Barnaby
Senior Member
I don't expect TransEd to be operating the line for much longer.
Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton
- Thread starter Daveography
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Avenuer
Senior Member
You think the City coudl somehow terminate the P3 agreement? Who would take it over then, the City? And be on the hook for the years of operating costs ahead?
Yegpeople
New Member
There is no other option city is locked in 30 year operating agreement with transed and also city is negotiating west line operations with them now
J_gordo
Active Member
I don’t get why transed would want to leave the operating agreement as they are finally starting to recoup the costs of construction. And I don’t see why the city would want them removed due to the administrative costs of finding a new operating partner and removing transed.
CplKlinger
Senior Member
IIRC if TransEd were removed as operator, they would need to be paid out the balance of their contract.
whattheheck
Active Member
Maybe, and hear me out now, the weather related delays are not the fault of TransEd, but instead the result of a bad move by city hall in choosing a low floor slow moving tram for mass transit operations in a city with severe winter weather conditions.
The high floor system does not see such issues. The trains move faster, the momentum which then pushes the snow out of the way. A slow floor system does not have that momentum.
And don't go 'but but but in Europe they have low floor'. Sorry, no comparison. We endure cold CANADIAN prairie conditions. Our winters are distinctly different from northern Europe. (Of course most of the city boosters on this forum will roll your eyes at my comment. But, I am right.)
The high floor system does not see such issues. The trains move faster, the momentum which then pushes the snow out of the way. A slow floor system does not have that momentum.
And don't go 'but but but in Europe they have low floor'. Sorry, no comparison. We endure cold CANADIAN prairie conditions. Our winters are distinctly different from northern Europe. (Of course most of the city boosters on this forum will roll your eyes at my comment. But, I am right.)
JuliallThat
Active Member
If you wanted a more fair comparison they have an extensive tram system in Moscow, but I don't know anything about their routing or operations. Would be worth digging into to see what they do differently though.
EdwardEdm
Active Member
Sorry, this is just a bit nitpicky on my behalf. Would by TransEd not operating it also mean TransEd is longer maintaining it as well?
degrandprix
Active Member
I think its more likely that the high-floor system, which has been in operation for 48 years, has all the bugs worked out already vs the low floor which has been only operating for 2 years.
EdwardEdm
Active Member
If this is in response to the post regarding TransEd's future of operating the VLSE, it's worth noting I don't think any decision like that would suddenly occur during the middle of the Christmas break after one significant incident. They're probably not related.
If this is just a comment in general, I partially agree, but I see it as being partially the City's fault for specing embedded track, and what might amount to restriction on efficient snow removal. We don't know if TransEd had chosen the best track materials they could have possibly selected (better costs more $$$$, and so less profit presumably) of if they had an adequate Winter Weather Strategy and if they followed it.
I remember how the U2's couldn't handle soft powdery snow and so ETS had to run trains at reduced speeds when that powdery snow was present and being kicked up by the trains momentum, and then sucked inside the cars and shorting out the traction motors.
Anyways...
The VLSE certainly does see high enough speeds that snow gets kicked up by it's momentum. The cars also have a plow-like design on the coupler cover to knock down and defect snow.
Looking at the weather history leading up to the issues on December 27 and 28th, 4.2mm of precipitation fell on the 26th starting at 15:00. Another 2.5mm fell on the 27th ending at 8:00. Environment Canada measured a snow depth change of 15cm from the 26 to the 27th. I assume this is only checked once per day, and likely after 8:00, and before 15:00. I'm less worried about the snow that fell on the 26th, which would have been about 9.4cm as trains passing would have kept that down. I don't see however that the snow that fell overnight of 5.6cm would have been enough by itself to prevent train operations. Indeed, for the periods that trains were not running (roughly 130AM until 5AM) there would have only been about 4cm of snow accumulated.
Although I didn't get out to the the VLSE until yesterday afternoon, I was surprised how much snow was still around. I honestly thought that with upwards of 2 days on portions of the line with no trains that the trackway would have been significantly cleared.
EdwardEdm
Active Member
There absolutely is a way out. It's very well detailed in the Project Agreement, Schedule 27.
While I have no idea what is happen or not happening with TransEd being a candidate to run the VLW, I will say this:
Alstom had the opportunity to negotiate a sole source contract for VLW LRV's. Well, we're getting Rotem LRV's now so clearly that negotiation didn't go well.
In support of TransEd, I will note that DBRS Morningstar upgraded their credit rating and in particular had good things to say about their FME which includes their service performance metrics, achieving over 99% of their final monthly entitlement. I'm sure their FME is going to take a beating in December however.
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IanO
Superstar
How great would it have been to have had TransEd/Marigold/COE partner with a sculptor and put a snow train that's lit up along the 102-103st unusable block from say Nov-Feb.
Something, anything to improve the look/feel.
Something, anything to improve the look/feel.
The_Cat
Senior Member
J_gordo
Active Member
All of the steel should be up on both stations by the end of Q1, glass installation and decking to follow.
Edmcowboy11
Senior Member
So by the looks of it the station platforms will be two separate platforms instead of one main platform in the middle. I wonder if they're going to be putting some sort of fencing between the tracks to stop people from Crossing from one platform to the other over the tracks.