Our First Ride on Sky Train

There are three lines in the Transit system in Vancouver at present, the Expo Line (ever since 1985), the Millennium Line (ever since 2002) and the new Canada Line (2009).











It was Saturday, October 10th that we took a Sky Train on the new Canada Line (North-South bound) from Richmond to Waterfront in Vancouver.

We first drove to and parked our car at Lansdowne Station, the second last station to the southernmost terminus, Brighthouse Station, at Richmond.











The station we saw was a modern one, mainly made of glass, metal and concrete. Passengers could reach the platforms by elevators or lifts. What I could see were two ticket-vending machines in a small hall. Paper money could be inserted and changes would run out. I learned from Philip that on Saturdays and Sundays, the fare for each adult passenger was just C$2.5 for any single journey no matter how far the train went. This was really a good promotion to the flow of people from Waterfront, Downtown, through Vancouver to Richmond during holidays.










When I stepped into the train, I found no driver. To my amazement, it was automatically driven. The two-carriage train moved smoothly, first on elevated rails at Richmond, then across the SkyBridge over the Fraser River. Once it reached the shore of Vancouver, it ran underground into tunnels of different shapes, rectangular or circular. I was deeply impressed by the performance of the train. It ran fast except before turning and stopped accurately at stations.

There were sixteen stations in all. The final one was Waterfront. Philip told me that the ticket fare included the free ride on a ferry to North Vancouver.