YVR72

Judging by the areas around the stations and photos/videos, the line is finished. They've already got some of the trains wrapped in advertisements. They are running full schedule service now.- sans pax.
Here is a video from a Canada Line train entering YVR-Airport station:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtaKep-48T0

Many more images and videos of the new line at the official "Buzzer Blog" written by one of the transportation authority communication pros.

http://buzzer.translink.ca/index.php...e-canada-line/

And - here is a cool one from a couple months ago showing the line in its entirety from Waterfront to YVR-Airport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebodV3UCHpc

YYFer

$6.25 in core hours or $5.00 evenings and weekends is a fair price from downtown Vancouver. Compare to GO train or bus in Toronto ($5.30) or Mississauga ($4.00) where you are still at the mercy of the 401. I'll take Skytrain any day. Will be interesting to see how it handles travellers with giant slabs of luggage though...

YVR Cockroach

Has anyone noticed how short the platforms are? The stop at the foot of Cambie (@ Marine) is only 2 car lengths. If the rail cars are the same size as the rest of the lines, that means there'll only be 4 doos in use on every train set. Hope the platforms at other stations are longer.

incognism

From what I've heard, all platforms at Canada Line stations are the same length -- 40 meters. This is in comparison with the current Skytrain system which has 80 meter platforms.

YVR Cockroach

Interesting. The cars are 12 m (according to wikipedia anyway) so the maximum a station can handle is 3 cars though the platforms can be expanded (at what cost to who, I wonder) to 50m.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Line

incognism

Not sure where you see 12m.

I see a car length of 41m per married pair.

From wiki:

YVR Cockroach

You're right. It's the old train sets on the other lines that are 12m a car. I also see these cars are built by the Koreans so the expensive factory the province bought and owned is for nought. All part of the supposed benefits(?) of PPP doctrine.

rawilliam

$2.50 is fair.

chaptwo

I think everyone will find their way according to the time they have to spend.

You're in a rush on the wrong side of town: taxi

In the centre of the city: skytrain

In YYZ: an overpriced taxi that gets caught in traffic for $ 50, an ancient bus taking you from a potentially inconvenient location that costs either $ 15 if it's a hotel runner or $ 4.25 if it's a local.

I would get people to compare it to the prices in Europe. It never costs less than $ 10 - 15 unless it's AMS.

ARN's Arlanda Express is usually about 35-40 CDN depending on the exchange rate. Mrs Chaptwo and I prefer to be cheap, spend an extra 20 minutes on the bus and pay 10 instead.

Having lived in YVR for five years, the biggest problem with taxis is the fact that no matter what the better route is, they all try and drag you to Granville and make a few extra bucks, hit a little traffic and drop you off grumpy.

I think the Skytrain is going to be a welcome addition for those, who like me, were caught near the Commercial Station and had to wait an hour for a bus and then spend an additional hour and a half to get to a bus on a Saturday morning to YVR.

Spend two bucks more and bite the bullet. At least you have a train, while we only have dreams and toy stores full of them...

YVR Cockroach

Skytrain automated technology does occasionally crash now and then and cripples the whole system for hours.

chaptwo

Hopefully not when you're headed to YVR

YVR72

In its nearly 30 year history, how many times has there been a system-wide crash during normal operating conditions lasting "hours"?

I'd say its an incredibly reliable and efficient system.

YVR Cockroach

I'd say every few weeks. It's never published in the newspapers or online media, just mentioned by some radio stations.

A frequent cause is when a train stalls, people force the doors open to get out, which results in the train being "lost" to the system, which shuts down the whole system by default. That's one of the causes I've heard. Operators have to go to the train (which is a long way between Main St and Commercial Drive) to manually reset it. Sometimes all the trains are "lost" which means operators have to get to each and every train.

By "hours", just 1 is enough when you're trying to catch a flight.

gglave

I've been riding the Skytrain to/from work for three years. I've never once encountered one of the situations you describe where the trains are terribly delayed.

Maybe I'm just lucky and I've just jinxed myself...?

bschaff1

Compared to the what airport transit costs in some other cities, $2.50 is a steal. As far as the major airports go, the only three cheaper ones in North America I can think of for transportation between downtown and the airport is ORD, MDW, and MSP. I consider the $2.25 charged for Chicago airports to be a steal and compared to driving with the train often being quicker than driving. MSP is $1.75 and an absolute steal with nice clean transportation.

One other nice thing everyone can enjoy when taking the new train to YVR airport is entertainment from homeless people. Maybe you can get an irate or belligerent taxi driver, but you can save your $40 and enjoy a nice bum show instead at 5:30 am.