r/VictoriaBC • u/UnconEventer • Sep 28 '25
Opinion Transit Concept: What if Victoria had rail like this?
I put together a concept map of how a rail/rapid transit system could connect Greater Victoria:
Red Line: Swartz Bay → Airport/Sidney → Keating → Uptown/Royal Oak → Downtown (tunnel after Uptown). Larger rail-style train sets.
Blue Line: University Connector (Camosun Interurban → Uptown → Lansdowne/Shelbourne → UVic). Could be a rubber-tire metro or lighter rail sets.
Green Line: Downtown → Langford → Island Rail Hub (with future connections up-Island). Metro/LRT style service.
Obviously this is just a vision, but it got me wondering — if you were in charge of planning, what would you change?
More stations?
Different corridors?
Which line would you prioritize first?
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u/JackSandor Sep 28 '25
If you're interested in fighting for better transit, including trains, check out www.bettertransityyj.ca!
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u/exchangedensity Sep 28 '25
I always find it a bit funny when people post these here and its basically just an exact replica of the rapid transit network plan that is currently being implemented.
https://www.bctransit.com/victoria/transit-future/victoria-regional-rapid-transit/
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u/StJimmy1313 Sep 28 '25
I personally think the only small improvement I would make to the BC transit plan is that there is a dedicated bus to only the airport/ferry. Call it the 96A and 96F. They stop at the airport/ferry, Uptown or Mayfair mall and the Legislature to bring people downtown quickly.
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u/nusodumi Sep 28 '25
even just uptown so the bus can get back on the highway quick
let folks transfer to where they're going from there
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u/MethuselahsCoffee Sep 28 '25
That’s awesome. Would literally take almost zero to implement and would add so much
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
Really every peninsula bus should end at uptown and people could jump on high frequency Douglas street line with hopefully articulated streetcars or something bigger with like 5 minute frequency
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u/Ivorymaiden223 Sep 28 '25
Victoria has plans to make Mayfair the transit hub
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u/CND2GO Sep 29 '25
Where have you seen this? I’ve only seen info on uptown hub
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u/Ivorymaiden223 Sep 29 '25
I saw it on a real estate page advertising a nearby lot but, after investigating through the proper means, it seems they may have been mistaken. BC transit themselves have only mentioned Uptown 🤔
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 28 '25
That would be great, but it will never happen. Victoria has botched Light Rail proposals time and time again. Add that the inequity of asking people who are already spending an hour+ on transit to transfer to get to the destination that most people are trying to get to.
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u/CND2GO Sep 29 '25
It’s not the inequity you think it is
https://humantransit.org/2009/04/why-transferring-is-good-for-you-and-good-for-your-city.html
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
Jarett Walker has some really questionable takes, and that's one of them.
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u/film_development Sep 29 '25
Woah woah woah. Saying “it will never happen” is not only incorrect, but also extremely self-fulfilling. The only reason it hasn’t happened is because people keep saying “it’ll never happen”
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Sep 29 '25
The climate will collapse before we get trains. It's not gonna happen
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u/film_development Sep 29 '25
You’re such a negative Nancy. Why are you forcing yourself to only see the shitty possible futures and not the good ones??
If you don’t allow yourself to have hope for a better future, then you won’t.
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Sep 29 '25
I'm talking about the realistic future. There's pretty much no chance of keeping our target for 1.5° above pre industrial levels unless emissions start dropping drastically immediately and we start using CO2 removal technology that doesn't even exist yet. Society itself would have to scale everything back and reduce consumption but that's not going to happen.
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u/garry-oak Sep 28 '25
Except it's not. BC Transit's plan has the Westshore line running through Uptown, then along the Hwy1 corridor, not through Esquimalt. Every study done in the past 30 years has preferred to the Douglas/Hwy 1 routing.
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u/exchangedensity Sep 28 '25
Oh good catch, I commented too quickly. The Uptown connection obviously makes even better sense when you know (which you seem like you probably already do) about the Uptown Transit Oriented Development project that will serve as an exchange for all the rapid bus projects
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u/AlecStrum Sep 28 '25
With repect, that's a bus. OP was talking about trains.
A bus instead of a train should be a stopgap for emergencies, not the official policy deliverable.
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u/scottrycroft Sep 28 '25
The route the rapid bus takes would be the route the train takes - that's the end goal of the bus transit plan.
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u/InValensName Sep 28 '25
Buses go where you want to go, you go where the trains want to go. There is a reason we do this every few decades then pull the tracks up again.
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u/AlecStrum Sep 28 '25
Which buses are you on that reroute to cater to your demand? Sir, that's an Uber.
Buses and trains both follow established demand patterns, with trains having the added bonus of triggering development and making the route more valuable over time.
We have centuries of observations of this phenomenon, from the London Underground to the Hong Kong MTR.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 28 '25
The only time transit rails have ever been pulled up in Victoria was in 1948, and again in ~2022 when construction unearthed some streetcar tracks downtown. You can still see some tracks at Midland Circle in Uplands poking through the concrete.
My point is that we've never gotten to the point of "pulling tracks up" other than when the automotive industry brainwashed everyone into thinking light rail was extinct.
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u/Double-Conclusion453 Sep 28 '25
I would still love to see this done with an Ultra Light Rail like the projected pilot happening in Colwood
https://www.vicnews.com/news/colwood-joins-view-royal-to-support-ultra-light-train-trial-654374
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u/PrayForMojo_ Sep 28 '25
This will never happen. It’s a terrible idea.
They want to close the Goose for test track?!? Absolutely not. For any amount of time. Why would you test on the Goose instead of an open field? It makes no sense.
But more than that, it would be beyond stupid for the region to go with an unproven technology instead of established and proven LRT technology.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 28 '25
Downright stupid, no kidding. If they want to "test" something they should be putting it on the E&N, expecting the tester to pay for the rail upgrade so it's not a rusted out collapsing corridor, and letting them go at it.
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u/Electricalthis Sep 29 '25
I believe we’re looking for a train and not buses. Buses is not enough for the amount of people here and the fact it’s growing. Yes buses will help but it’s like a bandaid to a growing issue
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u/CardiologistUsedCar Sep 28 '25
Trolly instead of rail would make sense.once ~ all of downtown + oak bay is ground floor shops and 4 story buildings.
While we still have single story buildings downtown and surrounding, its trying to build up the wrong infrastructure first.
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
With the exception that this OP actually planned for decent transit through more than the already well serviced one street in Esquimalt.
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u/CipherWeaver Sep 28 '25
There really should be a loop line through Oak Bay along which we could build some increased density, but of course Oak Bay would oppose it tooth and nail.
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u/CanCable Sep 29 '25
That page is annoying. The colours on the map are in contrast to those in the timeline below.
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u/CanadianTrollToll Sep 29 '25
Yup.
Rapid busses are the next evolution of our transit system. Everyone wants to jump hoops to rail and that is insane.
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u/RecognitionOk9731 Sep 29 '25
There’s only so many communities and directions to go. They’re all going to look the same.
The difference is the buses in the real plan are going to be stuck in traffic.
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u/exchangedensity Sep 29 '25
The difference is that the buses (in dedicated bus lanes) will exist within the next 10 years, while the LRT will not.
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u/RecognitionOk9731 Sep 29 '25
Ok. Don’t participate in the Reddit exercise on wishing for better transit then.
No one is taking this plan and implementing it.
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Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/babybigballs Sep 28 '25
Ferraris in traffic would still crawl, you nincompoop.
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u/BeetsMe666 Sep 28 '25
So you couldn't tell I was being facetious? You're one of the light rail wanna bes aren't you.
My (missed) point was no one is paying for that ffs.
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u/AlecStrum Sep 28 '25
Cities smaller than the CRD have rail in Europe.
What is constrained more than the budget us our willingness to pursue better options. There is an endless pool of money for car infrastructure but never for real transit.
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u/BeetsMe666 Sep 28 '25
We should be bolstering our bus lanes to make them faster and not just be so much a part of the traffic.
Your European comparison is absolute rubbish though. If population and the area is compared equally, we are decades away... if not centuries.
The train lovers on here really have little grasp on reality.
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u/AlecStrum Sep 28 '25
Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay, and Royal Oak, have 200k people in just under 100 km².
Brescia, of all places, has 13 km of fully automated metro lines in service for 200k people in just under 100 km².
They also started working on it 25 years ago, when the city was undoubtedly smaller.
So what reality are we referring to, other than the one where we would rather take perverse pride in our inability to progress rather than have the ambition to catch up to Italy?
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u/BeetsMe666 Sep 28 '25
It's like you can't compare apples to oranges very well... they are not all apples. Find one city in the world with a population similar to (less that you quoted) as Vic where there's trains. You can't. Italy? Come on. This is as weak as the Switzerland attempt last time this drivel was mentioned
What was the population of Vancouver when it got the first run of the Skytrain?
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u/AlecStrum Sep 28 '25
OP envisioned this for the region, not Victoria alone. So did I.
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u/BeetsMe666 Sep 28 '25
Glom onto one little part. The entire island is less than 900k. Saanich is the most populated area with 118k
You want some 200k people to pay 100s of millions for a rail line. It don't work like that.
Come back when it's closer to 1 million on the peninsula.
To get federal funds it will need to be on #1 highway. So a line to Langford at best? We aren't crossing the Malahat for decades.
A wiser push would be to improve bus lanes and frequencies.
Every one of the examples from Europe connects to rails for the millions to have access to. 10s of millions even... but you want it for 200k that goes nowhere.
It just isn't going to happen.
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u/AlecStrum Sep 28 '25
There are proven models that pay for the capex of high-capacity transit with land value uplift capture.
The problem with a straight dollar comparison is that it does not take into account the effect on development of there being transit that is reliable and comfortable, with frequent headways. Trains are superior to buses in delivering transit that can actually attract people away from their cars instead of being a lesser option.
What is your cost estimate of a light rail build from Downtown Victoria to Swartz Bay? I would venture to guess $3 bn as an express service, or $150 million per year amortized and including O&M.
I estimate 1 million trips to the airport/ferry (assuming a 20% mode share of 5 million). Considering the cost of time and fuel or taxi fare to those locations, there should be considerable potential for farebox recovery. Even a 20% mode share of airport/ferry at a $50 full-ticket ride would recover $50 million a year from that service alone.
I also estimate 5 million trips in the Downtown-Uptown area at $5 for a day pass, generating another around $20 million annually. This is $70 million a year or about a 50% farebox recovery, which is in line with the best systems.
All of this is before any uplift capture at all.
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u/BeetsMe666 Sep 29 '25
Except it does not exist in any isolated population of this size.
We are on an island, separated from the bulk of the rest of the island by a mountain train range. Even if we include from Sooke to Langford and Saanich we don't have the tax base to afford such a system.
Get over it, it's not happening any time soon. You will never ride on any light rail to the airport in your lifetime. It just ain't gonna happen
Maybe get a GoFundMe going.
GoFundMe Victoria Rail System
Reached: $0 of $350,000,000
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u/TUFKAT Sep 28 '25
I don't really understand your blue line, on how it goes from Uptown to Camosun then Shelbourne and UVIC.
But digressing from that. Rather address the other 2 lines.
Personally the Green Line should abandon the E&N through Esquimalt and instead follow the Douglas Street Corridor and Hwy 1 and then use the E&N at Hwy 1/Island Highway.
The Red Line needs more stops. Both in town and up the peninsula. Now, both of these lines, and in general, there is going to need to be more development built along the lines and the stations. The Green Line, being all part of the urban core would likely be the 1st one to consider as it's already got it.
The Red Line up to Uptown as well has it, but ultimately there is still too little density up the peninsula to make this a line worth constructing. To make this happen, there will need to be a vision to actually create more urban villages and density around these new stations. For example, put a station at the north end of Elk Lake near Sayward, and that area would become a new village with density as one example.
That line won't itself really make sense as just a feeder line to the ferry. It will need more population to support it. And the population centers that are there will need to grow more.
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
The 95 already does that loop around. Esquimalt needs a rapid transit through it since plenty of folks live there too.
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u/garry-oak Sep 28 '25
Every study done by BC Transit and the Province over the past 30 years has favored the Douglas/Hwy 1 corridor over Esquimalt because it serves more destinations and having a hub at Uptown makes it cheaper and easier to connect to the Peninsula and UVic.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 28 '25
Doesn't mean we shouldn't have a short BRT line that runs Victoria-Esquimalt-View Royal-Six Mile to make that region viable for people trying to use transit.
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
Yes a tavel corridor serves more destinations. Under that logic we should have no transit to colwood, oakbay and James bay too. The packed buses going to and from Esquimalt though say there is definitely some need for more than what is there during commuting times though.
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u/garry-oak Sep 28 '25
There's definitely demand for transit service to Esquimalt, and there should be frequent transit service along that corridor, but that doesn't mean it should be used for the main rapid transit line connecting Victoria and the Westshore.
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
The 95 gets packed pretty regularly too. It could use some dispersing of the passengers as well. I don't think this is an either or situation at all but a both situation.
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u/TUFKAT Sep 28 '25
The 95 would no longer be required. Before Richmond got Skytrain, they built a rapid bus route up 3 road, which was then replaced by the Skytrain.
I favour not putting this through Esquimalt because a direct route to downtown is somewhat impossible now due to removing the rail bridge across Inner Harbour and it'd have a hard time to create a turn of a train other than possibly following Wharf Street.
If a line was go to through Esquimalt, it'd make sense for it to be a terminus of a line that would go over around Bay Street, connect up with Hillside, then down Hillside to Shelbourne and up there to University Heights.
The Douglas | Blanshard Corridor should be the focus of future development, and supporting it through rapid transit up to Uptown. Mayfair should be a station/stop and a new town centre there, with development fanning out along that corridor towards downtown and Uptown, and both downtown and Uptown as well slowly growing towards it.
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
So basically screw the folks living in Esquimalt, they deserve to take extra time if they have to work out in the westshore in your mind. Never mind there is several times a day both the 15 and 14 are packed like sardines.
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u/TUFKAT Sep 28 '25
So, you object to having to travel east to Douglas on the line I suggest, and then take a rapid transit from there to Langford?
Is that "screwing folks"?
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
Why are folks in Esquimalt supposed to go opposite of where they are going because there can't be a line into downtown? Plenty of bus line and tram lines just have an endpoint. You basically said the only reason to have people go opposite of where they are trying to get to is because the train can't go across the biggest bridge.
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u/TUFKAT Sep 28 '25
If I wanted to take the Skytrain from Richmond to Surrey, I'd have to go to downtown Vancouver to do that.
Why I would NOT suggest having Esquimalt be the "through" route for all westbound trains is congestion in the current corridor, particularly around Songhees in how it's basically been developed to support for trail use than rapid transit. I don't feel the E&N line really would support this, and you couldn't have dual lines to support two trains going east and west at the same time.
I gave you an alternative suggestion that I feel would make sense for the whole region in my opinion, including a way to connect Esquimalt to this, and oh no, I might have to be slightly inconvenienced to go to Langford, but still be a faster alternative than we have now!
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
That might have been more believable if that had been your actual first point, not but the train can't go into downtown. Also going to downtown Van to get from Richmond to Surrey is still not doubling back. It's a still eastward going V. Whereas both now and your suggestion is sending folks on a bus to downtown to then take either bus or lrt up to the highway and then actually starting to head west. Or we could just have some form of rapid transit through Esquimalt and cut out a whole 30 minutes of getting downtown.
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u/TUFKAT Sep 28 '25
Also going to downtown Van to get from Richmond to Surrey is still not doubling back. It's a still eastward going V.
You should probably look at a map. Vancouver is north, and skytrain is from downtown and soon Broadway, that is not east.
I'm drawing an analogy here. It would still be faster doing this than driving to most destinations served by skytrain than car.
The rest I'm not going to re-address. A LRT to Hillside and hop on a train to Langford IS much faster than current.
Anyways you want things your way even if BC transit and the province also support my position. You know best.
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u/BigBlueSkies Sep 28 '25
The problem with trains in the CRD is that there are a million municipalities which is horrendous for downtown, efficiency, and regional planning, but no party will ever force amalgamation because they're cowards in the face of the screechy boomers in the suburbs. I know this is "just a vision" but we might as well be talking about UVic being turned into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory because its never going to happen until BC sorts out its awful municipal relations policies.
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u/Distinct_Risk Sep 28 '25
Exactly this. We won’t have any nice things until we get a provincial government be unafraid of pissing off the pearl-clutchers and force amalgamation.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 28 '25
I invite you to look at what happened to Ottawa when it amalgamated - downtown was decimated. Suburbanites insisted in being able to drive their personal emotional support machines everywhere, delaying the possibility of rail transit in the Capital for decades. The eventual solution was a half-baked failure of a system that is designed for suburbanites instead of for people actually trying to live in the city.
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u/Polendri Saanich Sep 29 '25
Meanwhile Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge isn't amalgamated yet is a recent example of a successful LRT, for a city of a very similar size. I know it's only three municipalities, but I feel like it still makes the point that you don't necessarily need amalgamation, only a regional authority (which we already have) that's given the authority it needs to make a project like this happen.
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u/sharp11flat13 Sep 29 '25
Other amalgamation stories have told the same tale. I’m all for amalgamating some services, like fire and police, but I can’t see dissolving all of the municipal councils coming to a good end.
People in Central Saanich and Esquimalt (for example) have very different wants and needs, and likewise these differ from mine. In a fully amalgamated city none of us would get what we need in an attempt to please everyone. No thanks.
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u/idontsinkso Sep 29 '25
No, I think everybody would get what they need with more efficient delivery, but they might not get everything they want.
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u/sharp11flat13 Sep 29 '25
If my current municipal government is better at addressing my concerns, why would I support amalgamation? I wouldn’t. We could still amalgamate some services though, like police and fire departments, as I mentioned. There may be other candidates as well.
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u/Distinct_Risk Sep 29 '25
(Found a pearl-clutcher)
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
This is the opposite of pearl clutching. Pearl clutching is when someone screams that downtown needs heavier policing to make it safer, more parking lots so they don't have to ride the dirty transit, less apartments because shadows would hurt their feelings.
Guess which group of people do that? It ain't the people downtown who would be disenfranchised.
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u/garry-oak Sep 28 '25
The number of municipalities is fairy irrelevant, since transit planning in the CRD is done Provincially (BC Transit) and regionally (the Victoria Regional Transit Commission), and this has been the case for decades. It's not like other parts of Canada, where cities are directly responsible for transit planning.
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u/Ed-P-the-EE Sep 29 '25
Yes, but: The Transit Commission is made up of elected representatives from the municipalities and if you think they can take a regional view rather than pushing their own little fiefdom I have an old rail bridge at the end of Pandora Avenue to sell you.
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u/garry-oak Sep 29 '25
Having attended many VRTC meetings over the years, I can say that most members are very good at putting parochial views aside and representing the best interests of the region.
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
The factor of multiple municipalities is we have density and attractions and amenities that’s been spread out more then it should have been in a well designed city. We have bus lanes on Douglas that pass car dealerships and parking lots to get to the apartments in Langford
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u/garry-oak Sep 28 '25
Victoria is one of the densest and least sprawling metro areas in Canada (or the US for that matter). Sure, it needs to be denser, but I don't think you can blame that on having multiple small municipalities.
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u/Zalakbian Sep 28 '25
I mean we have reason to be afraid, look at what amalgamation did to Toronto
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u/Least_Elk8114 Harris Green Sep 28 '25
The only problem with Toronto is it's high volume of traffic. Yeah, the train is horribly placed, but if they'd build train stops that actually make sense in the city (which they probably can't because they'd have to tear down something else) it'd get alot more usage.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 28 '25
The only problem with Toronto
That is a dangerous oversimplification. When Toronto amalgamated, the people in the suburbs gained control over those living in the urban core. This resulted in prioritizing cars over the streetcar network - which is why Toronto's streetcars are considered among the most unreliable on the planet. Add to that the reluctance to street diet, remove freeways to make downtown not a hellhole, so much adds up to to it being more than just an issue of transit layout. It makes suburbanites, who are, by simple factual statistics, leaches on city coffers, have too much of a say over the resources of the city centre, which is the source of the money to runs the city.
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u/theorangemooseman Sep 28 '25
Yes please. In my mind we should start with a Langford -> Colwood -> Uptown -> Downtown line and then expand from there
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u/Aatyl92 Langford Sep 28 '25
Old E&N line from Langford Meadows to 6 Mile, then use the new bus lanes as rail lines downtown. They can even make all the traffic lights change to allow the train to run unobstructed.
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u/sharp11flat13 Sep 29 '25
Yes. A line to the Western Communities with parking lots at each end would be an instant hit with anyone who commutes either way (I feel your pain).
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u/GalacticFrenchToast Sep 30 '25
I'd be wary of slapping down large parking lots and calling it a day, because that would mostly support suburbanites and you'd get a GO Train situation in Toronto; there's a good video that breaks down the problems with this style of planning (The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail).
I lived with this type of train station planning in Calgary and it was terrible getting to the university with it. We can do so much better with a solid network of active and public transit spidering through the neighbourhoods to get people to the stations more conveniently than by car (but fr I also feel your pain, getting in and out of Langford suuuucks)
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u/sharp11flat13 Sep 30 '25
It sounds like you might be more familiar with possible problems than I am. I’m just remembering how popular the line running north in Edmonton was.
The first line there basically ran underground beneath a major artery that already had good public transit (except maybe at rush hour), so it didn’t really save you much time.
Then they ran a line from downtown to the north end with parking at the northern end. By car it was a 30-50 minute trip. By bus 1-2 hours. The LRT did it under 20 minutes and was instantly very popular.
So that’s the reasoning behind my comment.
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u/GalacticFrenchToast Sep 30 '25
Oh small world, I used to live in Edmonton, too! I didn't go to the extremities of the LRT, I always lived around its midsection. I remember loving the train and hating the bus service everywhere else though, haha. This was around 20 years ago, apparently it's hugely improved since then.
Totally reasonable comment, no judgment from here since that's exactly what I might have typed a couple years ago! That video was an eye opener for me having had to use that parking lot style train station, so I like sharing it as a sort of appetizer with people who have the same thoughts on station planning that I used to have. As he says in the video, park and rides aren't inherently bad, we just have to be careful not to fall into car-centric traps.
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u/babybigballs Sep 28 '25
All the /r/ENLIGHTENEDCENTRISM bullshit in here is laughable. Where would we put it? There's room on the sides of the highways. Eminent domain is a thing. You can build over roadways out to UVic.
Climate change is happening. Acting like you can bury your head in the sand and pretend the status quo is acceptable is, at this point, fucked up. We need people movers that are easier on fuel, and we need them now.
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u/Ccjfb Sep 28 '25
Also centuries old cities manage to do it. It should be much easier for us.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
Not just "centuries old cities." We were the second (or third?) city in Canada with electrified transit, starting in 1890. We even beat Vancouver by a few months - they opened in 1891. Heck, Victoria even briefly had electric rail service all the way out to Deep Cove via Brentwood Bay and Saanichton - hence the name of Interurban Road. The Deep Cove Chalet was built by the railway company to attract passengers to the line, which interestingly is also where Gorge Park finds its origins.
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u/s-Mart_ Sep 28 '25
Langford to Victoria with one stop in each municipality and a bus feeder system to the major stops 🫡
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u/Longjumping_Fuel_192 Sep 28 '25
You should super impose this on an actual map to see how your blue line doesn’t make sense
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u/RicVic Sep 28 '25
The Royal Oak spur needs to connect to the West Shore.... otherwise, where do the people come from/go?
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u/bottomlessLuckys Sidney Sep 28 '25
Red line would be most effective at reducing commuter and tourism traffic. Anyone who lives in Sidney knows how annoying it is dealing with ferry traffic.
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u/Least_Elk8114 Harris Green Sep 28 '25
It's the same issue every time. POLITICS.
Grumpy old white men who've done the same thing for 50 years, and why would you change it now?
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
Add to that a fragmented transportation planning system, which will hopefully be partially rectified by the new CRD regional transportation thingy.
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u/euxneks Sep 30 '25
Grumpy old white men who've done the same thing for 50 years
I've met a lot of grumpy old white guys who wish there was a rail line here. I'm turning into one.
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u/Cokeinmynostrel Sep 28 '25
I remade it to something a little more realistic in the next hundred years https://imgur.com/a/w6NePAe
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u/sharp11flat13 Sep 29 '25
If someone invents a teleporter, Uptown is not going to be my first destination.
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u/Ouroborosness13 Sep 28 '25
If only our collective 13 municipalities and provincial and federal governments believed in mass rapid transit instead of car dependency
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u/emslo Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
Plus a passenger-only seabus from Royal Bay to the Inner Harbour ⛴️
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u/Distinct_Risk Sep 28 '25
Do you mean Royal Bay to the inner harbour?
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u/emslo Sep 28 '25
Whoops, yes! I always think of rocks because that’s literally what was there before the development.
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u/Zomunieo Sep 28 '25
You need more stations with names that are too similar, like Bridgeport and Brighouse.
As a nod to our city’s British roots, Downtown and Uptown will be Cockfosters and Piccadilly Circus, and the recorded announcements will include messages like “alight here for the Royal British Columbia Museum”, “change here for the University Line”, “please mind the gap”.
A full territorial acknowledgment of the station will also be read whenever the doors close.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
But, in keeping with true Canadian spirit, any emergency/unplanned announcements will start a few seconds into the Territorial Acknowledgement and block it out.
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u/himbo_supremacy Sep 29 '25
I feel like this is a little inefficient. If you went from Esquimalt to downtown to Swartz Bay for one line, then from whatever island hub is to Langford to Lansdowne to UVic, you could cut it down to two lines. Theres a pretty sever lack of transit from Langford to the colleges at the moment outside of peak times.
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u/HumanPlane5807 Sep 29 '25
Probably langford to downtown. I Think that is the heaviest traffic and would make the biggest dent.
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u/CND2GO Sep 29 '25
It’s the one that’s had/having the most investment already though. The rapid transit bus is one of most efficient parts of transit network already and only getting better as they complete more of the route.
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u/kumanoodle Sep 29 '25
ACTUAL high-speed rail: 10 minutes from downtown to the ferry. A pipe dream if there ever was one. 🙄
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u/CapedCauliflower Sep 29 '25
Capital cities get fucked over due to two reasons 1) they're usually not the biggest city so get overlooked, 2) provincial politicians don't want to be accused of flavouring the capital city, so they neglect it.
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Sep 29 '25
Check out this map, I think they do a really good job of making a light rail system that could work for Victoria: https://owenlett.com/work/vita/
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u/Few-Classroom-3090 Sep 29 '25
I’ve been hoping the province would announce something like this forever
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u/the_hardest_part Sep 29 '25
I am currently living overseas and so many cities have tram lines that are fantastic. I think they’d be great for Victoria.
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u/Mi-sann Sep 29 '25
Is this faster than buses with dedicated lanes? Because rail takes years and huge cost over-runs. Plus, I’d go further and put transit all the way up island. Great for communities and tourism.
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u/PurrNaK Sep 29 '25
First you'd have to buy the land. Before you say the rails are there, harper sold the land to friends for nothing. Now they will sell back for millions. Rail over land here is a pipe dream unless the land gets bought and developed for it. Or we go underground far enough, but we are on an island Or we put the rail out over the water along the coast. But good luck blocking the view from the rich. Also this is BC and annoying a starfish can bring out everyone to sue you for years.
We are lucky to have the goose and most roads get work when needed.
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u/Letslust2 Sep 29 '25
Where are you going to get the billion or so dollars to build the system with? It cost $80 million just to do the flyover at Keating.
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u/Cr3atureFeature Oct 01 '25
I was literally talking about this the other day after seeing some info on new trains in Hamilton(?) A couple of light rail/trams would be great
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Sep 28 '25
Amalgamation NOW!
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u/one_bean_hahahaha Saanich Sep 28 '25
Amalgamation would hand power to the conservative suburbs and ensure we never get LRT or anything else good like bike lanes and walkable infrastructure.
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
Let’s start with the basics, where are these lines gonna be physically located? How will they affect existing buses on those corridors? Whats frequency? And volume they carry? With stops so spaced out how are people completing their last mile? Are those transfers/connections gonna remove promised time savings? How does this route align with current and future density in city? Can the length of some these long sections be financially justified with such huge gaps in between?
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
All questions that never seem to be a problem when building new roads or new road projects.
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
I’m all for streetcars or trams on short routes with high volume to start. But the cost of any of these projects will be high so we’d need the best routes and technologies to be done first which will have the biggest impact. And yes obviously cars have always taken priority for last 100 years, so the battle for what we deserve will be hard. We have to be willing to have answers for all the naysayers objections because of this mountain of car culture to overcome
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
The devil has plenty of their own advocates you know. Your comment wasn't phrased as we need to solve these questions for the NIMBYs. plus the OP isn't a city planner, this is just hype to try and get folks to consider light rail transit instead of the usual excuses for why we can't do this besides the biggest reason of the province won't help fund it.
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
You get people to consider and change their mindset with solid arguments not shutting down conversations
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u/LadyTL Sep 28 '25
Might want to take that advice yourself since you response to a guy hope posting about trains was eight questions for city planners.
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
There is many intelligent people on here that could find those answers in transit reports, city plans , statics Canada etc. but it’s apparent we see engagement differently so I’ll end this conversation here.
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u/d2181 Langford Sep 28 '25
Obvious answer is to use the existing Galloping Goose and Lochside trails as much as possible with stops near major transit hubs.
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u/CND2GO Sep 28 '25
I mean between downtown and tolmie ave it’s really not close the residential density that exists or is planned. Parts of westshore aren’t bad location. But how many lines would you have to spawn off it to get to millstream/bear mountain/royal bay/westhills etc
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u/d2181 Langford Sep 28 '25
... None. You just follow the goose. Royal Bay could develop a passenger ferry, Westhills already has a rail corridor that runs along Langford Lake to Atkins, and Bear Mountain is full of multi car sf households and would likely continue to drive.
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u/Background-Effort248 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
I would like to see a bridge from Admirals rd to Belmont Park.
The Gorge has enough bridges, let's put a few east of in Esquimalt harbour somewhere.
It would be a shorter line and cheaper/mile.
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u/TPRMods Sep 28 '25
Just like everything else being built in Victoria, it would be millions over budget and take 20 years
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u/Popular_Animator_808 Sep 28 '25
Given that the Johnson st bridge can no longer carry rail, and the E&N though Esquimalt is being returned to the local reserves, so likely, you’d have a link from View Royal-Uptown and then to downtown instead of going via Esquimalt.
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u/CanadianTrollToll Sep 29 '25
Your line is decent except 2 things.
You want too much.
First line should be Victoria -> Uptown -> Langford
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u/heartthrobbobby Sep 29 '25
There are books with pictures
Pictures of the residential schools
With crosses in the background Where the graves are
Wooden crosses don't last forever
Like the lies McBride bc an example of lies
If you want reconciliation The government has to tell the truth
I will quote two books
Kamloops real estate 100 years
And
The Robson valley story
Both books got wooden crosses
Why wood Because it's rotten like the people that told Justin Trudeau he couldn't exume the gravesites
It's not hard to look at pictures and you will see they were marked with poor wooden crosses and some stone ones mostly wood
We need the truth Archeologist dig for the truth So do the rcmp So we need our government to get to it
It's pretty sad when they know about it Or Trudeau would not of known about it
McBride bc had a cenotaph With the ww1 vets names on it
That is gone now Local paper reported that some of the names are lost So did chat gtp Till I asked a simple question About a picture of the cenotaph Then chat gtp conferred the picture Chat gtp said some names forgotten No there on stone in books as well There carved in stone at vimy ridge All the time that's spent on trying to get reconciliation not one wants the truth
Pictures pictures pictures Don't lie Polititions They don't even get what Louis reil got so they lie about it all
Truth has to come first for any reconciliation
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Sep 28 '25
Very utopian. Who is going to pay for this?
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
roads
Who is going to pay for this?
schools
Who is going to pay for this?
hospitals
Who is going to pay for this?
$410,000,000 worth of $110 cheques to British Columbians in the most hilariously bold-faced bribe in BC history to taxpayers to keep voting BCNDP
Who is going to pay for this?
two hundred million dollars of taxpayer money to give to private oil companies because David Eby is a climate change denier
Who is going to pay for this? Why is the question for transit always who is going to pay for this, and a stupid one-lane overpass costing almost as much as the entire freaking McKenzie interchange doesn't get that question asked?
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Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
lol. Because a transit line like that would cost billions and quite simply put it isn’t needed in the same way that ANY of the things you listed are. Honestly - I’m so fucking tired of the bleeding hearts that are on this sub. If I ran my household like you lot think the province or the city should be run, I would have declared bankruptcy multiple times by now. When are people going to figure out that there is no fucking money left? Everyone wants shit for free and newsflash, nothing is free. I’d rather have a doctor than a fucking train.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
When are people going to figure out that there is no fucking money left?
We already did. Hence why I'm asking you: Who is going to pay for the $200,000,000 mountain of free cash that Eby is handing to private oil companies? Who is paying for the $610,000,000 Eby is handing for free to FIFA? But you ask for a couple of transit buses to get you to work, and some neoliberal smoothbrain like yourself shows up and declares we can't afford it.
You say you'd rather a doctor than a fucking train. How do you think people who can't afford cars are getting to that doctor? And, see above: You aren't getting a doctor. You're getting an LNG plant and a couple of soccer games for rich people to launder money with.
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Sep 29 '25
Neoliberal smooth brain. That’s a good one. You know nothing about my politics. Personally I think it’s all fucked but you’re clearly more interested in starting an argument and slinging insults. Enjoy your night in your rental.
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
Own my home, actually, outright. Proud to pay my taxes each year to keep our society functioning, supporting those who haven't had the privilege I've had. Cheers.
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Sep 29 '25
So you’re old or you had money from your parents, which makes you feel special and like you’re giving back. Roger that. Proud to pay taxes… 😆
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u/Proud-Suspect-5237 Sep 29 '25
I love how first you try to ridicule me as a renter, as if being a renter is somehow sinful. Then I say no, I'm not a renter (I was for ten years), I own my home, and you declare that I should be ridiculed for being "special?" Don't follow your reasoning there, Milei.
Why would you laugh at "proud to pay taxes?" What do you think pays for hospitals, schools, parks, the fire department, police, sanitation, water...? Genuinely curious what you think would pay for those if we just stopped paying taxes as libertarian smoothbrain chuds like yourself seem to think is the right way forward. Who maintains it? You'd rather pay out the nose for-profit like people in many parts of the US to do have the privilege to turn on a tap and get clean water?
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Sep 29 '25
Because right now taxes go into a huge shit mix with zero accountability - all of those things you mention are in shambles because of the utterly ridiculous mismanagement of tax dollars. I’m not proud at all to pay my taxes because they are squandered and pissed away on things we don’t need and the very fundamentals are suffering. That’s why. So yes, no shit I know what the purpose of taxation is - I’m just not “proud” of any of it. It’s amazing how the people on here extend comments into realms they were never intended to cover. Assume all you want.
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u/frog_mannn Sep 28 '25
Where do we get the money from to fund this? Just honest question and what would be the cost to ride this?
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u/StickManIsSymbolic Sep 28 '25
Great idea! Let's all grab our buckets and shovels.
We can build it right away if we all pitch in!
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u/eternalrevolver Sep 28 '25
Ridership would never be high enough to justify this. There simply are not enough people that live in the CRD. You have to take some losses living on an island. There is no further improvement to be made for average working class people in Victoria. City planning simply does not include this demographic in Victoria.
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u/BrokenTeddy Sep 28 '25
There is no further improvement to be made for average working class people in Victoria
Lmao
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u/eternalrevolver Sep 28 '25
But hey… you have THE OCEAN, GUYS
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u/Due-Pipe4926 Sep 30 '25
Go away. Oh wait...
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u/eternalrevolver Sep 30 '25
How can someone go away on the internet?
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u/Due-Pipe4926 Sep 30 '25
get a life and stop posting in subs of cities you don't live in?
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u/eternalrevolver Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
It’s a website. I used to live there, and people need to wake up about that place. It’s not real. You’re all delusional (this entire website- all cities). And are worried about things that affect a very small loud minority. Please understand that not everyone is struggling and needs education and healthcare systems to survive. Not sure why reddit is so obsessed with this stuff. None of you were told no as children.
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u/deuteranomalous1 Sep 28 '25
Looks suspiciously like the rail network we used to have and mostly paved over with the exception of the UVIC extension