Will Saskatoon’s bus scheme be rapid or vapid?

The settlers who travelled west to establish the 19th-century temperance colony that became Saskatoon had to take the train to Moose Jaw and then journey north in horse-drawn carts.

So it was a relief when the railway arrived in 1890 with tracks running close to present-day Idylwyld Freeway and a train bridge near the Senator Sidney L. Buckwold Bridge’s current location.

The railway that helped make Saskatoon possible now represents a huge impediment to the city’s progress — an irony that is replicated in virtually every Canadian city with train tracks.

Saskatoon’s municipal government now seems set to focus on removing the railway that once represented the city’s lifeline.

City hall administration is backing a consultant’s report that recommends abandoning the idea of building overpasses or underpasses to address costly railway crossing delays.

The report proposes pursuing relocation of the Canadian Pacific tracks instead. Many will see that recommendation as an indication there will never be a solution for railway crossing delays, given the prohibitive cost and logistical challenges.

A do-nothing approach to train delays holds implications for all traffic, but in particular for the city’s bus rapid transit (BRT) plan, the cornerstone of Saskatoon’s growth strategy.

The rail report might not be a bus kill, but it’s certainly a transit buzz kill. BRT in Saskatoon is looking vapid, not rapid.

The proposed high-frequency bus routes cross CP train tracks at three locations: Preston Avenue near Preston Crossing, at the intersection of 25th Street and Idylwyld Drive and on 22nd Street between Avenue F and Avenue G.

In cities with BRT systems, addressing railway delays has proven one of the most important and most expensive considerations.

In material promoting Saskatoon’s proposed BRT system, railways are barely mentioned, even though the consultant planning the BRT system also produced the report on train delays.

Since Saskatoon’s BRT system is proposed to be built within the next five years, the shortterm solution for train delays is to use technology to make bus riders aware of them.

BRT systems in Winnipeg ($467.3 million) and London, Ont. ($500 million) cost so much because they address impediments to predictability and speed.

Saskatoon’s BRT system sounds like a bargain in comparison, pegged between $90 million and $150 million. You get what you pay for.

It’s worthwhile to question whether Saskatoon’s proposed system even qualifies as BRT. The New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) has developed a scorecard to rank BRT systems, including five aspects that determine the basics.

Saskatoon’s proposed system fares poorly by ITDP standards, which sees dedicated bus lanes and either centre lanes or a dedicated corridor as the most important planks of BRT.

Saskatoon’s system fails on both counts. Saskatoon Transit’s BRT is planned for lanes next to the curb, where turning vehicles slow traffic.

Most of Saskatoon’s supposedly high-frequency lanes will feature shared traffic, and the few blocks of dedicated bus lanes through downtown and the Broadway district are already raising objections.

The other three ITDP basics are: Pre-boarding fare payment, platform-level boarding and intersections that prohibit vehicles from turning across bus lanes. These components are designed to put the R in BRT.

Saskatoon is planning to require people to pay before boarding. The other two aspects will likely be known when the final design is established this spring.

In 2017, Saskatoon Transit bucked the trend in North America with an increase in transit ridership when many jurisdictions are suffering a drop. Bus ridership rose to 8.7 million in 2017 from 8.5 million in 2016. That’s still well short of the peak rides in 2013 of 9.4 million, prior to the transit employee lockout of 2014. But it qualifies as good news, just like no foreseeable solution to train delays ranks as bad news.

The train report’s projections predict annual vehicle hours of delays at Saskatoon’s nine railway crossings will more than double from 111,859 in 2025 to 281,090 by 2055.

Even if you consider train delays a minor inconvenience today, they pose a major hindrance for all vehicles in Saskatoon’s transportation future.