Canada Line | Completed

[SFUVancouver]

Mr.X, I've been asking those same questions for some time without an adequate answer. I have asked who determines when new cars are required, who buys them, who owns them, who decides which trains are run and which are on stand-by as reserves. The standardized answer is that there is 400 page contract and it has a line item for every imaginable scenario. When the FOI-requested documents, presumably that 400 page contract, comes to light I think we will have our answers.

As an interesting aside, when I got my sneak peak tour of the line one of the guides mentioned that the hardest test in the commissioning process involved a dummy being thrown fully beneath a train as it pulled into a station during the peak level of service. The staff was given no warning of when this test would occur during the 2 weeks of full service operation, nor in which station it would occur. They not only had to determine in which station the trackway intrusion had occured but execute an emergency manoeuvre where they lifted the train using jacks to reach the stranded person and then evacuate them from the station to a hypothetical awaiting ambulance/hearse.

Also, I rode the train a fair bit today to finish getting the stamps for the passport and remarked that it was consistently busy. From noon to three the trains were running maybe 1/2 to 3/4 full, with the trains to and from YVR having a very healthy volume of luggage on board. The lines for each of the ticket machines at the airport were six to eight people deep and none were out of order. I think they misjudged the number of TVMs for the YVR station. I would say they should easily triple or even quadruple the number. Put half a dozen on the ground floor, middle floor, and another dozen on the platform level. Without turnstiles and all of the C-Line attendants assisting people at the TVMs I have a hunch that there is a fair risk for fare evasion. I would also love it if Waterfront station maps and the transit connection maps throughout the system would actually show a red dot and a 'You are here' notation.