Canada Line | Completed

[ryanmaccdn]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I feel kind of sorry for the Jugo Juice folks, there's never any customers at their Canada Line outlets when I'm there.

its their stupid fault.... put a Tim Hortons or Starbucks and it would have been a gold mine... plus that brand is over saturated for being so new.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by ryanmaccdn

its their stupid fault.... put a Tim Hortons or Starbucks and it would have been a gold mine... plus that brand is over saturated for being so new.

I think they should have put each one up individually to the highest bidder. Some would be Tims some Starbucks, others could have been sandwich, pizza or sushi shops. Having them all be Jugo Juice smacks of collusion, and doesn't sound like the best ROI possible.

I give them until next summer. They'll hold out as long as possible, but still not do enough business in summer to survive, not all of them. The hot dog vendors on the street in front the stations will do better business.

[CLC]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I feel kind of sorry for the Jugo Juice folks, there's never any customers at their Canada Line outlets when I'm there.

The only Jugo Juice I have seen no customers yet is King Edwards. They should have made a shop at Langara instead. Oakridge, Vanc City Centre shops are fine.

[SpongeG]

are they open now? when did that happen? last time i used it they didn't look anywhere near open

they are franchises too aren't they? the sign said you could get that location you had to contact them

[CLC]

^ likely you haven't ridden Canada Line this month.

You can check which store has been opened:
http://www.jugojuice.com/locations/british-columbia

[metroXpress]

^ nice, I guess that's all of them!

[zivan56]

Do people actually buy that stuff in quantities requiring more stores than Starbucks? Are they even profitable?

Is the stuff they are selling in the stations even allowed in the trains/station? A spilled smoothie sounds like a big mess to clean up...

[deasine]

Originally Posted by zivan56

Do people actually buy that stuff in quantities requiring more stores than Starbucks? Are they even profitable?

Is the stuff they are selling in the stations even allowed in the trains/station? A spilled smoothie sounds like a big mess to clean up...

Oh trust me people do buy their stuff. It gets "relatively" busy during lunch periods, but dead at nights. But I have to say, if you are to feel sorry for Jugo Juice, you should feel sorry for the stores at Waterfront and Olympic Village, because you can only access those stores if you were leaving the Canada Line. At Olympic Village, the store is placed directly beside the escalator, but before the stairs, and there is a sign that says "NO ACCESS TO PLATFORMS" so no one would obviously enter that way. Same at Waterfront.

Yaletown has an odd configuration, where their prep area is off of the actual store, so people always walk from the prep area to their store with knives, chopping boards, etc (THROUGH THE STATION).

[TZTag]

Was up for 5 days and rode the trains a bunch. Here are my thoughts and observations:

Landed at YVR, no trouble finding the Canada Line station.

Even after reading all about the ticket machines on this forum, I still screwed it up the first time. Pulled the card out as soon as the light turned yellow, but that is evidently too early. Tried it again, waited for the blink and it worked. Generally, every station needs more ticket machines, especially Yaletown, which is also missing a YVR ticket check-in machine as well. Only saw one machine out of order in 5 days.

On the train the first thing that struck me was how incredibly quiet it is. Amazingly so. I ride San Fran Muni and Bart a ton, and this had to be only half as loud. The cars were wider and longer than I expected, each car felt about the same length as a Bart car but perhaps a little wider. I thought that the handicap/bike area in the center of each trainset could have been laid out much more effeciently. Considering the amount of floor space there needs to be more grab rails/hangers in that area for when the trains are at crush capacity. Liked the interior styling. Overall thought the trainsets were very nice, comfortable, and except for the big open area at the center there were plenty of grab rails while standing. Rode the other skytrain lines and those trainsets felt tiny compared to the Canada line cars.

The whole line felt very slow, as if they are still testing it. Acceleration was slow compared to the other Skytrain lines, Muni, and Bart. The approach to the stations felt incredibly slow. There seemed to be no consistency in the speeds that curves were taken across the line. Some turns that are wide radius are taken at lower speeds than some tighter radius turns. A few places where speeds were a little higher you could feel the potential of the trains- good acceleration and then strong but comfortable braking. Seems like there are multiple minutes of travel time to be saved in tuning the train speeds, accel, and decel.

There was a big rainstorn last night and we were trying out a new restaurant close to coal harbor. Thought we would just transfer at City Center through the mall then hop the Expo to Burrard to save some steps in the rain, but although they call out the transfer to the Expo line to the right when you are in the mezzanine of the station, they evidently lock the doors early so that really isn't an option at night. We were one of a ton of people to go outside and walk the half block down Granville to the Expo entrance. Easy area for improvement.

Station design was fine, nothing flashy but nothing offensive. Overall a non-issue. Only station that seemed super-stark was Olympic Village. Platform length of the underground stations didn't seem too short either. I didn't use the above-ground ones very much, but the undergrounds seemed fine for the crowds that were riding. I rode it during the morning rush on Friday and although the trains were very full the stations seemed to handle it well. The green jacket guys actually seemed to be enjoying their jobs and were enthusiastic about helping get people moving in the right direction.

Having a place in Yaletown, I was absolutely loving the options that this line opened for us. We walked around to Olympic Village to check it out, hopped the Expo back to waterfront and then Canada line back to Yaletown. Used it to hit Home Depot on the other side of False Creek. Easy access to Coal Harbor and Gastown now. It just flat-out makes getting around downtown a joy.

Last comments, and for me the best thing about this line (and the other skytrain systems.) *Frequency.* I can't say enough about how much I love the frequency compared to what I'm used to in San Fran. The Muni Metro system is unreliable enough that I often run for a train because if I miss it it could be another 20-30 minuted before another shows up, and I live on the busiest train line in the city. The stress relief in knowing another train is only ~3-4 min away regardless of when you show up is priceless. If a tradeoff had to be made, I'd much rather have the shorter trainsets we have on Canada Line to get the frequency vs longer trains, bigger stations, and less frequency.

Overall, totally digging the new line!

[cjohnny4]

Originally Posted by TZTag

There was a big rainstorn last night and we were trying out a new restaurant close to coal harbor. Thought we would just transfer at City Center through the mall then hop the Expo to Burrard to save some steps in the rain, but although they call out the transfer to the Expo line to the right when you are in the mezzanine of the station, they evidently lock the doors early so that really isn't an option at night. We were one of a ton of people to go outside and walk the half block down Granville to the Expo entrance. Easy area for improvement.

I rode the line down to Richmond today and came back. On the way back downtown, I thought I'd stop by Pacific Central Station to pick up an Amtrak ticket I had purchased. I transferred at Vancouver City Centre, walked through Pacific Centre (it was open since it was only about 4:00 p.m.), through the food court, and into the Expo Line station. This was quite easy, and it got me thinking about why the maps above the doors in the Canada Line trains don't mark Vancouver City Centre and Granville Stations as connected to each other. I realize that on the smaller maps in the stations, this is marked with a line that says "3 min." Still, it should be made clear on the trains that such a transfer is possible. The walk through Pacific Centre is minor compared to some of the transfer distances you have to walk in Tokyo or Paris. It also seems that Pacific Centre has a vested interest in making the way clear to riders with a lot of signage through the mall since it would draw potential customers past quite a few shops. With this underground connection between the two stations, the stations could almost be considered one station with two lines running through it. Granted the hours when Pacific Centre is open are limited, but perhaps Translink could work with Pacific Centre and a security team to keep this part of the mall open and secure as a passageway between stations during the times the Skytrain is in operation.

[Metro-One]

Thank you! This is what I have been saying since i came to this forum, we have a true underground mall transfer at Granville Station and City Center! All they need to do is add better signage and post it on the map with a little post note saying, "during mall hours." Also it would not hurt to even mark this transfer with a yellow strip on the ground that goes from one station to the other (which is done at many underground mall transfers in other city's metros).

[SpongeG]

its only mall hours though

[Metro-One]

I know, that is why i said they should add "only during mall hours" on the main direction signs and maps as well. But those malls are open during all of rush hour!

Same thing happens in some transfers where I was in Japan as well, after 10 or 11 some of the passageways through the malls would be closed.

[deasine]

Whenever there is a 5+ minute delay on the Canada Line, a meeting with TransLink and ProTransBC occurs, requiring ProTransBC to explain the cause for the delay.

In other news, the glass of the front of Jugo Juice in Waterfront Stn has been damaged because a man, who was presumed trying to find a way to get down to the platform, was frustrated when he found that the escalator was going up, so he punched the glass on the right. He was shocked that his fist actually wen through, and he ran away. Don't people read "NO ACCESS TO PLATFORMS" and "NO ENTRY" signs?

[Pinion]

From my experience, most people downtown don't read signs of any kind.

That Waterfront Jugo Juice is the worst location. It's got competition from itself on the more busy, easier-to-access heritage side. You don't even walk past it going in from Granville, and not many people notice it while exiting that way (the few that do).

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I know, that is why i said they should add "only during mall hours" on the main direction signs and maps as well. But those malls are open during all of rush hour!

Same thing happens in some transfers where I was in Japan as well, after 10 or 11 some of the passageways through the malls would be closed.

my point is don't encourage it to be a transfer point just make waterfront the transfer point

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by deasine

...In other news, the glass of the front of Jugo Juice in Waterfront Stn has been damaged because a man, who was presumed trying to find a way to get down to the platform, was frustrated when he found that the escalator was going up, so he punched the glass on the right. He was shocked that his fist actually wen through, and he ran away. Don't people read "NO ACCESS TO PLATFORMS" and "NO ENTRY" signs?

Vancouver's junkie community strikes again, no doubt. When will the City ever get tough with these losers?

[Waders]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

my point is don't encourage it to be a transfer point just make waterfront the transfer point

I always use Waterfront Station to transfer to/from Canada Line and Expo Line because this guarantees me to be able to get a front seat in Canada Line train and a forward facing single seat in a MK-II train.

I haven't done a timing of the walk but I think transfering at Waterfront may even be shorter and faster. Granville Station is located much deeper underground and has such a long escalator.

Last Sunday I tried the Granville transfer at 5:30pm. I almost got blocked as a security guy had just started to lower the gate between the Bay store and Vancouver Centre.

[Metro-One]

my point is don't encourage it to be a transfer point just make waterfront the transfer point

Why not? It is there, it helps bring foot traffic to the mall. Also it helps relieve pressure from the Waterfront stations/platforms.

Why do people here love putting all their eggs in one basket?

[mr.x]

If they can get some sort of deal with Pacific Centre/Vancouver Centre and HBC with having a security patrolled corridor between Granville Station and VCS during closed hours, I'm all for indicating it as a transfer point....but given how we don't really have a transit-smart/aware populace, I wouldn't indicate it on the maps just yet. It'll just add to the confusion.