Missing Links: Short-Sighted Transit Planning

happy 2023 everyone every New Year tons of new Transit projects open around the world but far too often they still have a particularly questionable feature the missing link as I'll call it such missing links seem to happen when the benefits of connectivity and the costs of future construction are underestimated so I'm missing links are bad and some examples that have bothered me a lot lately before I talk about what makes missing links so bad I should probably talk about what missing links actually are at least for this video the type of missing links I'm talking about is a type of predicament you see very often with new Transit lines but there are certainly all kinds of different missing links which generalize to a situation where Transportation network is missing a short segment that would make it massively more connected and useful in today's video I won't really be talking about situations and transportation networks where the creation of a new line means that there is a short unfilled Gap in the network but this is a type of missing link for example in Montreal the ram creates a new Missing Link Between the end of the orange Lion and the Rems main line there's probably an argument to be made here that line should generally be extended to places where they can be intercepted in the future by Future lines especially in this case because pothrank did have rail service before it just wasn't all that great instead I'll be talking about these situate Asian today where a new Transit line or extension is opened that goes almost all the way to a major Hub or interchange point but stops just short what's somewhat interesting about this phenomenon is that sort of like missed connections which are where two Transit lights cross but don't actually connect they actually feel more common in big dense networks than in smaller networks which is kind of strange because we would expect big networks to sort of have it together with regard to connectivity I think the reason this happens is because it's just easier to de-prioritize individual connections when your system has a lot of them that's not to say it doesn't ever happen in small systems though I talked in a recent video up here about Guadalajara's rail system and their fourth metro line I didn't actually believe this was the case when I made the video it won't be connected to the rest of their Rail lines instead people traveling between one set of Rail lines and the new rail line will need to take a brt bus which isn't great the issue here seems obvious but it actually does have many elements beyond the immediate map related Trust situation clearly this line should extend one centimeter further so it can connect to other lines right for one the least expensive time to build any Missing Link is when you're building the rest of the line part of this is obvious because slightly expanding or creating a new small Construction contract is easier than ramping up a whole new project to fill a missing link this is because there are significant startup costs that have to be replicated when you create a new project rather than when you expand an existing one this is classic economies of scale but there's also a Time cost in virtually every country around the world even countries that build Transit affordably the price for building Transit is still going to be going up which means the cheapest time to build the transit is today and as interchange or Hub stations the kinds that would be included in a missing link are more complicated than others the effect of inflated costs are probably going to hit them even more than other stations terminals also tend to have additional cost versus regular stations and so if you create a missing link type scenario where you have a terminal that's in near a major Hub but not at it you often end up having to replicate that terminal Arrangement again at the next extension which means you have a redundant unnecessary terminal Midway along the line that you spent all kinds of money on for additional equipment rooms break rooms and other facilities that you don't typically need on a non-terminal station just because you didn't extend the line for two a short Gap is often perceived as not being a big deal and something that's unlikely to prevent people who really want to make a trip for making it that can seem reasonable because one kilometer is the typical distance between Metro stations and in a car well one kilometer is just one or two minutes of driving but outside of a car especially if the weather is bad or you have mobility issues or if you have a suitcase or kids one kilometer can be a real hike the value of a connected network is huge and often the types of trips that get made when new connections are made in a network are totally unpredictable there are so many Transit lines around the world from the Jubilee line to the rer a that were built in part to relieve an existing service but also provided convenient connections of their own and once they opened well they were way more crowded than expected I think the reality of this is that that's just normal transportation and land use are chaotic and complicated and it's very hard to predict the type of trips that people will make if you provide a new convenient connection what is clear is that these trips almost always do happen and so we should plan for them and take advantage of them by providing a more connected Network especially when it means a small additional marginal cost such as with a missing link that's in part because getting people close and then getting people there is not the same thing a byproduct of Transit not working like cars is that people don't have a local Road option to get to their final destination if the so-called Expressway doesn't go the whole way there Transit Riders want to be dropped off at their final destination not a 10 minute walk away and you can really see this in places like Auckland where when they move their rail terminal downtown from the edge of downtown to the city center itself ridership went up massively because of that additional location convenience and despite the fact that the old terminal wasn't really that far from the city center now if you're wondering this is a pretty Global phenomenon it's not just a North American thing the initial section of the DLR for example extended to Tower Gateway rather than the much larger Hub of bank which it did get extended to five years later weakening the connectivity between the DLR and the tube for roughly the first half decade of the system's operation even worse the final design of the connection to bank meant that Tower Gateway would become a reverse branch which isn't great and there are all kinds of other examples from Sydney Metro not extending about two kilometers further from Rouse Hill to connect with the Sydney trains line that's just to the west to various points on the Berlin ubon and more I'd love to hear your examples down in the comments as well you're probably wondering what examples were bothering me so let's talk about those examples line six is a new tram line in Toronto that runs along Finch Avenue from Finch West subway station over to Humber College on highway 27. now clearly it's good that the line isn't just ending at some random Suburban intersection and rather at a college a major trip generator and a good counterweight at the end of the line but a few kilometers to the south of Humber College is the major Woodbine Redevelopment site and a future Regional Rail station which has the potential to be a much larger trip generator in the future now I have been asked before why extend to Woodbine if there's nothing there well first there isn't going to be nothing there for long but it's also important to remember that Woodbine is a perfect example of a connectivity station the local area is less important than all of the connections the station opens up in this case all of the connections along the Western Regional Rail line to places like Brampton Mississauga the airport and Western Toronto and this also works in the reverse way for residents of Brampton or Liberty Village or other parts of central Toronto or people living along lines that Connect into this Regional Rail Line This Could Be the fastest way to get to jobs and education at Humber College as well as the adjacent hospital this example is even better because the cost and complexity of building disconnection Now is really low it would be built along a wide Suburban Street where there isn't all that much right now but in the future when more development happens it's going to get more complicated and more expensive a few hours away in Montreal there was a surprisingly similar situation involving a regional rail line an airport and a missing Lake the ram is currently being built with one Southern leg and three to the north one of which ends at Montreal Trudeau International Airport now the airport already does technically have a train station but it's not one that you can easily or comfortably walk to and there isn't a people mover to make the connection super convenient there are buses but they aren't great so extending the Ram from its underground station right under the airport terminals all the way down to the train station at Dorval is obvious but it's not happening despite lobbying at least for now it seems now this isn't necessarily surprising the airport link itself was almost on the Rocks because of the global aviation industry being rocked by covet but it's really frustrating Missing Link because it has so much potential doorbell station serves a few Intercity and a few Regional trains really commuter trains every day right now so it's not exactly a metro station but it has crazy potential it already has multiple tracks and platforms an auto route or Highway connection for buses and tons of parking that could be redeveloped into awesome Transit oriented development at the same time it feels like a generally wise rule of thumb not to terminate Rail lines Underground when there's a suitable surface Terminus nearby not only is extending an underground line more complicated and more expensive and again this is something that will increase a lot in the future as development happens because of the additional connectivity but the lack of connection onwards to an interchange station especially one where you could be above ground really hurts the future case for further extensions because the connectivity of that station will be reduced and the cost of getting there will be much higher if connected this station would benefit a ton from the rim benefiting the airport providing convenient connections for people who don't want to actually go onto the airport grounds allowing for shopping development that would allow people making long connections to leave the direct airport area and come down to shop similar to in Vancouver as well as just nudging the other Railways to up their service it's also the perfect layup for a new remline which could be built along the a20 and the train tracks elevated easily inexpensively towards places like Lachine Montreal West and LaSalle currently Rapid Transit deserts now it isn't all bad the Ontario line in Toronto is a great example of kicking misconnections to the curb the original relief line plan would have dead ended the subway in downtown Toronto making any future extension expensive and complicated and painful but the Ontario line continues a few kilometers and stations West nabbing some key neighborhood connectivity connecting with some streetcars and ending above ground next to a major neighborhood and at a major future intertrain station with go Regional Rail so it can be done allowing a missing link like we were planning though can have really bad consequences look at Boston for example where the lack of a connection between the blue line and the red line downtown has hurt Regional connectivity for decades and now a short extension with just a single set of platforms is set to cost almost a billion dollars Thirty or 50 years ago that connection could have been made much more easily but as with any misconnection the next best time is now thanks for watching foreign [Music]

Channel: RMTransit

Views: 93,496

Keywords: transit, transportation, rail, railway, railfan, public transit, public transport, public transportation, train, subway, metro, underground, rail transport, urban planning

Id: s-EGALK21x4

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 03 2023