Those people over at Vancouver is Awesome will have your head on a platter for suggesting that something Vancouver did isn’t as good as somewhere else.

While Drew has a point about the designs of some of the stations being exemplary, the admiration ends at the doorway. The interiors of the stations I’ve been in (maybe 10 of them between expo, millenium and Canada lines) are pretty stark and utilitarian. It’s like they were built to impress other cities but not to do much for the people who use them.

Maybe I’m missing some gems, if so I’d like to know about them.

Wait for the south Fraser municipalities to split from TransLink and form their own transportation authority. Then watch for tripling of Vancouver’s property taxes to pay for the mini-metro network Vancouver has. You will not be so fond of the Canada Line then.

What the new subway line means for Toronto is increased gridlock (subways are notorious for not attracting ridership) and congestion, also an increase in property taxes.

To those who think the Canada line is successful, wait until it carries 400,000 passengers a day, then it will be successful. Factor out the former bus users, multiple use by $1 a day U-passes, and free travel by YVR employees on Sea Island, from employee parking lots to work and what new riders the Canada Line has actually attracted is dismal, especially for a $2.5 billion investment!

The Canada line is absolutely useless for travel within Richmond and will never be extended in at least 50 years; nor will the Canada Line be able to connect with the SkyTrain system for through running (which is proven to attract ridership) because they are two different metro systems, completely incompatible with each other.

Enjoy!

Personally, I think the Toronto station is ugly, but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

One thing I would like to see Translink change, are the useless bus stops.

The deisgn does nothing to protect people from the wind and rain.

Whoever came up with the design has obviously never stood out in the elements waiting for a bus.

The people I feel most sorry for are the seniors that maybe do need to sit and the seat are always soaked with water running down the back and dripping in. Just great.

The only thing they are good for is framing outdoor advertising.

First of all the design is butt-ugly.

Secondly, the station will prove to be a massive waste of taxpayer money when in a few short years it looks completely out of place (moreso than it already does) and the politician/mayor/transit overlord du-jour decides that it needs to change.

Thirdly, and I never thought I’d say this but kudos to Translink for designing stations that look as good today as they will in 10 or 20 years.

(Ps. Didn’t say I liked them either, in case you’re all confused on the context).

@Max – I just found out a couple weeks about that it’s the municipality’s responsibility to upgrade and pay for the bus stop shelters. That is probably why they differ city to city. If you’re concerned about it, try writing to your municipality.

The stations are bland, boxy and boring. But it’s pretty much impossible to say how they’ll look long term until the area around the develops. Right now they certainly look out of place, but surrounded by good, dense, high quality architecture, plazas, art, etc… they could work.

What I’m disappointed in is the interior. Bland walls plastered with ads. Yaaaaawwwwwnnnnn. Do something interesting!

http://mic-ro.com/metro/metroart.html

Just a few examples of creativity. Some may hate it, some may love it, but at least you’re talking about it. The Canada line defines ‘meh’.

I grew up in Toronto. And the subways were a second home to me. The subway and my bike were the best way to get around Toronto.
I rode on the Tokyo Rose a few times after getting caught out after the system shut down. I even managed to thumb rides from drivers who were deadheading their trains at the end of service (try that with Skytrain)

I remember they actually added on North York station between Sheppard Stn and Finch Stn. They built the entire station and then when the station was ready for use they started blasting out the tunnel walls. It was literally one day no station the next day a new station.

The Canada Line is a P3. The costs of building the stations had to be kept to a strict price line.

Even though the majority of the older subway stations in Toronto all looked ‘generic’ there were differences in the flooring materials used, the tiles on the walls and the ambience of the station. Not to mention that the platforms were wide.
The Canada Line has the narrowest platforms imaginable.
And for what ever reason (probably cost savings) City Hall station is sloped downhill. Anybody else notice this?

The Canada line stations are just too mechanical, antiseptic and sterile. The stairs are too narrow and the exiting from some platforms is a nightmare during peak times, think Vancouver City Centre.

Sadly, the only thing that could be done to fix the Canada Line is to demo the whole thing and start over. Maybe keep the downtown portion, but nuke the rest. It should have been elevated all the way from 2nd Ave down to Marine Way.

In my books, Canada Line is a perfect example of how not to build public infrastructure.

Sixty years a registered architect . . .

Absolutely, absolutely, irrevocably against everything I believe in, everything that is meaningful urban architecture . . .

Sin embargo going, I am, against my life long contention . . . no comment without walking thu walk . . . seeing, touching and smelling . . .

but . . . so far . . .

BUT

BUT . . .

Steeles West . . . Sharp Center . . . Will Alsop . . . cool man very cool . . .

Now if VAG goes for something like this at Larwill I may just change my mind . . .

I must now post haste to TO . . .

Wow, the picture of the proposed station makes my eyes hurt from the twisting. Still, it looks like basically they’ve just slapped a funky facade on the same old, single-entrance box of a “station.”

The best stations I’ve ever seen were in Moscow, and were completely underground. Some of the stations were artistic wonders and some very plain, but they all had multiple entrances. At a place like Cambie and 49th – or King Ed, or Broadway especially – there would be a stairwell leading to each of the four corners of the intersection. Much more convenient than the Vancouver, “everyone out in a crowd on one corner, blocking the sidewalk, and then crossing two major streets for your next bus” thing. They also had fare gates as Translink plans to install here, so that shouldn’t be a problem with the approach.

p.s. Thank you Mr. Snyder for your post, and all y’all at Translink’s work! I got to thinking about this recently when the articles about Canadian commuting-times came out, universally bemoaning that they were too long. What struck me was that while Vancouver Metro’s commuting times were among the longest in Canada, they used to be THE longest by far but no longer are. In fact, Vancouver’s times came down a few minutes over the last couple decades, while other cities’ skyrocketed. Moral to me: someone here must be doing SOMETHING right.

“I don’t thinq this conversation is about commuting time Dan . . . ”

To coin a phrase from the movie Shrek, “Maybe it’s a perk!” – or even a footnote regarding an example of a sideline to a digression disguised as an attempt to make nice…oops, now I’ve lost my train of thought. Dangerous, these meta discussions, no?

Ah well! It’s probably just about whatever I say it is, when I’m doing the writing. When you’re doing the writing, on the other hand, you can make it about what you like – even, say, the evils of rapid transit lines. *heh*

Plus, Toronto has a ‘forgotten’ subway station. In service trains will on occasion go through it, but not often. I think I went through it maybe 3 times in the 10 years I lived in Toronto.
It’s the lower level of Bay station.
Originally this station was to be used to allow for a circular run that would only run in the downtown core.
It was never implemented.

I’ve never been through the works yard of the TTC, but I have been through the Edmonds works yard for Skytrain. This was about four or five years ago. There was something wrong with the switches just outside the Edmonds yard. The train I was on went abnormally slow as it left Edmonds. Next thing I know there’s an announcement coming over the PA welcoming us to the Service yard and that we should enjoy the trip.
We went around in the yard and ended up parallel to the main tracks again by the workshop area.
The train was then driven back on to the main tracks, it was still heading in an eastbound direction. But what had been the front of the train was now the rear and vice-versa.

I wonder how hard it would for Translink to abort the SNC Lavalin P3 agreement, nuke the Hyundai Pony rolling stock and put Bombardier rolling stock on the Canada Line rails. Drew, any thoughts on this?