8-)

Just found out Vancouver is #3 in production of TV or movies. I found the Translink's The Buzzer blog. They mentioned all the TV shows that used the various Vancouver transit modes: buses,commuter rail,SkyTrain. The latest, I saw was some shots of the Millenium Line Skytrain in the Flash TV show series trailer. It is at 0:25 mark. You can see the Skytrain as Flash runs along the fence. It's very quick. There is another quick one when they did a high speed car roll over. Look up TransLink in TV and film in the blog.

:wtf:

You can view a lot of new vidioes on Vancouver's Skytrain system. It is a driverless system. Close frequencies.  Every four minutes or less. No street running. Fast. See the vidioes. Shows it in a subway, at grade, and elevated. More expensive to build. Vancouver's people love it. They want more and they are getting it. It goes through switches fast. What do you think?

I rode it last month and adored it.  Everybody should have a SkyTrain!

I rode it last year and I loved it.  I had no idea it was driverless.  Also, I really only took it from the Amtrak station to downtown (and back), so I have no idea how well it functions for people's day-to-day lives.

:wtf:

Vancouver, Canada.

^Yeah, Amtrak has a line that runs from Portland to Seattle to Vancouver.

Speaking of, I took Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver. What an absolutely stunning, scenic route. It was sunset when I was on it and the sunset that day was incredibly orange and red. Winding along the coast with the sun going down then eventually seeing all the towers Downtown Vancouver in the distance was easily one of my favorite journeys to a new city.

 

I unfortunately didn't get to ride the SkyTrain in my time in Vancouver and I'm kicking myself for not doing so. Next time though. It looked like a great system and very modern. And the Canadians on the train next to me (there was a Canucks game in Seattle that day and a ton of Vancouverites were heading back home) were talking about how they were voting in favor of some transit bill. Group of older suburbanites who, "don't use it but it's good for all the people who need it or the young people moving to the city who don't want cars." They just got it. And it seems like the city is embracing that. Which is part of why it was on the short list of cities I thought about moving to.

Vancouver and Toronto are Canada's fastest growing cities and, from anecdotal information, seems to be where most of Canada's economy is growing.

:wtf:

There are more videos on Y-tube on the latest Evergreen extension. These are the linear induction models. Auto driven. They have been  doing it for a long time. Now people are just talking about auto driven cars, buses, trucks. The Canada line is similar. It is auto driven. One big exception is it uses rails instead of induction. What I like is not crossing of streets. It's elevated, or in a subway, or fenced off right of way. It goes very fast. Being automated, trains every so many minutes. I guess it could be called a medium system. Something between heavy and light rail.  Could Canada line model run on the red line?

I've been to Van City twice, and ridden skytrain both times.

 

The views from it are STUNNING. Especially the canada line, when it comes from the airport and starts curving to downtown, with all the buildings along the coast, with the lights of the ski resorts almost on top of them....

 

I think (and have read) that Skytrain simply isn't big enough. Surrey doesn't get enough coverage into the city and they need an extension west on the island to UBC. While the UBC extension is being considered, they've proposed Light Rail for surrey, which many don't like.

:wtf:

T Could Canada line model run on the red line?

 

I'm sure it could -- Montreal is planning to convert its electric Deux-Montagnes commuter rail line to an automated system... However, RTA and the State of Ohio are choosing to barely maintain the Red Line to keep it running.  With the general indifference to transit in Greater Cleveland, I seriously doubt we'll see such an upgrade anytime soon.

we have driven up there twice from seattle and i rode the skytrain.

 

its pretty cool, but needs to be more extensive.

 

btw there isn't much to seattle's old world's fair monorail, but its pretty cool too.

Yeah the skytrain was a pretty nice system.  Vancouver in general is a really great city to visit.  I normally like places with history but Van City had so much great new architecture and such great urban design that the lack of history (though there is a great historic called gastown that's right out of the 1890s) didn't really bother me, that and the natural setting is simply unmatched - rain forests like steps away from suburban houses.