My first impression? Crowds.
I gave up trying to start at Waterfront Station, and took a trolley to Yaletown. Crowded too, but pleasant:
Yaletown Station is a bit better than City Centre, but still has that affable blandness.
I confess, I like
d the little folly that used to occupy this space in Curtis Plaza. Its only function was to house the elevator for the parking garage below, but it fit. Nonetheless, Yaletown Station may add a little life to this space if properly programmed.
It’s a three-minute ride to City Hall. Finally, Vancouver’s civic centre will be more practically connected to its central business district. [Side note: the Hall is where it is because of the civic politics of the 1930s, just after three municipalities amalgamated to create the Vancouver we know today. It wouldn’t do to have the new City Hall located downtown (they even rejected an offer to buy the bankrupt Marine Building), and so it was built in what was then a Mt. Pleasant park.]
Anyway … I didn’t get off. Decided to take the train to Bridgeport, where the action will be when TransLink funnels most of the southern buses into this station. That meant 20 minutes in a tunnel.
As the train emerged into the light, there was an audible gasp of relief. Vancouverites have gotten used to a SkyTrain perspective, and don’t take well to riding underground. Still, it’s now possible to traverse the width of the city in the time it takes to flip through a newspaper, and to do it standing up. The ride is smooth, quiet and stable.
Beyond Marine Drive, a chance to fill in some of the holes in my mental map, to get a sense of the industrial lands that are already being eyed for transformation.
As near as I could see, a lot of this land is filled with cars – not my definition of ‘industrial’. And not likely to stay that way.
Same on the Richmond side:
Richmond has been aggressive in planning for more urbanity around its stations. Bridgeport, in addition to being the only park-and-ride in the system, is anticipated to be a playground for the kind of adult activities already provided by the River Rock Casino. The hotel-casino complex is nice enough (they even have their own wetland!), but they clearly skimped on the connection between the hotel and the station:
The landscape around Bridgeport is a suburban wasteland:
But all that’s going to change. Bridgeport is one of those places where, after a few years, you forget what used to be there, not that any of it was memorable in the first place.
No time to check out No. 3 Road (a place already evidence of the previous statement), so back on the train (after an hour wait) to City Hall Station.
This one is the best of the lot in Vancouver:
The wood, the curve, the tilt and the grade all work together to create a dynamic experience, visually and on foot, since the elevation of the platform is close to the grade of Broadway. When new buildings to the east frame the station, it will all look even better. And when the northeast corner of Cambie and Broadway has development equal to what has already occurred to the north, this will be an intersection worthy of the view.
Back on the train, no wait, to finish the trip at Waterfront – our great nexus of transportation modes (can anyone name a place that has a better mix?) – at the place, in 1887, where Vancouver literally got its start.
Not this place, of course (it’s the second CPR station) – but what a statement! As they said of Pennslyvania Station in New York (before they tore it down), one enters the city as a king. It may be that the Canada Line doesn’t connect seamlessly with the Expo Line – but if it means transferring by way of this great room, it’s more than worth the trouble.
The Canada Line is truly something to celebrate: only rarely does a city get to open such an elemental piece of infrastructure. We will be shaping our region around it for the next century. No, it’s not everything it should be (more art, please) and, yes, the station platforms should have been built for the next century too. But it’s a fine addition to a city that has a very high bar when it comes to public transportation.
Oh, one more thing – the arty shot. The tunnel is lit, and in some places is surprisingly steep and curvy. When you’re up in the front, looking through the big picture window – well, it’s the kind of experience that kids never forget. And why, when they’re adults, they really like rail rapid-transit.
Thinking back to all the opposition to this line, and now the excitement and re-thinking of city visions happening. Presumably the city counselors in Richmond no longer feel that the Canada Line is something awful being “rammed down their throats?”
I joined the crowds last night for the free ride and it is an impressive piece of infrastructure: very smooth and fast (I just wished we owned it!). And Gordon is dead on right (as usual) that we need to use these massive investments as region shapers. I am concerned that we are following the San Francisco BART model of rapid transit to serve suburban commuters. We need to both design and create transit-oriented neighbourhoods around our rapid transit but also shift our minds to local-serving transit too – something the SkyTrain/Canada Line does not do well at the moment (although the potential is there!)
One more note: beautiful clean and modern stations – but they cry out for colour and life. Really looking forward to seeing more public art or environmental graphics to save us from the borderline corporate banality of these stations.
neal1, I believe a good transportation system consists of a high capacity high speed rail backbone, intermediate capacity light rail or street car service, and a good local bus system all working together. All we are missing that intermediate capacity component to really see ridership soar.
Tried to ride the Canada line about 7pm last night starting at waterfront station. The line was so long that I knew I wouldn’t make it back by 9 so I decided to try another day. Thanks for the great preview.
Just one nit: The grade at Broadway is about the same as the mezzanine in the station, rather than the platform.
This would be the configuration for stations along the M-Line extension – at least at Oak – maybe at Main and at Granville, too, but the difference in elevation isn’t as great at those locations.
I took a brief one-stop ride on the C-line on opening day after work just so that I could say I rode it on day-one. Today I took it from Waterfront to Broadway on my lunch break since it would only took a few minutes, hardly more time than it would take to walk a couple city blocks downtown. However I first rode the line while wearing a hard hat three weeks ago after I won the Buzzer Blog’s sneak peak contest.
Just a quick point before I give my first impressions of the new line;
Neal1, we do own it. Translink has contracted ProTrans (SNC-Lavalin’s P3 infrastructure operator) to operate and maintain our line for 35 years. ProTrans BC owns all the non-fixed assets, including the trains, which are the most non-fixed of all, while Translink owns all the fixed assets, such as the tunnels, property, stations, operations centre, etc.
First impressions.
1. It is SkyTrain. The Canada Line looks, feels, and sounds so similar to the rest of the SkyTrain network that it will have no difficulty fitting in and reinforcing the larger SkyTrain rapid transit brand. I realize that ProTrans BC has zero interest in using the SkyTrain moniker, but fortunately it isn’t up to them. Translink is fully integrating the Canada Line into the SkyTrain family on maps and materials. Now we need to come up with some sort of universally recognizable logo for the SkyTrain network; our version of Paris’ Metropolitan “M”.
2. The trains are larger and ephemerally feel more like a “real” metro system than SkyTrain. This is entirely subjective, of course, but the subtle differences in design and the overall dimensions of Rotem’s cars on the Canada Line versus Bombardier’s cars on the Expo and Millennium Lines add up to a more serious metro train. With that said I think it is folly that there is so little room for growth at the platform level and this will mean that the Canada Line will never be able to run 4-car trains. This leads to my third impression.
3. The stations are very well dimensioned for the size of the train. Trains comfortably fill each station and I think we won’t experience as much ‘bunching’ in the area of the platform adjacent to the stairs and escalators since the distance one will have to walk to get to the empty doors at the ends of the train will be so small.
4. The stations are nicely proportioned and the biggest surprise for me is how unexpectedly pleasant it is to arrive at the platform level of the underground stations so soon after on enters from street level. This was especially pronounced at stations like Olympic Village, Broadway-City Hall, and Oakridge. Ample, pleasant lighting is a nice feature, though there are a few places where the light fixtures do not appear to actually cast as much light as the architects must have envisioned.
5. Everyone is happy once they get on the trains. I cannot recall the last time I have witnessed so much unrestrained civic pride. Everywhere I looked I saw people smiling and chatting to one and children at the front of the train were squealing with delight in the tunnels. As my train pulled into waterfront today I saw what appeared to be a group of a dozen kids from a summer day camp all pressed against the front window. When the train stopped, the last kid to peel himself away from the window declared with a smile and a sigh “that was awesome!” People don’t say that about cars or buses.
There is just something about trains.
Love the Canada Line and the stations, but they do need something to bring them to life , they are too sterile, we need some interesting art and maybe a coffer shop if there is room and what about a licensed musician or two??
Tess, August 18th 2009 9pm
Author
From Michael Alexander:
I rode it one stop, from Yaletown-Roundhouse to City Centre. Yes, the stations are a bit bland. More importantly, they feel open and inviting.
My first impression: they got the signs right! I don’t get lost or confused. I know that I’m heading for the train. On the platform, I know the station I’m at, the end station, the direction the train will be traveling, and when the next trains arrive. On the train, I know the next station and the end station, whether looking to the front of the train or the rear. The route maps are above the train doors. Everything’s readable, and falls to the eye when needed. Thank you!
We immediately began to see how we would use the line. Obviously, to the airport. But, importantly, for more frequent visits to the Punjabi Market, Oakridge shopping, perhaps Queen Elizabeth Park, certainly Richmond. A cultural connector.
Quiet. The trains are quiet. Is this just technology that’s 25 years newer, or are the SkyTrain lines needing a major renovation?
You’re right about the need for art, but I understand the plan is to have temporary displays. Exactly right; nothing will become invisible from familiarity. Don’t like the current piece? Just wait a bit.
I’m anxious to see the connections with the Expo and Millennium lines.
I live and work downtown, so not much of a commuter, but I look forward to exploring a part of the city that I know little about!
Its fast and smooth. Though its hurricane force winds(only slighly exaggerating) at the stations. But you know what? It is too small. The cars and stations are already crowded. Rush hour is packed if you can get on? Some of the mid stations get bypassed cause the trains are loaded at peak hours. Two cars per trains is already undersized. I cant believe how small they were thinking.
And why are we paying another company to make a profit on this line? How much did protrans invest in its construction or maintenance?
Your observation about it being too small was dead on and ahead of its time. I see everyone here praising it, but it was underbuilt from day 1!
We’re lucky that it wasn’t built even smaller, given the doom and gloom of it’s opposition. I do recall an anecdote: I heard a CBC caller say they’d “. . . never heard of anything so stupid as transit to the airport”. At this time, YVR was handling around 15M pax per year, not to mention tens of thousands of workers travelling there every day.
Dear Sirs: I am presently writing a book on early travel with Canadian Pacific Railway and will include a section on the Waterfront Station. As such, I am wondering if it would be possible to get a high resolution copy of the photo that you have on this page of the interior of the building. It is the best photo that I have been able to come across. My email is barrylane4@sympatico.ca and I have included it below. Thanks!