Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[CLC]

Originally Posted by squeezied

i just read the terms and conditions... it doesn't say, but i'm guessing they'll review every single one..

i'm also guessing there won't be ads on the train? there better not be. it would — so have your picture covered up

I'm also wondering if the "pixel train" will be permanent?

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by mooks28

I believe those are orange boxes.

a nice shade of orange too i painted a table that colour

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i worked with a woman who lived in chilliwack she commuted to burnaby (near brentwood) for work - thought she was crazy 60 mins was about the quickest i think it would take

I knew someone who did that as well for awhile, claimed he could drive from Chilliwack to Mission West Coast Express in 15 minutes. Now he's working in Abbotsford.

60 minutes from Chilliwack to Burnaby is not unreasonable if you get to work at 6am.

[SpongeG]

she worked um late like 3pm till 1 am i think

coming in would be bad going home was better

that wuld be brutal cause traffic backs up most of the day west bound

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by deasine

I'm not convincing you. I'm not convincing anyone here. I would love to see commuter rail services as well, and those that reach far out. But really, is there enough demand to break even? If there is, go ahead. If there isn't, this needs to be thought out a little more.

I think DENSITY is the key. In Europe (including the UK of course) those little towns can often be deceptively substantial in terms of population, with everything neatly designed and "jigsawed" together. As such, they can support commuter rail, whereas less dense, sprawling North American suburbs - even with a handful of apartment buildings - often cannot.

[SpongeG]

plus not that many people in those far flung suburbs work in vancouver downtown

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

does anyone know what these are? are they art? future function? old function?
they are inside waterfront station - canada line near the ticket machines

Those Emily Carr students are at it again, confusing the rest of us with their art.

A bit too minimalist for my taste though.

[mr.x]

Apparently there were severe disruptions on SkyTrain this evening when a man was walking on the guideway between Broadway and Main Street Stations. Is it just me or have these guideway intrusion incidents been a bit more common this year?

[squeezied]

I have a feeling it's zwei trying to prove a point that skytrains are prone to disruptions.

[red-paladin]

My skytrain car abruptly stopped a few days ago in the same area with an announcement that the guideway sensor was tripped. However, the train started in a few moments.

[nname]

Originally Posted by squeezied

I have a feeling it's zwei trying to prove a point that skytrains are prone to disruptions.

Then we can show him this (Seattle's Central Link has on-time performance of just 71%)

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by squeezied

I have a feeling it's zwei trying to prove a point that skytrains are prone to disruptions.

Zwei's way of proving that SkyTrain kills ten times more people than LRT.

[invisibleairwaves]

Clearly the Skytrain needs a "ding ding" bell to avoid this sort of thing.

But adding one would take money away from rail in the valley, so we should just replace the whole thing with LRT instead.

[CLC]

Public transit gets post-Olympic boost: TransLink

By Frank Luba, The Province May 21, 2010 9:02 PM

Commuters forced to take transit during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics may be sticking with their SeaBus, SkyTrain or bus now the Games are over, according to quarterly statistics from TransLink.

Revenue ridership — the number of people that paid to take a TransLink service — was up a surprising 19.3 per cent in March over the same month in 2009.

The figure doesn’t compare to the staggering 50.7 per cent hike in revenue passengers during the Olympics in February of 2010, compared February 2009.

But March’s total wasn’t just inflated by ridership on the new Canada Line, because the ridership in January 2010 was only up 3.1 per cent over January of 2009.

TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie guessed Friday that at least part of the increase came from riders like those from south Surrey and White Rock — riders that anecdotally were pleasantly surprised by their trip downtown during the Games.

“We’re pleased,” said Hardie. “That [increase] does probably exceed what we were expecting. We were probably looking overall in the year maybe a two- to three-per-cent lift in ridership.”

Revenue ridership system-wide was 17,988,305 in March, compared to 15,938,397 in January.

Both figures are well behind the Olympian 22,878,141 revenue riders in March.

Hardie was unable to say how helpful the increased ridership will be for TransLink’s bottom line — or its ongoing funding shortfall of the $1 billion-plus Evergreen Line.

Maureen Bader of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was cautiously optimistic about the ridership news.

“It’s good to see that more people are looking at their options,” she said. “It will be more interesting to see if the trend continues.

“It may have been a hangover from the Olympics,” said Bader, who remains concerned about TransLink’s ongoing property-tax take, along with the gasoline tax and parking sales tax.

“The underlying problem with TransLink is that they got a pile of cash grants from different levels of government to build all kinds of infrastructure.

“They don’t have the revenue to operate that infrastructure without a massive increase in transit ridership that’s never going to happen,” she said.

“What we as taxpayers need to think about very strongly is whether the Evergreen Line should really go through, given the fact that TransLink is not going to have the funds to operate it.”

Although TransLink is raising another $130 million annually out of the Lower Mainland, that amount doesn’t cover its $400-million capital share of the Evergreen rapid transit link to Coquitlam.

[email protected]

[Waders]

Has anyone seen the following BCRTC logo before?
I just noticed it this morning on Skytrain and I don't remember seeing it before. I like the logo and color schema.


Picture from : http://www.skytrain.info/images/logo-new.gif

According to the website,

"The British Columbia Rapid Transit Company Ltd. (BCRTC) operates the innovative and internationally respected SkyTrain advanced rapid transit system. BCRTC operates the Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines, the world's longest automated light rapid transit system, connecting downtown Vancouver with the cities of Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey. SkyTrain is an operating subsidiary of TransLink."

bcrtc seems to be registered at least before 2005 but I seldom heard the name BCRTC mentioned.
I wonder whether it is just a rebranding by Translink or something more involved like company reorganization for the Evergreen line and future Broadway/UBC Line extension.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by nname

Then we can show him this (Seattle's Central Link has on-time performance of just 71%)

Interestingly, from reading the description they seem to be attributing the service reliability issues to contention with buses in the bus tunnel. You'd think that's the one place where they'd actually have the best control over conflicts...

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Zwei's way of proving that SkyTrain kills ten times more people than LRT.

Now if only he could become one of those people

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by cabotp

Now if only he could become one of those people

tut tut tut tut tut, now, now

[satishreddy]

Originally Posted by CLC

Public transit gets post-Olympic boost: TransLink

Does anyone have a link to these transit ridership statistics? How about station boardings for the Canada line?

[mr.x]

Canada Line ticket machines hit a holiday snag


Vancouver Sun
May 24, 2010

METRO VANCOUVER — Due to the Victoria Day holiday, Sunday schedules and fares are effect for all TransLink services, however, Canada Line ticket vending machines have not been programmed to charge the reduced rate.

TransLink spokesman Drew Snider is advising the public to purchase only “one zone” fares on the Canada Line and said that ticket will be honoured.

Transit police are aware of the situation and will not stop passengers carrying single-zone tickets across multiple zones. However, if anyone has bought a multi-zone ticket, they may call TransLink Customer Information 604-953-3333 and get reimbursed — usually in the form of a FareSaver ticket.

West Coast Express trains and TrainBuses are not running today.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Canada+...ay+snag/3065394/story.html#ixzz0otWOSqGn