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I assume this means you are classing non-fare payers as "criminal". How bizarre and reactionary is that! Transit should be free (thus saving, amongst much else, the cost of fare machines AND turnstiles) and all this nonsense can be done away with.
Even with all these crazy experiences I would vote for a closed system everytime. Keep it user paid. As it is the rides must be heavily subsidized (dowtown for 2.25, right!) but at least its some cost recovery.
I havent even mentioned the depth of the platforms. They are VERY shallow. I don't want to even guess at the over/under for the first fatality from tripping into the train well.
Who designed this machine? Midgets? I have to basically kneel down to get my ticket. There's no indication of where the ticket will be, and people are just getting confused. I've helped several people so far find their ticket, and I've seen several more tickets left in the drop slot, presumably because people have just given up.
Every time I ride the Canada Line, I envy parents with toddlers. I imagine myself saying to a daughter 'Ok sweetie, take the ticket', not just to make her feel like she's taking part in the affair, but also to save my knees from undue trauma.
Sorry company-that-Translink-contracted-out-to, these ticket machines are just poorly designed top to bottom, and whoever tested them must have spent a lot of time saying 'Well… I guess it's good enough' for them to have ended up so poorly-concieved.
I recall when I first moved to Vancouver I was surprised at how unfriendly the system is for tourists or any new arrival. Two Bus lines with two stops on the street (Burrard and Robson comes to mind), the Zone system is just plain done (Vancouver is not London). Having the bus stops after the intersection rather than before calls for airline vomit bags because of the "jerky stop and go ride".
Thanks Buzz for bringing this up as a native Vancouver lad you have some credibility When I bring issues up the first question you get is are you from Toronto?
It's just odd all the way 'round. That said, I still do love taking Zacharie on a ride to the airport to do some plane watching and this is a quick and easy way to get it done.
At Waterfront, we kinda got lost. Where do you go for the new line? We followed the flow. Lucky for us, most of the riders were doing the same...taking the new line 'for fun'. There was some Translink staff at the upper level helping a lot of funners trying to find their way to the new line. Once we figured out our way, out we go to Richmond Centre, last terminal.
With a stroller, the train is quite wide but we had to share the "bike only" section with 2 cyclists enthusiasts who quickly pointed out that they had priority?!? Let's make space for luggages, bikes but not the strollers? Understanding that Vancouver is heading toward being green, let's not forget growing families! Not to mention that a man in a scooter requiring the handicap area had to shout and honk for people to move.
Before turnstiles and getting things right outside, let's work on the inside!
I'd be interested in hearing the thinking that went into that one.
I could see nowhere for people to put luggage, though we were boarding at the airport. That's gonna get messy when ridership goes up. Again... what thinking went into that? Genuinely puzzled.
The other one, staff at the airport said to go to different floors depending if we were looking for the Canada Line or the SkyTrain... and two different staffers said that they were different things. Maybe I'm missing something?
They could have spent the extra time and budget funds on having a useful system on day 1 instead of ad libbing as they go.
I agree there needs to be a "Where are you going?" fare calculator built right into the machine.
I take the train during both rush hours, 5 days a week, and in the past 5 months I've been checked 2 times. Imagine all the fee jumpers.
Also, while I've heard that the new trains out to the airport have more room for luggage, but they need to do something about those taking the regular train to waterfront to connect. I've seen people try to get on at 8am during rush hour with 3 suitcases to a pair. There is absolutely no room for that and they end up getting harassed by those already on the train.
This system is in no way close to being perfect, the flaws are incredible.
Yes, it goes out to the airport, but that implies that a ton of locals will use it to leave and return to the city as well.
While I'm pretty ambivalent on the whole turnstiles thing, I'm not sure justifying it with a 'tourist line' argument is particularly sound.
As it stands I tried to board a bus at Grouse last week armed with a $5 bill and no coins. The buses don't take bills. "You should know that," was the reponse I received from the surly driver.
I haven't ridden a bus in almost a decade. I take the SkyTrain or SeaBus and they both have paper currency facilities. Last time I took a bus there was just a big change box and I was fine with overpaying a couple bucks because I didn't have change.
My point is the system is not very friendly to those who don't use it frequently.
Then, after awhile of pressing the touch screen (it is quite tricky) to press it so that it will detect your finger (I hate touchscreens), I figured out how to add fare. They need instructions on these 'cause it took me a few times to figure it out.
And finally, why don't the ticket machines have the validation thing there? I thought that there was one and was trying to find it, until I found these odd peculiar things so far away that I figured those were the validation machines. Very stupid.
Okay, I am now considered a "tourist" since I no longer live in Metro Vancouver (how I hate this name), it's GVRD to me or GVA and with my knowledge of the zones, I still had problems with it. VERY SAD, Translink! I hate them.
I haven’t ridden a bus in almost a decade. I take the SkyTrain or SeaBus and they both have paper currency facilities. Last time I took a bus there was just a big change box and I was fine with overpaying a couple bucks because I didn’t have change.
Buzz, on the one hand, I hear yah, I remember the mid 80's when the fare-boxes threatened "Please don't feed me dollar bills (Remember those?).... Those signs alway's p***ed me off as the fare by that time was $1.00 or greater. But these days, I wouldn't expect to be able to get on a bus with "folding money".
OTOH, an obvious tourist boarded the 135 2 weeks ago offering a $5.00 bill; The driver was OK with that and waved if off, and all were helpfull in determining that, depsite his repeating the words "Renfrew Station, he really wanted to get to Renfrew & Franklin near the PNE entrance.... IIRC someone eventually changed his 5 into coins so he could pay
(and now, reading the original post, try to imagine a German or Dutch person figuring it out... I ended up 'cheating' in Munich for assuming that it worked the same way it did in Frankfurt)