Canada Line | Completed

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by mr.x

Holy crap, 100,000 is a shoe-in.

Eventually, though supposedly most people were tourists and families, which sounds accurate from what I saw this morning / afternoon.

Will be interesting to see what happens when the bus service changes.

[SpongeG]

oh i noticed the cars were pretty muggy almost damp feeling - i wnated to open the window but it said it had a/c

[raggedy13]

A few of my pics from earlier tonight (~7-8pm):

Waterfront


Loved these photographs


Waterfront to VCC:


Leaving VCC to Yaletown (filling up):


Waiting at Yaletown for southbound train (after getting off and looking around the station briefly):


Yaletown to Olympic Village/Broadway-City Hall:


Getting off at Broadway:


People heading northbound at Broadway

[SpongeG]

h did anyone see the global news tonight?

they like said Canada line has taken away 46 police form the E and M lines blah blah blah - basically trying to make it sound like those lines will be so much unsafer now

[raggedy13]

And a few last pics:



Back at Broadway after a quick bite to eat. Just missed the previous train but the ~6 minutes went by quite quickly:


Southbound train pretty busy


Some water clearly visible


And its another full train


Thats all.

[nname]

^ if that's any indication of regular passenger load, they need to run trains more often than every 6 minutes at 8 PM.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by mrjauk

I agree with most of your points above, except for the bolded ones. Given that most of the Millennium and Expo lines' stations are above ground, loudish announcements could get very annoying for those living nearby. That's not an issue with underground stations.

They could definitely turn down the volume for the elevated stations on SkyTrain if they ever had station announcements.

The announcements for the three No.3 Road stations are pretty loud, yet they're right next to condos.

[kylemacmac]

I've ridden the trains a bunch now and am pretty much completely blown away by the whole set up of the Canada Line. Awesome.

I will say it though: The stations feel utilitarian to a point of boredom. I find it shocking that a city as wealthy and wanting to be so "world-class" as Vancouver has completely failed to provide any sort of public art in ANY of the stations (alright, the tube pics at Waterfront are art-ish...but barely....and for some reason I feel they'll be taken down in a few months.) Layout apart, the stations all pretty much feel the same. Bo-ring. There's really nothing unique about most of the stations to give them a real 'feel' and personal image.

But whatever. Bottom line is it's an amazing train system and will shape development of the city for decades to come and provide above ground portions of the city with countless more pedestrians. Which is the best public art and variety imaginable. Great stuff!

Also, there's a fee-simple row house demonstration project at the future station of 33rd and Cambie by Art Cowie in the works. NW corner of the intersection. Check it out. I strongly feel row houses are the only thing that will allow Vancouverites on modest/decnt income to afford ground level home ownership in the years to come as property values increase. Could be a sign of things to come. Having a station there at 33rd might be a great way to alleviate the slow-down feel through those curves as well!

Okay, nice work. Now let's build the Millennium/Evergreen line out. Charge Drivers the a $70 year levy but give them 30 free transit passes. Win win. So why not? It'll be a great way to give drivers something concrete for their vehicle levies and help balance translink's books, etc.

[mr.x]

^ public art is coming later to the Canada Line. InTransitBC has their own plans, and the City of Vancouver has big plans to supplement InTransitBC's as part of Vancouver's public art initiative for the 2010 Games. Most of the 2010 fixtures will be permanent.

[Vancity]

Originally Posted by mr.x

Holy crap, 100,000 is a shoe-in.

I was going to say the same thing. Sooo, it may seem like Translink might have underestimated. They said that they expected 100,000 daily riders by 2011 or 2010 (please correct me if I'm wrong). We have 70,000 on the first official day. Maybe those structural upgrades (platform length to 50 m, etc) are going to come sooner than expected at this rate.

[Vancity]

Originally Posted by mrjauk

I agree with most of your points above, except for the bolded ones. Given that most of the Millennium and Expo lines' stations are above ground, loudish announcements could get very annoying for those living nearby. That's not an issue with underground stations.

Don't they have announcements on the stations in Richmond? I see your point, though, about those who live nearby the stations. The Richmond stations don't really have buildings nearby (with the exception of Brighouse station, which has a few towers pretty close to the station itself).

[deasine]

Oh once there are ads plastered everywhere, it won't be bland -__-

You know, if you want bland, you should look at the Porto Metro. It's so white and clean, it feels a little unusual:

Photography by z.z of Flickr

[Vancity]

Originally Posted by nname

^ if that's any indication of regular passenger load, they need to run trains more often than every 6 minutes at 8 PM.

Yeah, they may change the frequency of the trains coming during the evenings, if indeed those pictures above are any indication of passengers during those times.

Would be the wise thing to do.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Vancity

I was going to say the same thing. Sooo, it may seem like Translink might have underestimated. They said that they expected 100,000 daily riders by 2011 or 2010 (please correct me if I'm wrong). We have 70,000 on the first official day. Maybe those structural upgrades (platform length to 50 m, etc) are going to come sooner than expected at this rate.

Well, in all fairness, I do think there were still quite a few people touring the line today for its novelty. After a few weeks, the ridership should marginally decrease with the decreased novelty BUT it should be offset by actual real commuter transit ridership growth and the back to school and back to work population.

I think they'll get more trains for higher frequencies before expanding platforms to accommodate longer trains. It'll take 3-4 years to get more trains in service.

Does anyone know how many trains the OMC can fit?

[Vancity]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ public art is coming later to the Canada Line. InTransitBC has their own plans, and the City of Vancouver has big plans to supplement InTransitBC's as part of Vancouver's public art initiative for the 2010 Games. Most of the 2010 fixtures will be permanent.

I can't wait to see what them!

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by deasine

Oh once there are ads plastered everywhere, it won't be bland -__-

You know, if you want bland, you should look at the Porto Metro. It's so white and clean, it feels a little unusual:

Photography by z.z of Flickr

lol, no doubt it takes quite a bit of maintenance to keep it so white.

[Vancity]

Someone here mentioned about the map on board the Canada Line trains. Why didn't InTransit go with an LED type of map, like the one they have on the MTR trains? That would look SO much better, and it doesn't look cheap.

MTR Train map

[mr.x]

^ They cut a few corners to reduce costs on trains, like on the seat material and even the bars (instead of dulled looking, they are reflective). Hopefully, they'll install the live maps sometime in the near future.


I forgot to mention that the full train advertising wraps look surprisingly good.....and as for the interior, the seats aren't all that bad but they aren't vandal proof. You can see a ton of fingerprints on the bars, as they are reflective. And some stickers, like the ones for the yellow emergency bar, are missing/have been peeled off.

I also have to say i love not having ads inside the train, it looks so clean....only for a limited time.

[baggab]

Originally Posted by CLC

have anyone taken a ride on 98-b since Canada Line opened, I wonder if 98-b ridership has been clearly down?

I saw 2 B-Lines running together earlier today at 5pm, There wasn't any standing loads while they crossed the Granville Street Bridge towards Richmond.

Usually, a third of the load gets off around 70th and Granville.

[deasine]

Stephen Rees has quite a positive post on the Canada Line, surprisingly.

http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/my-first-ride-on-the-canada-line/

As for the interiors, I do think they need to stick yellow disinfecting (or whatever you call that) tape over the bars... it just looks cleaner.