TUESDAY, AUGUST 18TH (DAY 2) - CANADA LINE RIDERSHIP STATISTICS
- 4:30 am to 9:30 am: 9,000 riders
- as of 2 pm: 33,000 riders
- expected by evening rush hour: 50,000 riders
Day Two brings lighter traffic — and parking issues — to Canada Line
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
August 18, 2009 3:32 PM
METRO VANCOUVER - Some Canada Line commuters in Richmond are finding there’s no such thing as a free park.
At least two vehicles were towed from the Richmond Centre parking lot Tuesday afternoon after security staff saw their drivers exiting the lot and heading to the Richmond-Brighouse station, mall spokeswoman Leslie Matheson said.
Another three vehicles were seen coming into the parking lot and turning around after noticing the tow truck, she said.
On opening day Monday, when more than 85,000 people lined up for hours for a free ride on the train, some 30 warning tickets were also handed out.
“Our parking lot is for the exclusive use of our customers while they’re shopping,” she said.
Shopping centres in both Vancouver and Richmond say they will bolster security to ensure Canada Line customers aren’t using their lots for daily parking.
Canada Line officials have said there is no need — or room — for park-and-ride lots as the stations connect with transit and are mostly in high-density urban areas. As a result there is only one park-and-ride facility, at Bridgeport Station, along the 19-kilometre line stretching from Vancouver to Richmond and the airport.
That lot is owned and operated by the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which owns the adjacent River Rock Casino Resort. Parking spaces will be reserved for 1,200 vehicles during the day and 600 vehicles at night at a cost of $2.
Meanwhile, passengers were still flocking to the Canada Line Tuesday albeit at a slower than pace than on opening day when they didn’t have to pay the $3.75 single trip fare. InTransitBC spokesman Steve Crombie said about 9,000 people had boarded the train by 9:30 this morning and the numbers grew to 33,000 just after 2 p.m.
More than 50,000 boardings are expected to be recorded by the evening rush hour.
Crombie said light-beam technology is used to automatically count the number of people coming into the fare-paid zone. TransLink plans to institute fare-gates or turnstiles, along with smart cards, at the Canada Line stations, but not until 2012.
A “request for qualifications” — to see who is qualified to do the project — is expected this fall. The $100-million project, which would be funded by the provincial and federal governments.
Crombie said the two busiest stations Tuesday were Waterfront and the airport, suggesting people were still checking out the new Vancouver-Richmond line.
Some passengers, however, were having trouble paying for their fares because of new technology in the ticket-vending machines.
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said the machines accept debit and credit card transactions, but the upgraded technology requires the credit or debit card to be left in the slot longer than on SkyTrain ticket machines.
Passengers must wait until three yellow lights have lit up on the TVM debit slot before taking the card out, he said.
Ridership on the Canada Line isn’t expected to increase until Sept. 7 when the transportation authority will cancel some buses or stop them at Bridgeport or Brighouse stations to funnel more people onto the Canada Line.
At that time, the 98 B-Line between Vancouver and Richmond will be cancelled. Long-haul buses from White Rock and Delta will be rerouted to Bridgeport Station rather than going into Vancouver, while local Richmond buses will be stopped at Richmond-Brighouse.
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