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Conversely: tons of people here in Vancouver complain about our equivalent systems (the Skytrain, usually), whereas people I know who've visited from New York a

Conversely: tons of people here in Vancouver complain about our equivalent systems (the Skytrain, usually), whereas people I know who've visited from New York are blown away by how clean, fast, and efficient it is. Trains that come every 90 seconds, no garbage on the tracks, bright, open, airy stations (most are above ground on that line). NYC is a model of public transit from the perspective of ubiquity, feasibility, and ridership, though, and that's pretty key. We also visited the SF Bay Area, and it was confusing as hell. The BART? The Muni? The buses? The cable cars? Who uses what? How do we get around? I need different passes? Oh, the tap card works? What's even going on? I found the BART was very reminiscent in a lot of ways to Montreal's Metro system, but the MUNI (we took the J line? I kept calling it the JUnit, to my wife's annoyance) and it was 'fine', but only because we were a few blocks away. It felt very… rustic. Unmaintained. The raising/lowering stairs thing was a neat solution though. In short, NYC being better than SF isn't a high bar, but I think we should all be happy that we live in cities that have such transit systems at all. Many large cities in the US don't even have public transit systems that can get people anywhere with any efficiency.

woolvalley 9y ago
Isn't the problem with vancouver's system the lack of coverage? And overcrowding during rush hour?
- echlebek 9y ago
  Yes. The coverage is quite poor and doesn't service certain high traffic areas at all, like UBC. The solution has been to increase bus coverage which can only take you so far. The trains are very popular, and during rush hour there might not be enough room on the train for everyone to get on. The trains come every 3 minutes during peak hours, and less often during non-peak hours, as much as 15 minutes.
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    From what I noticed, the trains were not very long. Only about 3 or 4 cars. In other cities they are 10+ cars long. Are they long in rush hour?
somecontext 9y ago
> Trains that come every 90 seconds It's remarkably hard to get reliable numbers on train frequency in subway stations worldwide. However, it is generally believed that the only system in the world that gets headways smaller than 100 seconds/train is the Moscow Metro at 90--95 seconds per train = 38--40 trains per hour (tph), followed by the Jubilee line of the London Underground at 100 seconds/train = 36 tph. While it's easy to find no shortage of sources that say that SkyTrain in Vancouver can "theoretically" run at 75 seconds/train = 48 tph, the more optimistic figures of its actual peak frequency look like 108 seconds/train = ~33 tph. Some sources I found (including the official schedule) suggest 150 seconds/train = 24 tph.

woolvalley 9y ago

Isn't the problem with vancouver's system the lack of coverage? And overcrowding during rush hour?

echlebek 9y ago
Yes. The coverage is quite poor and doesn't service certain high traffic areas at all, like UBC. The solution has been to increase bus coverage which can only take you so far. The trains are very popular, and during rush hour there might not be enough room on the train for everyone to get on. The trains come every 3 minutes during peak hours, and less often during non-peak hours, as much as 15 minutes.
- woolvalley 9y ago
  From what I noticed, the trains were not very long. Only about 3 or 4 cars. In other cities they are 10+ cars long. Are they long in rush hour?

somecontext 9y ago

> Trains that come every 90 seconds It's remarkably hard to get reliable numbers on train frequency in subway stations worldwide. However, it is generally believed that the only system in the world that gets headways smaller than 100 seconds/train is the Moscow Metro at 90--95 seconds per train = 38--40 trains per hour (tph), followed by the Jubilee line of the London Underground at 100 seconds/train = 36 tph. While it's easy to find no shortage of sources that say that SkyTrain in Vancouver can "theoretically" run at 75 seconds/train = 48 tph, the more optimistic figures of its actual peak frequency look like 108 seconds/train = ~33 tph. Some sources I found (including the official schedule) suggest 150 seconds/train = 24 tph.