transit proposition

There is a news article that I heard about in the last day or two concerning a redevelopment of Jean Talon street between Cavendish and Parc with a request for ideas which could include a tram, a BRT or simply improving bus service. At the moment there is a part of a train yard blocking Jean Talon from connecting to Cavendish, but the redevelopment will have those two join.

One critic I heard said that putting in a tram was a bad idea unless a tram network was put in. So this got me to thinking about what kind of network I would do if I was the head planner and decision maker.

I couldn't easily get G-maps to draw this out, but my suggestion is to have a very tall figure eight shape, having two rectangles joined where the center line is Jean Talon. On the north rectangle the tram would go east on Jean-Talon and then would go north on Acadie and then west on Cote-Vertu, and then south on Alexis-Nihon to join up with the extended Jean-Talon. That is a CCW route, but it would be double-tracked to have bi-directional trams. All of the trams on this route would be fully coloured blue.

The south side of the rectangle, with trams heading east on Jean Talon would turn south on Parc and then west on Van Horne all the way to Cavendish, and then north on Cavendish to rejoin the Jean Talon extension. All of the trams on this route would be fully coloured yellow. As with the north loop, this loop would also be double tracked to allow for CCW and CW travel.

One of the youtube channels I follow is from Reece who talks a lot about transit. He just recently posted a video about what makes Berlin tram good compared to Toronto bad. His video and the news article are the impetus for this blog post. I would encourage the development of this tram to take all of the suggestions Reece makes for having a good tram network.

Things that would make this tram network good:

• modern tram trains with LCD info screens prominent inside, free wifi, seating similar to the REM with both heating and air conditioning
• big distances between stops to allow for higher speeds and with priority at intersections that match the speed they are doing, and wide curves at the six corners so speed doesn't need to be reduced too much
• rain protected stations with digital schedule screens showing the next time (and time after) of the blue and/or yellow line, that allow for level boarding onto the tram, and are easily visible from a distance like the way metro stations are
• At tram stations that are also metro or REM stations, have covered pedestrian, including underground if needed, to get from the tram to the station
• During the least busy times of day have trams on each side run every half hour which means on Jean-Talon it would be every fifteen minutes with alternating blue and yellow trams. At medium service have them run every 20 minutes on the loop, so every 10 minutes on Jean Talon, and at peak have a 12 minute loop, so a tram appears every 6 minutes on Jean Talon
• focus on high performance in terms of being on time relative to the digital signs

One additional point Reece makes is instead of buying a bulk order of tram cars all at once, to buy them in smaller groups, over time, and even from different manufacturers. I suppose this could be done by doing the project in phases:

1. Phase 1 is to do just Jean Talon and order maybe 10 cars that have driver cabs on both ends so that it can simply go east and west without an end loop
2. Phase 2 is one of the two loops, say the north one, that while the tracks and stations are being built, order 10 more cars, these ones with the driver cab only on one side since this will be a loop
3. Phase 3 is the other of the two loops, say the south one, and again while tracks and stations are being built, order 10 more cars
4. Phase 4 perhaps a further expansion in any direction that makes use of the double cab ended tram cars ordered in phase 1 as these would not be part of a loop, and order 10 more tram cars single cab to replace the ones in phase 1 that are now used for the extension

I say 10 cars at a time in my example above, what I mean is if they are 3,4,5,6 or 7 tram car sets, that number of them, and it could be 10 is not the right number; a more detailed analysis would be needed to decide on the size of each tram and the number of them needed for their portion of the network.

And of course, if there is any TOD that can be developed at any tram stop, all the better.