Best Looking SkyTrain Generation

[finalcoolman]

I still think that the original design of the Mark II was the best looking:



Image credit Rapid Transit Project Office 2000
https://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/Pub...rainReview.pdf

Then followed by the new Mark V.

[SFUVancouver]

That in an outstanding illustration.

The link is dead, incidentally.

[jollyburger]

Deleted the link has spammy advertising.

[mcj]

That illustration is better looking than what we got for sure, but I think the Mk2.5, Mk3 and Mk5 are all better looking than the illustration would be in reality. Mk1 is iconic as a gadgetbahn-esque style, but they really make the system look outdated in 2025, they feel like something out of an amusement park.

[finalcoolman]

Originally Posted by mcj

That illustration is better looking than what we got for sure, but I think the Mk2.5, Mk3 and Mk5 are all better looking than the illustration would be in reality. Mk1 is iconic as a gadgetbahn-esque style, but they really make the system look outdated in 2025, they feel like something out of an amusement park.

MK I prototypes were better (and more serious) looking:



Credit: SFU Urban

https://sfuurban.wordpress.com/wp-co...ust-7-1983.jpg

[madog222]

Originally Posted by finalcoolman

I still think that the original design of the Mark II was the best looking

Having a door open over an open wheel arch (for lack of a better term) doesn't seem viable if at all practical.

[finalcoolman]

Originally Posted by madog222

Having a door open over an open wheel arch (for lack of a better term) doesn't seem viable if at all practical.

If you look very closely, that was just black paint.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by finalcoolman

If you look very closely, that was just black paint.

In that case it would look strange IMO.

[bloomtronzero]

I'm voting for the Mk1s in classic red & blue as the best looking.

I still think the red & blue just looks better than all versions of the blue & yellow that have come since, and we should change back immediately.

[jollyburger]

At least darker colours don't look dirty right away.

The problem isn't the colour but the pin stripe is fine when you are boarding but is boring from a distance. That's why the red/blue Skytrains were more distinctive.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by mcj

That illustration is better looking than what we got for sure, but I think the Mk2.5, Mk3 and Mk5 are all better looking than the illustration would be in reality. Mk1 is iconic as a gadgetbahn-esque style, but they really make the system look outdated in 2025, they feel like something out of an amusement park.

The Mark 1 (first generation) were almost like toys, or something you'd see at a world's fair connecting pavilions. The new Mk 5s coming onstream are (IMHO) just fine. It'll take a while before they're all phased in, but it's worth the wait. As far as the paint job goes, nothing is perfect. In Paris, they're almost all solid blue, as in Montreal. / London: mostly all solid red with a few exceptions ... we could go on, but it's really down to a matter of taste. Bucharest's subway trains are solid orange. You cannot please everybody. For here, I think solid blue maybe with yellow trim. To each his/her own.

[cganuelas1995]

The Mark 1 is a classic design of a subway car. I don't like the rounded end configuration, it feels too sterile. Can make a full length train walkable from end to end

[MIPS]

My vote's for the MK I.


No bias.

[bloomtronzero]

I'd love to see the newer models in that WhiteBlueRed livery. Then I might say the Mk 3/5(let's be real, they're the same model) would be nicer looking than the 1.

It's not just the white, either. Mk2(v1) is white, but they're still pretty drab looking. The red & blue really makes it work.

[MIPS]

The problem is that the old color theme was selected to reflect BC Transit's own livery at the time which reflected the official provincial BC flag emblem which was adopted across multiple corporations in the BC public sector. It spanned across the entire transit system including wayfinding signage, street-level station signage and print literature. OMC may still have them but they used to have white storage totes painted in the same red/white/blue livery. None of that styling has been used in something like 25 years and TransLink's color theme has always been blue. The charcoal grey is used mainly to defer having to more routinely keep the cars washed.

[bloomtronzero]

Originally Posted by MIPS

The problem is that the old color theme was selected to reflect BC Transit's own livery at the time which reflected the official provincial BC flag emblem which was adopted across multiple corporations in the BC public sector. It spanned across the entire transit system including wayfinding signage, street-level station signage and print literature. OMC may still have them but they used to have white storage totes painted in the same red/white/blue livery. None of that styling has been used in something like 25 years and TransLink's color theme has always been blue. The charcoal grey is used mainly to defer having to more routinely keep the cars washed.

Yea, I know. It's a colour scheme the province ran away from after the 00s, too, by and large.

Ultimately, the red and blue comes from the top half(union jack) of our flag, while the later blue-yellow is meant to reflect the lower half(waves and sunrise).

Still, whatever the politics, the organisation, the whatever, I just always loved the OG BC Transit colours more than the Translink ones.

Dishonourable mention, though, to the newer BC Transit White-black-fucking green colours you see in Abby and Victoria. That is just nasty-looking.