Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[trofirhen]

I stand corrected. No new tain purchases for a few years, but an increase in frequencies has got to be in the immediate future.

[NetMapel]

Wait, doesn't it take a couple of years from ordering new trains to getting them ? If that's the case, then we need to order now so we get them just about when we will start needing new trains

[jlousa]

Still think we are ~10yrs away from reaching the traffic levels we are seeing during the games. I think we could hold off on ordering more trains for at least another 4yrs, with money tight I think there are higher priorities, although if we run into money then sure order them sooner.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Olympics or no Olympics, all of this demonstrates clearly that Translink needs to buy some more trains for the Canada Line and increase train frequencies - FAST ! ! !

Surely you can't think to base long term capital decisions on a 2 week event that is never coming back.

Not saying we don't need more cars, but...

[Overground]

I was wondering if anyone has some sources on Canada Line numbers for boardings at YVR or trips to it, pre-Olympics. Also boardings at Sea Island and Templeton. I'm writing on paper on how Canada Line is contributing to Sea Island, especially to employees.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I'll disagree, it shows that the line can handle ~200,000 daily riders with the current trains, we won't reach that outside of something like the Olympics for a long long time.

I would agree with you. This clearly shows that the Canada Line, built as is, can reasonably handle unreasonable crowds and surges.

When I was out and about lastnight in the evening everything seemed to be running smoothly. Canada line was running every 3 minutes and full, then after 11 it was running every 6 minutes, and full, but no waits.

The Olympic Line is running amazingly well too. Three cheers to the city for setting it up, without it getting to Granville Island would have been impossible. (P.S. Granville Island seems to the place to go if you want to have some fun and get away from the overly policed feeling and protesters in Downtown). The place was hopping all the way to midnight thanks to the streetcars.

They seem to be managing the demand very well so far. We'll see how it goes today now that it's super sunny out, and will probably not rain the rest of the day.

[squeezied]

I'd like to see how well LRT in the middle of Broadway could handle long lineups!

[GeeCee]

1.5 hour wait for SkyTrain at Waterfront station right now..

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by zivan56

Took a nightbus N15 at 3am and it was 100% full with people standing in the stairwells...lots were complaining about why the Canada Line is closed so early. Saw at least 5 taxis dropping off people at Olympic Village. I couldn't get a taxi walking over 15 mins around the busiest parts of town, they were all full.

I read several weeks ago that the BC Taxi Commission allowed FIVE more temporary taxi licenses in Vancouver for the Olympics. Thats right -- a whopping 1% increase in taxis for the Olympics. The big four have roughly 480 cars in Vancouver right now.

Now they have increased that to 485. Big Whoop.

They are justifying this because they are delaying retirement of some cabs that should have been retired on Jan 1st.

Meanwhile one of the local limo companies has applied for 50 temporary licenses (increasing their fleet by 20%) for the Olympics.

[SpongeG]

commercial drive station is nuts so i got on and rode to clark and waited and came back same people still waiting when i left and came back it was busier trains were full until lougheed well brentwood took off a big number of opeople but about 90% got off at lougheed i would guess

last night at 11 pm lougheed mall's parking lot was extremely busy

[SpongeG]

i noticed today there is all new olympic signage at commercial/broadway

I didn't have my camera with me but it wasn't there last week

maybe someone will get there and take pics...

[jsbertram]

There still needs to be some better signage at Waterfront and other stations for Olympic-specific stations so you can look up your Olympic Destination and see what train(s) go there.

ie:
Canada Hockey Place: Take Expo line or Millenium line trains to STADIUM station
Richmond Oval: Take Canada line trains to BRIGHOUSE Station

And within those stations, from the platform there needs to be large signage to send visitors in the right directions to the olympic venues, Live City sites, or national houses.

[Zassk]

City of Richmond set up some great wayfinding signage of its own around its downtown, but you have to get to the right station before those will be of any help.

[jlousa]

Spent the morning on Granville Island, was able to walk right onto the Canada Line at Waterfront, at OV was able to walk right onto the streetcar with no wait. It was great, on the way back there was a huge lineup for the streetcar but surprisingly it swallowed everyone up and I didn't have to wait. When I got back to OV there appeared to be a 2 maybe 3 train wait for the streetcar line, and I finally got held up for the Canada Line, they were holding us up top, I decided to time it to see and it was just under 10 minutes before we got on a train. I was pretty impressed, 10 min is the regular wait on a lot of lines.

[Metro-One]

All I can say, after riding the Canada line the last 4 days (working in Yaletown for the Olympics) that it really has proven itself that it can handle huge traffic volumes. I have had 0 train waits.

I think many of you can put your worst case under built scenarios to rest about this line.

If it can handle over 150 000 people a day using its current schedule (I saw trains every 3 minutes on the main line) think about how much it can handle when the frequencies are only 90 seconds on the main line, all stations are 50 m long, all trains are 3 cars long and a few more entrances/exits are added to the busier stations.

[Zassk]

I guess it is the wide cars that make the Canada Line work? Or the seat layout or something?

I find it weird that the old SkyTrain lines need almost double the platform length to handle these numbers.

There are still worse days ahead to test the Canada Line. Starting Tuesday there will be 3 games/day at GM Place, plus 3 games/day at Riley Park, plus speedskating most days, plus a victory ceremony, plus weekday rush hour traffic.

[SpongeG]

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[SpongeG]

hmm

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[Hot Rod]

nice to know that Vancouver's subways can be operated manually if necessary.

[WarrenC12]

I rode the Canada Line at Yaletown last night around 7pm. It was busy, but no waits. Of course the line-directing Nazis were out in full force, directing us in ways opposite to the posted signage, when the volume was such that no crowd control was necessary.

Then my friend goes to buy a ticket at one of the 2 TVMs at Yaletown (no lineup), and the staff specifically directed him away saying "you can buy a ticket at your destination", which of course was code for "get on for free.".

But in my mind there was no reason for this. I don't get it.

Being yelled at when you're just following the posted signs makes you feel like a 4 yr old who's done something wrong.

Got on the Olympic line around the same time too.. my first ride, it was great. The cars are a little thin, but otherwise a nice ride, smooth and quiet.