Calgary transit - possibly the worst public transportation system in the world!!!

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by johnnyluv

Change the thread title, maybe? "Calgary transit - service influenced by possibly the dumbest people in the world."

Well, once you account for the hyperbole, I think the title remains accurate.

I absolutely can't stand Calgary Transit. Hopefully the $3 parking charge will pay for some actual service.

[Camronius]

Can't believe someone was knocking T.O's transit system. I took it for 2 weeks straight and marvelled at it's efficiency. My brother also lives their (10+ years) and doesn't own a car, surprise surprise he despises calgary transit.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Well, once you account for the hyperbole, I think the title remains accurate.

I absolutely can't stand Calgary Transit. Hopefully the $3 parking charge will pay for some actual service.

On the same newscast that had the story about the guy who walked into the train, there was a story about another guy who's been paying his three bucks a day to park and his car has been broken into three times in the last 2.5 weeks.

Apparently the parking fees designed to increase security haven't gone towards increasing security yet, which is a real shocker.

[Sainters7]

Don't even try to tell me its worse than Edmonton's. The LRT basically only runs around the downtown, arena and university area. That's it. It's such a joke. For me to take the train, I basically have to bus it or drive almost all the way downtown, then have it courier me from one end of the downtown core to the other. It's hilarious.

For a city basically the same size and population as Calgary, it sometimes boggles my mind what a small-town mentality Edmonton has. Hell they didnt even have a Deerfoot-style highway when I first moved up here in 2005, thank God for the Anthony Henday now. Before that, the most major road to get across the city was the Whitemud, with a maximum speed limit of 80km/h. Come on.

EDIT: The first post of this thread made me think of that "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy" Louis CK bit on Youtube.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

On the same newscast that had the story about the guy who walked into the train, there was a story about another guy who's been paying his three bucks a day to park and his car has been broken into three times in the last 2.5 weeks.

Apparently the parking fees designed to increase security haven't gone towards increasing security yet, which is a real shocker.

Yet another egg in the face for city council. So much for thier vaunted security. Frankly if i was the guy, i'd go to a council meeting and give them a first hand account of how well that 3 dollar parking charge has helped security.

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Calgary's transit is actually pretty good. It's nowhere near as good as Boston or New York, but far better than Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Vancouver, the list goes on.

Chicago? It's the 2nd busiest and 2nd largest subway/elevated system in America. It's equivalent or near what NYC has to offer.

I've taken it many times from O'Hare to downtown and from downtown to Cubs/Soxs games. It's a great system.

[FiftyBelow]

I'm quite surprised with the comments about Vancouver's transit system. Personally, I find the system really effective... I've never had to wait longer then 5 minutes for a bus. However, I usually only travel between UBC, the Airport, and downtown.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Camronius

Can't believe someone was knocking T.O's transit system. I took it for 2 weeks straight and marvelled at it's efficiency. My brother also lives their (10+ years) and doesn't own a car, surprise surprise he despises calgary transit.

I live in Toronto, and commute by subway every single day on the Yonge line. It's a nightmare. During rush hour, I've never seen a subway system so delayed, logjammed. Often there are delays because of "signal problems". The system is old and not maintainted enough so there are a lot of breakdowns in the system. It also hasn't substantially been expanded in 30 years, so it is built for a metro city of 2.5 million, rather than the 5.5 million that live in the GTA.

And while Calgary's system is far from perfect, for a 25 year old system in a city of only a million, it simply cannot be touched. In terms of ridership for cities that have LRT as their primary rapid-transit system, Calgary's has the HIGHEST ridership, despite serving the second lowest metro population! (only Edmonton is marginally smaller in population than Calgary). Calgary's LRT even has ridership higher than Vancouver's skytrain, despite the fact that Vancouver's system serves over twice the population (2.2 million).

These numbers from 2007 - Calgary's number has climbed to about 280,000 daily boardings.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I live in Toronto, and commute by subway every single day on the Yonge line. It's a nightmare. During rush hour, I've never seen a subway system so delayed, logjammed. Often there are delays because of "signal problems". The system is old and not maintainted enough so there are a lot of breakdowns in the system. It also hasn't substantially been expanded in 30 years, so it is built for a metro city of 2.5 million, rather than the 5.5 million that live in the GTA.

Pretty much. During rush hour it's especially noticeable. I appreciate the coverage, but it's about time it expands. Can't wait for when it does!

[Ronald Pagan]

Transit in Vancouver proper is fantastic. Out to the burbs I wouldn't know.

[habernac]

Montreal's was awesome when I visited. You don't even need to own a car there.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Have you ridden the L? I found it to be... you know... often delayed, dirty, weird smelling, a guy sitting next to you just peed his pants type of thing.

In any case, few cities have anything on Boston. Really shows why public transit improves quality of life--other cities would do well to sit up and take notice.

As for the other questions, I found Vancouver to be a nightmare, but I've only ridden one time--and Toronto I gather is pretty good. My sister lived there for three years.

I've ridden the L, delays are negligible as there are constant trains running as opposed to one every 20 minutes. I could care less about the 'dirty' issue, it's a public transit system used by millions, it's not going to be spic and span. I've literally sat on a C-train bench with a drunk sleeping underneath it, the reality is that things like that are going to be a part of such an open system. Heck, if dirty ruins a system then the NYC subway is horrible.

[llama64]

Well, if Calgary would stop being so stingy with it's transit system and put it UNDERGROUND, perhaps we wouldn't be inconvenienced for 30-90 min every couple months due to people getting hit.

Some days this city really makes me depressed due to it's level of municipal incompetence. Proper transit plan? Naw... lets build 20 more suburbs with massive road infrastructures to service 3% of the population!

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

On the same newscast that had the story about the guy who walked into the train, there was a story about another guy who's been paying his three bucks a day to park and his car has been broken into three times in the last 2.5 weeks.

Apparently the parking fees designed to increase security haven't gone towards increasing security yet, which is a real shocker.

Anyone who ever thought that the $3 parking fee would actually result in service even a little better than the status quo is seriously naive. Everything the city is doing right now is about squeezing more revenue without adding services and that includes the speed on green cameras.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Anyone who ever thought that the $3 parking fee would actually result in service even a little better than the status quo is seriously naive. Everything the city is doing right now is about squeezing more revenue without adding services and that includes the speed on green cameras.

If anything it will reduce demand in the short term, giving me more room to sit on the train.

[North East Goon]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Anyone who ever thought that the $3 parking fee would actually result in service even a little better than the status quo is seriously naive. Everything the city is doing right now is about squeezing more revenue without adding services and that includes the speed on green cameras.

Absolutely, these are tax hikes without calling them tax hikes. toll booths on the outskirts of town has got to be there new scheme on tap.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

Absolutely, these are tax hikes without calling them tax hikes. toll booths on the outskirts of town has got to be there new scheme on tap.

Dess would be so proud.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Bunk

And while Calgary's system is far from perfect, for a 25 year old system in a city of only a million, it simply cannot be touched. In terms of ridership for cities that have LRT as their primary rapid-transit system, Calgary's has the HIGHEST ridership, despite serving the second lowest metro population! (only Edmonton is marginally smaller in population than Calgary). Calgary's LRT even has ridership higher than Vancouver's skytrain, despite the fact that Vancouver's system serves over twice the population (2.2 million).

So basically Calgary's system is used more then Vancouver and Edmonton because those are the only other cities that fit your criteria.

[North East Goon]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Dess would be so proud.

Who is Dess?

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by valo403

I've ridden the L, delays are negligible as there are constant trains running as opposed to one every 20 minutes. I could care less about the 'dirty' issue, it's a public transit system used by millions, it's not going to be spic and span. I've literally sat on a C-train bench with a drunk sleeping underneath it, the reality is that things like that are going to be a part of such an open system. Heck, if dirty ruins a system then the NYC subway is horrible.

Well, I guess... dirty does bug me, and it's not a necessary outcome of having public transit. Boston's T is actually pretty well immaculate by comparison--but then, Boston is a good deal "cleaner" than Chicago generally. I guess for me, I found the L to be delayed a lot, dirty and to not have enough trains. In Boston there's a train every 3-5 minutes; it's awesome. Calgary doesn't compare to that, but on balance, it's not too bad considering it's a relatively new system.

Honestly, Calgary's major transit problem is very simple: there's not enough of it. It needs massive expansion to every quadrant of the city. That would ease traffic congestion and improve the quality of life of people who work downtown but live in the burbs. It might even ease worker crunches in the service industry by giving people who live in less affluent neighbourhoods an economical way of getting to work in different parts of the city.