delays, overcrowding leaving people stuck at stations, ancient equipment – and not enough of it! The list goes on.

We are in the early stages of restructuring how we do transportation in the 21st century.  The management of AMT (Agence Metropolitaine de Transport)  should be as well known to the public as the faces at City Hall.  Public transportation, and how we do it, is crucial to the future of Montreal. We need people who understand trains, buses, and the alternatives. People who are passionate, have a vision, and are capable of getting things done.

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Doney Spur (7)

And so the journey ends. This last leg has no track but it’s quite easy to follow where it went. This whole adventure was a lot of fun, though it was waaay too hot on a few days. It makes a lot of sense to reuse the Doney as part of a commuter rail system, but you see developers have their hands in every niche and corner on the island. If you make a movie about a developer who simply builds the project, despite some local protest, you have something that will satisfy no one. If you make a movie about those locals stopping the developer, well, now you are going towards what is often called inspirational. Too bad most of us choose to let the developer have his way in real life.

And here is a map of the last leg.

Coming up to Alston.

The space between industrial and residential zones on the west island.

Nature always reclaims.

Trailer in the middle of the way.

Balance? or the battlefield?

Looking back.

For Sale?

Looking back from the west side of Stillview.

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Falaise Conumdrum

Article here in The Chronicle discusses Transport Quebec‘s plan to move Autoroute 20 closer to the Falaise Saint Jacques when the Turcot Interchange is rebuilt. Wouldn’t they be saving at least a couple hundred million dollars by simply reworking the 20 where it is now and allowing the Falaise to become the unique park it was meant to be? This plan to put the freeway beside it will destroy the place, reducing it to some kind of a green noise barrier wall.

Photo Courtesy The Chronicle

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Congestion Pricing

Or road pricing, or value pricing, or tolling. The basic idea is that the only realistic way to ease highway congestion in urban centers (or anywhere) is to discourage people from using the freeways. So a toll is paid usually on a per zone rate – distance traveled, time of day, being factors that can determine the exact rate when you are driving the freeway. London, Stockholm, and Singapore all claim success with their congestion pricing schemes. New York City has seriously considered a congestion pricing scheme for people who will drive in to Lower Manhattan during business hours, though the New York State Legislature recently backburnered the proposal.

There are a lot of reasons, however, to say that congestion pricing is not a good thing. Vehicles would need to be equipped with tracking devices (chalk up another one for Big Brother!) or “Smart Cards” . It certainly will be a huge negative for already overwhelmed lower wage earners. If roads become toll free after peak hours would that in itself simply extend rush hours or create even worse congestion as motorists wait for the toll free hour to begin? Does “road rage” increase as people feel even more personally abused as they have paid for something?

Still, in another 10 years congestion pricing will probably be more the norm than not in large cities. There really is not much in the way of alternatives to reducing traffic gridlock – it is widely understood that if you could do it by building wider freeways, for example, it still wouldn’t work as more people would decide to drive. Car pooling lanes and public transportation, while cheap and effective, have not curbed the demands of the exponential growth of new motorists in recent decades. And the number of fossil fuel burning vehicles on the road needs to be significantly diminished.

As I have said before, if you want to get downtown faster and with less stress, take the train.

London Congestion Charge

New York City Congestion Pricing

Singapore Congestion Pricing

Stockholm Congestion Pricing

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Donny Spur Revisited

In February I wrote about last summer’s walk along the Donny Spur. And on Monday The Gazette ran an article about some reactions to Mayor Tremblay’s  8 billion over 20 years  transportation plan. Well, once again, it seems that the people who actually care about these issues may just have a lot more insight into the possibilities than the powers that be when it comes to drawing up a plan. Read here.

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The Plan

Here is the rendition that has been making the rounds as supplied by Transport Quebec.

It sure looks nice and green and all that and the implication is that the current version of Autoroute 20 will be removed and replaced by trees and lawns, and that there will be some extending of the Falaise Saint Jacques which would eliminate Pullman street. Not bad! Of course I would prefer to see the highway as far from the Falaise as possible, as in where it is now, but they obviously have made the change to enable traffic to continue to flow during most of the construction. I will discuss the other possible options on that in a future post.

And for now, some fearless critiques and comments on The Plan.

1) In this rendition Notre Dame street looks like a series of locks to be traversed but are probably overpasses. Could be a major traffic issue if Notre Dame is to be blocked for any length of time. It currently serves as a short cut and “feeder” to the 20 especially during rush hours. It is also the closest thing to a rush hour bus lane the STM uses. The 211/221(rush hour version) buses, along with commuter trains, are the main public transportation to the West Island.

2) Looks like the old train route through Saint Henri will remain intact with some landscaping around the Jaztex et Austres building and the soon to be deserted 2M Ressources. Rumor has it that a high speed train from PET International to downtown may go through there one day. Now there are residents in this area who will be very inconvenienced during construction. I wonder if a bike/pedestrian overpass would work along there?

3) Does not look like any special links for the Glen Yards Superhospital is included here (though construction of the hospital and the interchange will be simultaneous at some point) . And Saint Jacques will go over the lead road with a  new ramp for Saint Remi to connect NDG and Saint Henri. I wonder if all these streets leading into or near the interchange will ever be closed simultaneously? Have to be careful with those logistics!

4) Rue De L’Eglise will be quite different. If they want to build alongside the current elevated line they will have to take some buildings out and it all may add to the worst traffic nightmare imaginable for Cote Saint Paul, especially as the La Verendrye ramp is going to be completely changed, let alone probable blockages at the Saint Remi tunnel.

5) Would be nice to see the Angrignon overpass as it will look in the future along with the whole of Turcot Yards. The west end of Turcot will surely be extremely busy and it would be interesting to see the logistical plan for dealing with that. Major access points to the 20 for NDG and Lasalle.

6) They say that by building the new interchange on the ground they can maintain traffic flow. Perhaps for the first few years things will run smoothly, but how on earth are they going to connect Decarie Expressway and the new Turcot Interchange without there being major stoppages in traffic? They will have to lower the “mouth” of decarie to meet the new ramps, close off and demolish the old ramps, and build the new lanes towards each other. Going to be very tricky to say the least. And the Ville Marie will present the same problem!

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Bicycle Ramps

Ok, it’s crazy. but you know, the way they seem to have planned the new Turcot Interchange I can’t help but wonder if a few of the existing ramps could be used as a bicycle interchange/paths? With no motor traffic they would last forever!

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Genestho

Great local photoblog featuring the work of Daniel Seguin!

Click here for more.

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From The Bus

Short series taken from the back window of a westbound 211.

 

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