West LRT | 7 Stations | 8.0 KM | In Service

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by kw5150

The train is luxury and the views are amazing.

Nothing says luxury like sitting beside a drunk who yells at random people every few minutes.

[RyLucky]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Nothing says luxury like sitting beside a drunk who yells at random people every few minutes.

A lot of people pay good money to hang out with random drunks

[nick.flood]

delete

[fusili]

Originally Posted by nick.flood

A lot of people pay good money to be that random drunk.

Only if the drunkeness is random to other people. If I got randomly drunk, I would start to worry. "What is in this water? It is pure vodka!"

[RicoLance21]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

You don't become rich spending $20/day on parking downtown. Anyway, it's quite the luxurious ride on the WLRT.

Not to mention the abundance of seats available for those waiting at 69 Ave station.

[freeweed]

Who and where are these drunks riding the Ctrain during daylight hours?

[kw5150]

I cant believe the money people pay to sit in traffic with a bunch of (clearly) assholes with no social skills. The new train is great. You should try it out before you comment. Calgary will always be a transit city. No city in the world has been able to solve traffic issues by building more freeways and interchanges......and the ones that tried, now lament it.

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Nothing says luxury like sitting beside a drunk who yells at random people every few minutes.

[Elbownian]

Originally Posted by kw5150

Calgary will always be a transit city.

We have to be careful not to pat ourselves on the back too much simply because our LRT is successful in terms of sheer numbers carried. Until people start regularly using transit for more than just commuting to work, I don't think Calgary can reasonably be called a "transit city".

[kw5150]

I dont get this comment. Lots of people take the train outside of rush hour. The weekends ridership is quite high actually. I think it is ok for Calgary to pat itself on the back. Tonnes of people use the train, who cares if most of it is during rush hour. The LRT connects to so many things in Calgary.

Originally Posted by Elbownian

We have to be careful not to pat ourselves on the back too much simply because our LRT is successful in terms of sheer numbers carried. Until people start regularly using transit for more than just commuting to work, I don't think Calgary can reasonably be called a "transit city".

[Elbownian]

I'm not talking about peak/off peak so much as the purpose of the trip. I'm addressing the fact that the vast majority of transit users use transit only to commute, and then drive to shop, visit friends, etc. When we get more people doing the majority of their travelling via transit, regardless of the purpose of the trip, I'd be more comfortable with a designation like "transit city".

[freeweed]

Manhattan is a transit city. Calgary is taking baby steps towards that, but is several decades away from it as a reality.

Got to witness the fun of a 69th St train today. So many newbie train riders... they all crammed in the doorways while the middle aisles had plenty of room (and I thought the side-seating was supposed to allow for even MORE standing room... oh well). It was pretty comical to watch, but I imagine people will figure it out in time.

Of course then I got to see a NW train go as far as Dalhousie, drop everyone off, then turn around. In the time it took the driver to do that, he probably could have made it to Crowfoot and turned around there. But instead CT decided that it made more sense to have dozens of people standing outside for a while waiting for the next train. I've never seen this behaviour on any other metro system but CT manages to do this to me several times each winter. It's really annoying.

[DizzyEdge]

Man the perimeter seating on those newer cars, ridiculously uncomfortable, after about 3 stops I decided to stand instead and the car was mostly empty :/

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Manhattan is a transit city. Calgary is taking baby steps towards that, but is several decades away from it as a reality.

Got to witness the fun of a 69th St train today. So many newbie train riders... they all crammed in the doorways while the middle aisles had plenty of room (and I thought the side-seating was supposed to allow for even MORE standing room... oh well). It was pretty comical to watch, but I imagine people will figure it out in time.

Of course then I got to see a NW train go as far as Dalhousie, drop everyone off, then turn around. In the time it took the driver to do that, he probably could have made it to Crowfoot and turned around there. But instead CT decided that it made more sense to have dozens of people standing outside for a while waiting for the next train. I've never seen this behaviour on any other metro system but CT manages to do this to me several times each winter. It's really annoying.

Toronto short turns many of its trains on the Yonge-University-Spadina line, and plans to do so even more once the new extention opens.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Manhattan is a transit city. Calgary is taking baby steps towards that, but is several decades away from it as a reality.

True say.

Some people might attempt to justify calling Calgary a transit city as one does not need a car in Calgary but, to be honest, in a true transit city it goes beyond not needing a car. In places like Paris and Manhattan, not only do you not need a car you probably don't want a car.

[floobie]

The label "transit city" is reasonable if you maintain context. Calgary's transit system is obviously small potatoes compared to that of New York, or even a lot of European cities around the 1 million mark. But, for a North American city of a bit over 1 million, Calgary's transit system is excellent. Arguably the best.

But, I do agree: In Calgary, a car could reasonably be labelled a luxury. It's nice to have, but you don't NEED it to get around the city. Outside of peak hours, a car is generally the fastest way to travel. Owning a car in Calgary still gets you something, even if you have to pay a lot more for it. Outside of rush hour, driving is generally the fastest way to get around in Calgary. In cities like New York, a car is arguably an inconvenience. Friends of the family in Berlin seem to think so (have a look at their S-Bahn and U-Bahn networks). They have one car (a Mercedes A Class) which they basically never use, because driving is just always a pain in the ass (always takes longer, always requires battling with traffic, etc.) and it sounded like they were on the verge of getting rid of it. While you can find a similar attitude here, it's basically limited to inner-city dwelling urbanists who take pride in choosing to use transit.

[J-D]

Originally Posted by floobie

The label "transit city" is reasonable if you maintain context. Calgary's transit system is obviously small potatoes compared to that of New York, or even a lot of European cities around the 1 million mark. But, for a North American city of a bit over 1 million, Calgary's transit system is excellent. Arguably the best.

But, I do agree: In Calgary, a car could reasonably be labelled a luxury. It's nice to have, but you don't NEED it to get around the city. Outside of peak hours, a car is generally the fastest way to travel. Owning a car, in Calgary, still gets you something, even if you have to pay a lot more for it. Outside of rush hour, driving is generally the fastest way to get around in Calgary. In cities like New York, a car is arguably an inconvenience. Friends of the family in Berlin seem to think so (have a look at their S-Bahn and U-Bahn networks). They have one car (a Mercedes A Class) which they basically never use, because driving is just always a pain in the ass (always takes longer, always requires battling with traffic, etc.) and it sounded like they were on the verge of getting rid of it.

Arguably the best transit system for a North American city over 1 million? Really?

It's not a luxury to own a car here. It's a necessity outside of commuting to the downtown core.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by J-D

Arguably the best transit system for a North American city over 1 million? Really?

Retread the quote, that's not what was said.

[Elbownian]

Originally Posted by J-D

It's not a luxury to own a car here. It's a necessity outside of commuting to the downtown core.

Uhh, over four years car free here. Doing fine thanks! There's a limited number of places in the city with adequate transit options to make it feasible, and I recognize that it's not for everyone, but it can be done.

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Of course then I got to see a NW train go as far as Dalhousie, drop everyone off, then turn around. In the time it took the driver to do that, he probably could have made it to Crowfoot and turned around there. But instead CT decided that it made more sense to have dozens of people standing outside for a while waiting for the next train. I've never seen this behaviour on any other metro system but CT manages to do this to me several times each winter. It's really annoying.

Several lines on the Shanghai Metro have trains that don't go all the way to the terminal station. But they do clearly sign and announce these trains, so it's not like you get on a train and don't know that it's not going all the way to the end of the line.

[kora]

Originally Posted by Elbownian

Uhh, over four years car free here. Doing fine thanks! There's a limited number of places in the city with adequate transit options to make it feasible, and I recognize that it's not for everyone, but it can be done.

In the Beltline and downtown you can usually negotiate $100 - $200 off your rent if you don't need a parking space. Pretty big incentive to go without a car.