The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary's MAX Yellow Line will be coming online on December 23. A Christmas miracle The fourth and final line of phase 1 of Calgary's BRT Network. This was the one that lead to a huge controversy and death threats and shit back in 2016.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ Service levels are shit because of the city failing to lock in operational cost increases when building things, just like the rest of the BRT network.

[Chadillaccc]

Yeah, and with our new piece of shit government it's only going to get worse.

[Dengler Avenue]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/two-way-all-day-go-trains-metrolinx-1.5370109

2025 now

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[Apey]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

We visit Ottawa's Rideau station, the second busiest station in the O-Train system with cool features like Canada's longest transit escalator in this new Station Focus video! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUMWYuhK1ms

Awesome video! Brought back many happy shopping trips taken in that area and using the station to get to and from the hotel we stayed at! Thanks again!

[Apey]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/two-way-all-day-go-trains-metrolinx-1.5370109

2025 now

Sounds like it will be a good system to go straight from the Toronto area to the Kitchener area! AKA great for shopping trips!

[MisterMillionz]

"New" map for Montreal's metro and surrounding (or overlapping) systems found on ARTM's website! Pretty cool to see how the Exo trains, REM and metro look altogether... this is the map they'll probably be putting all over the city in a few years. skip to 1:51 time frame and you get the map with all the named stations, lines and connections: https://www.artm.quebec/signaletique-metropolitaine/

New to SSP so not sure how to post a proper pic or screenshot

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[Apey]

Originally Posted by MisterMillionz

"New" map for Montreal's metro and surrounding (or overlapping) systems found on ARTM's website! Pretty cool to see how the Exo trains, REM and metro look altogether... this is the map they'll probably be putting all over the city in a few years. skip to 1:51 time frame and you get the map with all the named stations, lines and connections: https://www.artm.quebec/signaletique-metropolitaine/

New to SSP so not sure how to post a proper pic or screenshot

Awesome video! Also informative!

[Apey]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

Marine Drive station is beautiful and we made a video about it! Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/g04VgoD2mBg

If I ever get to Vancouver will have to check this station out! Great video, well done!

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by melissasandever

If I ever get to Vancouver will have to check this station out! Great video, well done!

I would recommend checking out New Westminster Station.

The shopping center and developments enclosing the station feels straight out of Japan.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I would recommend checking out New Westminster Station.

The shopping center and developments enclosing the station feels straight out of Japan.

I remember getting my lunch there on a Saturday afternoon in August 2013.

When I passed by on the skytrain, I was like, “I’ve never seen a station like this.”

[yaletown_fella]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

New Presto readers are being installed, and they'll accept credit card payment soon in the future!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xmo2u0v3pc

They should have been designed to scan the Presto account directly on the phone.

It's taken me 1-3 days to wait for the metropass to be uploaded on the account. And suddenly my card has stopped scanning altogether. Such a horrible system. Presto cards are too cumbersome, break or de-magnatize easily (like mine has) and easy to misplace. They're so much trouble.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by yaletown_fella

They should have been designed to scan the Presto account directly on the phone.

It's taken me 1-3 days to wait for the metropass to be uploaded on the account. And suddenly my card has stopped scanning altogether. Such a horrible system. Cards are too cumbersome, break or de-magnatize easily (like mine has) and easy to misplace.

That's part of the functionality the new system will offer; you'll be able to use the NFC reader of your phone to use your Presto account. (They already allow you to instantly reload your card this way with the Presto app). However.. only if you have an Android. This will not be possible for iPhones, because Apple has locked out the NFC reader from app developers to try to force people to use Apple Pay, so it's not possible for Metrolinx to apply this functionality to an iPhone app. (And no, they aren't going to start accepting Apple Pay on buses. The fees Apple charges are way too high for that. Do we really want our public transit dollars going to Apple?).

Also, it's impossible for Presto cards to demagnetize because they don't have any magnets in them in the first place. It's an NFC card, so it's a chip, not a magnetic stripe.

[yaletown_fella]

Originally Posted by CityTech

That's part of the functionality the new system will offer; you'll be able to use the NFC reader of your phone to use your Presto account. (They already allow you to instantly reload your card this way with the Presto app). However.. only if you have an Android. This will not be possible for iPhones, because Apple has locked out the NFC reader from app developers to try to force people to use Apple Pay, so it's not possible for Metrolinx to apply this functionality to an iPhone app. (And no, they aren't going to start accepting Apple Pay on buses. The fees Apple charges are way too high for that. Do you really want our public transit dollars going to Apple?).

Also, it's impossible for Presto cards to demagnetize because they don't have any magnets in them in the first place. It's an NFC card, so it's a chip, not a magnetic stripe.

Thanks for the feedback. I think my galaxy s8 should be adequate then, Feel bad for people who shelled out a bunch of money on new iPhones.

[gunnar777]

Originally Posted by CityTech

That's part of the functionality the new system will offer; you'll be able to use the NFC reader of your phone to use your Presto account. (They already allow you to instantly reload your card this way with the Presto app). However.. only if you have an Android. This will not be possible for iPhones, because Apple has locked out the NFC reader from app developers to try to force people to use Apple Pay, so it's not possible for Metrolinx to apply this functionality to an iPhone app. (And no, they aren't going to start accepting Apple Pay on buses. The fees Apple charges are way too high for that. Do we really want our public transit dollars going to Apple?).

Also, it's impossible for Presto cards to demagnetize because they don't have any magnets in them in the first place. It's an NFC card, so it's a chip, not a magnetic stripe.

This makes no sense. Translink in Vancouver accepts mobile wallets, as does TfL. Fees already go to giant corporations VISA/MC/AMEX, what does it matter if apple/samsung/Google gets a cut?

[ssiguy]

What I like about many newer Vancouver SkyTrain stations is the use of wood. Wood has a soothing effect that helps negate the rather sterile stations themselves. Even the nicest stations with nice public art desplays still feel like a bunker at the platforms themselves and wood really helps create a more natural and less sterile and alienating feel.

Vancouver has also done a very good job of coordinating the bus {both local and suburban} with the stations and generally have large shelters and benches to make your wait a more pleasant {and drier} one. They have also done a good job of connecting major regional hubs and transit-friendly environments. All SkyTrain stations are completely accessible which is a feather in her cap.

Vancouver's SkyTrain stations, nearly uniformally, suffer from 3 main issues. Few have more than one entry/exit point, many have no down escalators and are concrete and when running down the stairs to catch your bus in Vancouver moist climate, the stairs are often slippery and hence can be rather hazardous.

The biggest shortcoming of all SkyTrain stations are, of course, their very small sizes. The largest stations can only hold 72 meter trains which is little more than the capacity of 3 standard subway/mMetro trains. Thankfully the Expo/Mill/EG lines were designed to be expandable to roughly 105 meters so expansion is possible. The CL line tations are truly Mickey Mouse being only 40 meters expandable to only 50 which is shockingly and irreponsibly short sighted. This is made even worse by the platforms being rather thin.

[MalcolmTucker]

It isn’t the size of your platforms that matter, it is the systems ability to support a certain number of people per direction per hour. The Canada Line could have platforms twice as long, but would still suffer from congestion these days because they don’t have enough cars. The congestion isn’t the fault of the platforms - the maximum ppdph of the Canada Line is more than double what it is operated at today.

Platform size matters more when you have human operators and the cost of paying them holds back your frequency.

As for the sky train - it will have made it 40 years or more without those longer stations. Would there have been fewer stations if every station had had to be larger from day 1? How much lower would frequency have been over the years with the temptation to keep trains set up at their maximum length most of the time? Those choices have costs, either capital or from the users.