Vancouver Public Transport Adventures
The public transport system, a necessity for any bigger city. Well, at least if it wants to be functional in any way. Public transport is one of the criteria evaluated in the quality of living index by Mercer which every year produces a ranking of best cities to live in. Last year Vancouver ranked #5. So how does the public transport system feel? Let me share some of my personal impressions (and yes, some of my personal fails as it’s becoming customary here).
Let’s start with some facts and statistics. The public transportation in Metro Vancouver is operated by the company called Translink. Now you may ask, why is she talking about Metro Vancouver and not only Vancouver? That would be for a separate post itself but shortly Metro Vancouver is a federation of municipalities where Vancouver is just one them. If you look on the map it all looks as one uninterrupted built-up area anyway but administratively they are separate.
There are about 2,4 million people living in Metro Vancouver and most of them need to get to work and school across this whole densely populated area. More than 1800 square km to be exact. What are your public transport options?
You Can Sail
Depending on your route you might find yourself taking a bus, trolleybus, train or even a ferry. My ultimate favourite is the Seabus! That’s the name of the passenger ferry that operates between Vancouver and North Vancouver via the Burrard Inlet. I have only taken it once on a very early Saturday morning. It was almost empty, the sun was just rising over the Inlet, and you could see the mountains in the North. It was beautiful! Of course, people take it during the week as a normal way to get to work and probably feel it as a necessary evil of commuting. But for me, coming from a landlocked country, basically a landlubber (new word!), anytime I am on a boat or a ship it is something special and a little bit exciting 😀
You Can Rail
Then there is the Skytrain. As you might have guessed from its name, Skytrain operates mostly above the ground. And I have one more fun interesting fact – it is the longest and oldest, fully automated, driverless rapid transit in the world! I take Skytrain almost every day and to be honest, I cannot even imagine how this city could work without it (wait until you get info about the buses). They run usually every few minutes and there are 3 lines – Expo line, Millennium line and Canada line. Ok, I know, compared to London, not so impressive but compared to Bratislava it’s utopian (ha-ha, I know, but I had to compare it to somewhere I used to live in on a daily basis :D).
Well, I actually managed to get on the wrong train a couple of times but to my defence it was more because I wasn’t paying much attention (I know it’s a stupid excuse). Once, I was on the train, slightly aware that the line splits into 2 different final destinations. I thought I was in the right train (I basically forgot what train I am in :D). I checked the map now and then. “Good, so now just across the river and I get off.” As I am thinking this the train suddenly takes a turn and instead of crossing the river it goes along it. Me looking at the other tracks leading where I needed to go from the window.
On a different occasion I even jumped on the wrong line. Few stations are shared for both lines as they cross on few places. And sometimes they even share the same platform. The train came in, I was eager to get in, making my way through all the people who just stood there in my way. Once on board, the voice from the speaker announced the line and the final station and I suddenly know why almost everyone stayed on the platform. Door were still open but I was unable to move because A) I have this fear I get trapped in the door; and B) I do not want to look stupid in front of all the people I do not know and will never see again (it is ridiculous but I just wanted to play it cool 😀 ). Ended up taking a detour to zone 3. It was my first journey to zone 3 actually – exiting!
Oh, one more thing! Some of the trains have such set up that you can pretend to be a driver. As said, Skytrain is driverless, but there is still a front window and a seat! How cool is that?! 🙂
Take a Bus and Try Your Patience
Let me just make one thing clear right at the beginning. I am not a big fan of buses here. I try to avoid it whenever I can. Reason one, they are stuck in the traffic as the rest of the city. Reason two, they have ridiculous number of stops on a very short distance. These two things combined result in the following. Most of the journeys by bus take you forever to get where you need. This is also added by the great experience of constant acceleration and breaking either for the traffic or for yet another bus stop. I swear it is almost every 100 meters. You end up waving in the bus as leaves on the trees in a typhoon and in case the bus is full it provides for an unwelcome intimacy.
My advice to you if you ever decide to live in Vancouver, search for accommodation and ideally work which is Skytrain accessible. This will not help you, however, if you stay out long in the night. Between ca. 1 a.m. – 5 a.m. you are at the mercy of the Night Bus, which is a very sardine-in-a-can like experience. Oh and before you ask – no, no Uber or similar ride-hailing (another new word!) in Vancouver yet. The provincial government is still working on drafting the legislation. And from what I’ve read the taxi lobby is pretty strong here with one of the highest prices for taxi rides in North America. Yey!
To answer my question from the beginning: how does the public transport feel in Vancouver? Again my own personal biased experience. If I shall compare it with Vienna (the #1 city in Mercer ranking which happens to be right around the corner from my home town and I happen to know it quite well), Vancouver’s public transport it is not so super efficient and interconnected. Compared to the rest of the world, it’s a pretty good system where you can easily get around the city without the car. Especially the trains are super frequent and when you pay enough attention also easy to navigate. And the views of the North Shore mountains from the Skytrain are beautiful (on those rare cloudless and rainless days :D)!
No Uber??? 😬 What kind of backwards place is this! 🤣