Canada Line | Completed

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

But the fact remains we can still triple capacity of the line. I feel you never keep that in mind. Instead of pestering this thread with those worries write letters to Translink or local politicians about ordering more cars (and even running more of the cars we have! Right now during rush hour we have 4 idle) ASAP.

lol, a massive Vancouver Sun article may be published in the near future.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

I was one of the many students scrambling to figure out the new bus routes and bus loops in Richmond this morning. The new placement of the stations, both boarding and unboarding threw many people off since a lot of stations were moved with no signage telling where the new placement was (only just telling that service was discontinued).

The road-work all around the 5 bus bays only added to the clutter that was no.3 road. With the bays directly on no.3 now (effectively taking up one whole lane of traffic), and people pouring into the station and crossing the road, the portion right outside of Richmond Centre will be gridlocked constantly I can foresee.

I'm sure things will settle as people get used to it, but the bus loop behind Brighouse station can't be built fast enough. The bus bays on no.3 and saba won't do traffic any favors.

Brighouse looked really, really busy during rush hour from the news clips I've seen....it looked like dozens and dozens of people were climbing up and down the escalators and staircase of that station, Metrotown-like during peak.

[The_Henry_Man]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

I was one of the many students scrambling to figure out the new bus routes and bus loops in Richmond this morning. The new placement of the stations, both boarding and unboarding threw many people off since a lot of stations were moved with no signage telling where the new placement was (only just telling that service was discontinued).

The road-work all around the 5 bus bays only added to the clutter that was no.3 road. With the bays directly on no.3 now (effectively taking up one whole lane of traffic), and people pouring into the station and crossing the road, the portion right outside of Richmond Centre will be gridlocked constantly I can foresee.

I'm sure things will settle as people get used to it, but the bus loop behind Brighouse station can't be built fast enough. The bus bays on no.3 and saba won't do traffic any favors.

OMG my worst fears has come true!!! I knew Translink is just too dumb to at least build an inside "bus stop lane" to unload, load and park the buses just like the old southbound B-Line stop at Richmond Centre, leaving the 2 other northbound travel lanes for other traffic to flow freely. Now what you have is the right northbound lane north of Cook Rd that will practically be blocked for most parts of the day (because there are tons of local Richmond buses parking there to load/unload passengers), forcing other traffic to merge into the left lane right after Cook Rd/No.3 Rd intersection, thus creating traffic nightmare. The location of this isn't good either, as it is located in one of the busiest intersections of the entire city and right after an intersection. The Brighouse Station bus "loop" is the nerve centre for all the local buses feeding into the C-Line and all we've got is this??? And this is supposed to be one of the largest bus exchanges in the entire Metro Vancouver region in terms of buses connected (I think this is the only one out of all the major bus exchanges, such as Metrotown/Bridgeport/Newton/Scott Rd/Lonsdale etc that wasn't given a full proper bus loop treatment. I excuse the one at Burrard/Georgia since there's no room to make a bus loop there)???? Good job Translink/COR...

Where's the bus loop just east of Richmond-Brighouse Station, Translink? I thought that's part of the original C-Line proposal.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

But the fact remains we can still triple capacity of the line. I feel you never keep that in mind. Instead of pestering this thread with those worries write letters to Translink or local politicians about ordering more cars (and even running more of the cars we have! Right now during rush hour we have 4 idle) ASAP.

Yep more trains is always the answer. In fact it's still the answer on the E and M Lines... paging new Mark II cars, what are there, 25% of the order in service so far?

Give it up mr. x! We got the $2b line that was barely approved. Not the magical $3b line.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I agree with that, they are causing more harm than good with their crowd management. All they should be doing is allowing people to enter and crowd the platform, but just ensure that people allow passengers to exit the trains before entering.

It occurred to me just now it could have to do with the hoards of people on crowded platforms holding onto doors until they can all get on...and with enough door holds, the system shuts down and staff need to reset the train and it creates a huge mess down the rest of the line. This seemed to be a sizeable problem when the line first opened and perhaps that's how the door problems came about.

There are also side platform intrusion sensors along the platform acting as an invisible fence for the track. Is it possible that crowding is causing those sensors to go off quite often?

Still, door holding still happens a lot on SkyTrain yet you don't exactly see staff going overzealous about it. It looks and feels almost like an amusement park ride.

[Metro-One]

I am happy with what we have!

[Metro-One]

It occurred to me just now it could have to do with the hoards of people on crowded platforms holding onto doors until they can all get on...and with enough door holds, the system shuts down and staff need to reset the train and it creates a huge mess down the rest of the line. This seemed to be a sizeable problem when the line first opened and perhaps that's how the door problems came about.

Still, door holding still happens a lot on SkyTrain yet you don't exactly see staff going overzealous about it. It looks and feels almost like an amusement park ride.

This is why i feel that the attendants would be much more useful at the edge of the platforms (where the doors are) than their current approach. If at the platform's edge they can perform crowd control, clear zones for people exiting and prevent people from holding doors open

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Yep more trains is always the answer. In fact it's still the answer on the E and M Lines... paging new Mark II cars, what are there, 25% of the order in service so far?

Give it up mr. x! We got the $2b line that was barely approved. Not the magical $3b line.

There's no doubt that we did what we could with $2.05-billion, but the whole point is: learn from Canada Line mistakes for future projects!

Well no really, duh, adding more cars/trains into the system is always how you increase capacity in both the short-term and long-term.

The Expo and Millennium Line are different as they are long-term (and this does not equate to being overbuilt!), good for 50-years. The Canada Line on the other hand allows capacity to increase enough for the short-term, 20-25 years. 30 years max.

Infrastructure isn't a short-term investment, it's a long-term investment and it's about time that regional planners realize that. Build it right or think twice about building it at all.

[SpongeG]

i don't know if they use all their trains during peak - i've been on around 5 and i saw at least 3 trains sitting in the yard area not in service

[nname]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i don't know if they use all their trains during peak - i've been on around 5 and i saw at least 3 trains sitting in the yard area not in service

They are still running initial service plan, so only 16/20 (80%) of the trains is used. They could upgrade to the full service plan, utilizing 18 trains (90%, which is close to industry standard), or even further by using 19 trains (95%, close to Expo and Millennium line standard). Using 19 trains alone would add about 20% capacity.

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i don't know if they use all their trains during peak - i've been on around 5 and i saw at least 3 trains sitting in the yard area not in service

They definitely do not. They don't really have a max-peak frequency schedule.

[mr.x]

it would be brilliant if they could start using 18 or 19 trains soon for at least peak hour service.

[CLC]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i don't know if they use all their trains during peak - i've been on around 5 and i saw at least 3 trains sitting in the yard area not in service

Obviously today is not. A spare train-set sit south of Lansdowne this morning.

[red-paladin]

At this rate, they'll have to put back the B-Line and put a tram on the Arbutus tracks to handle all the demand from Richmond by 2015, to say nothing of extending the Canada Line to 50 metres and getting all the C-cars.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

At this rate, they'll have to put back the B-Line and put a tram on the Arbutus tracks to handle all the demand from Richmond by 2015, to say nothing of extending the Canada Line to 50 metres and getting all the C-cars.

Well that's a bit extreme. All we need is more cars in the near future, a lot more cars.

[NetMapel]

Originally Posted by mr.x

it would be brilliant if they could start using 18 or 19 trains soon for at least peak hour service.

Translink knows today is going to be busy with all the back-to-school and back-to-work people. Why didn't they utilize 90-95% of their trains today ? That's very silly of them to not do that on this very busy day.

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Translink knows today is going to be busy with all the back-to-school and back-to-work people. Why didn't they utilize 90-95% of their trains today ? That's very silly of them to not do that on this very busy day.

So people can get used to the bus/train schedules and the timing of it all I assume. If they kept running bursts of more trains on busier days and effectively changing the schedule, then people would get confused when they show up the next day and the train doesn't leave at the same time it did the day before. Don't forget that a lot of people plan their schedules ahead of time and depend on the timing to reach their destinations on time.

It's a double-edged sword this tactic.

[NetMapel]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

So people can get used to the bus/train schedules and the timing of it all I assume. If they kept running bursts of more trains on busier days and effectively changing the schedule, then people would get confused when they show up the next day and the train doesn't leave at the same time it did the day before. Don't forget that a lot of people plan their schedules ahead of time and depend on the timing to reach their destinations on time.

It's a double-edged sword this tactic.

Do people check sky train schedule ??? Unless it's for checking the first train or last train, I never check sky train schedule. I also don't know anybody who does too. They come frequently enough that it's pretty useless to check them though.

[CLC]

Originally Posted by deasine

Proof from the CBC Article:


There you go. I agree, it's stupid too. I guess it's to guarantee that people can get on from different stations but what they are doing isn't smart.

I used to think ProtransBC want to guarantee people in other stations down the line more room to get on, particularly Yaletown. However, today I heard the reason is for fire safety in the underground platform...

[Waders]

Some customer comments in a Vancouver Sun news article http://www.vancouversun.com/Public+trans...ing+back+school+crush/1971822/story.html

"...Richmond resident Marina Martin, who previously got to work in 36 minutes after hopping on the 491 bus on Westminster Highway, said it took more than an hour to get downtown Tuesday on the Canada Line.

The train, she said, was “overcrowded, stinky, coughing, hot.”

“The air-conditioning in the SkyTrain doesn’t work because you are so crowded in like sardines,” she said. “It’s awful. Am I happy? No, I am not happy.”

Other commuters complained of people pushing and shoving on overpacked Canada Line trains as they travelled between Richmond and Vancouver..."