October 5, 2012

Evergreen Line: Design of the new stations

VancityBuzz extensively features the route and design of the stations along the Evergreen Line:

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The era of high design and architectural commissions for individual stations began and ended with the Millennium Line – each station costing about $10 million.  In the era of private-public partnerships, such commitment is considered an unaffordable extravagance.

The station designs look competent and serviceable, and modestly consistent with the look of the other rapid-transit lines:

At least they look spacious enough – unlike the Canada Line stations – to handle growth in demand.

More pics and background here.

 

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  1. Loughheed Town Centre: how big is that park and ride? How many Jakriborgs is that? http://capntransit.blogspot.ca/2012/08/how-many-jakriborgs-is-that.html How many Piscataquis Villages? http://marketurbanism.com/2012/01/27/really-narrow-streets-project-in-the-planning-stages-in-maine/

    Translink is cash-strapped and is supposed to be getting smart about using its land bank. Why build a parking lot where you could build a six-story narrow-streeted town? A customer is a customer whether they drove there or live there.

  2. There is no park and ride at Lougheed.
    There’s a bus loop.
    The adjacent parking is the customer parkiong lot for the Sears Clearance Store.

  3. . . . “such commitment is considered an unaffordable extravagance.” referring to Evergreen in toto: don’t be surprised if this thing gets buried in its own tunnel . . .

  4. I think you are being too harsh on the canada line/P3 and perhaps too generous of praise for m-line stations. Some on the underground stations are planned to be enveloped by future buildings, anyway (VCC, King Ed). Looking at the above drawings, I see little difference between platforms at burquitlam station versus Sapperton station on the M-line. IIRC, the bicycle/windmill art work at sapperton has been disconnected for the past ~10 yrs.

    I would prefer my stations to have a functional look that won’t date. Art for pax can always be added later by different agencies or levels of government, like what was done for the Bienniale. The seattle LRT/bus tunnel looks dated @ the late 1980s/early 90s due to the PoMo lights and details that they included, IMO. Even Busby’s Brentwood station looks grand from a distance but must different at street level, and I wonder how the design would stand up to the test of time.

  5. Though I love these renderings a lot, I can only ponder the cost by translink to employ an artist to draw detailed illustrations of an automobile and vivid trees. If Translink were a private company, it would not shell out safely $200 a day for no less than 2 months to employ an artist to generate 14 beautiful, though expensive illustrations.

    Though I understand that this was decided before the current belt tightening, will this be a lesson learnt that we would fare better with better transit than a few pictures.

    Now, regarding the renderings, I hope that through the Award winning Planning in Port Moody, they will initiate TOD around particularly lacking stations (eg Ioco & Pt Moody) and at Coquitlam Central.

    I see that the rendering at Burquitlam shows the train going to VCC. That means that the Millennium line would be going from waterfront to Douglas college, the Evergreen Line from Douglas College to VCC and the Expo Line to Surrey from Waterfront. And why no train time counters like the ones on the Canada Line? But still, it’s 5 years away… if only we had chosen LRT.

    1. What’s unusual about the renderings? Every private condo project in the region does at least three or four renderings, sometimes more, on projects with much smaller capital investments. This is a major project and TransLink is required to go to the public for consultation throughout the process, so of course they need renderings. Hardly an extravagance.

    2. Also, forgot to put this in the other post, but I don’t believe the tracks allow for the Millennium line to run Waterfront to Coquitlam very easily. Last I heard there were plans for Evergreen Line to run VCC-Douglas, then Expo line Waterfront to Surrey, and a small shuttle train from Lougheed to Columbia, but at this point I don’t know if that’s finalized.

      1. I think the diagram that Roger gives shows it more correctly. The M. Line would be from Waterfront to VCC.

        Regarding the Renderings: What I’m dis-satisfied about is how much detail was put into drawing automobiles, skies, buildings and trees. With the Canada Line Renderings, only people and the stations are shown, with miminal detail for cars and skies. These renderings must have cost the public at least $50,000 (correct me if I’m wrong).

        This isn’t a major issue, but it’s still a point. (I know I shouldn’t talk about skies and trees this much)

  6. To be honest, I’m pleasantly surprised by this. I had expected the stations to be more cookie cutter, but they have some individuality, especially Ioco and Port Moody given their special situations, but also Douglas College. They also look quite roomy and bright, so all around not bad for an era of Translink spending cuts.

    On the other hand, I’m disappointed they still chose to only have one entrance/exit in most of the stations. It appears Ioco has two, which is good given the location on what is basically a highway that pedestrians ought not to have to cross, but the other stations could also benefit with exits in two directions, especially Douglas College, which has an exit that actually points away from the namesake of the station.

  7. One thing I thought might be a smart move would to build a pedestrian overpass across the tracks at Port Moody Station to allow access from Murray Street. As of now you can only access the station from Saint John’s street. Across the tracks, Murray street has a public park, pool, restaurants amenities, and lots of current and future condo construction – a relatively cheap overpass could allow access to the evergreen line. I emailed the evergreen line planning department about this, but (not surprisingly) they said it wasn’t in their budget and there are already two overpasses nearby. Well, neither are really close enough to provide the convenience needed to access the station from Murray Street.
    According to the Mayor of Port Moody, a pedestrian overpass was actually one of the conditions of acceptance for the evergreen line, but I think they didn’t have to much bargaining power to begin with, so it proceeded without one. Regardless, there is certainly a case to turn this waterfront street next to rapid transit in the heart of the city into something more than a route for traffic and a place for vacant light industrial buildings.

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