Comment by localfirst | Hacker News Reader

Comment by localfirst | Hacker News Reader

Comparing Montreal subway with Vancouver's skytrain:

- Montreals subway stations have this gritty, distinctively french atmosphere i loved it.

- Vancouvers above/below stations have no soul, distinctively anglo but above ground ones i liked.

- Montreal train cars use rubber wheels to my shock! Extremely loud.

- Vancouver train cars use some sort of electric system which im not familiar with ( have a few variants (newer hyundai rotem cars, old ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_BoeXqaV9c)

- Montreal subway does not cover the entire region like Vancouver's skytrain. Getting around is difficult without uber. Road conditions are horrible (pot holes remain unfixed for decades, city went broke hosting olympics long time ago), I just shudder how you can get around during the winter.

But the biggest shock was that in some instances, it was faster for me to walk then walk to the station and wait for the subway.

- Arriving at YVR: Skytrain runs directly from airport to a satellite city where its numerous public buses cover almost the entire MV. I could just tap through the toll gate with my credit card and wait for a bus which arrives on time quite frequently.

- Arrriving at YUL: Have to take a bus from airport for 30 minutes to Montreal but doesn't seem to respect time schedule. Got off somewhere in Montreal I don't remember (there was a large open artsy area) tried to wait for a bus but never came, gave up, got uber.

When I visited Montreal I mostly walked and used their rental bicycle. I did take a few subway rides and being from Vancouver it didn't leave any specific impression on me one way or the other - I got where I needed to get to (some suburb).

The Skytrain to YVR is indeed very nice - built for the winter Olympics. Maybe not as "connected" as some European airports but quite convenient.

The problem with transit in Vancouver is that most of it is rays emanating from downtown, i.e. you have fairly decent (though IMO worse than most large European cities) transit if you need to get downtown but it's terrible useless if you need to get across. My work used to be 20 minutes drive time, >2 hours transit time.

Skytrain doesn't exactly cover the entire region, as you get further away from the downtown core the coverage gets much spottier until when you get far enough (but still part of metro Vancouver) it's non-existent.

There are certainly times when buses don't show up on time. I take transit these days to work and back and I would say something like 30% of the time the bus isn't on time. About 5% of the time the bus I'm supposed to take just never shows up.

>Montreal subway does not cover the entire region like Vancouver's skytrain.

It's not supposed to. The new REM train network (a few stations already in use) will cover the region. By 2027. Maybe.

REM will also go to YUL.

PS. Fun fact, REM is also driver-less just like the Skytrain.

Strangely enough, I used the ticket in the article for the REM train (from Du Quartier, where I was staying).

Yeah the Montreal area transport system uses the opus system (the disposable cards are part of that) for everything. Sadly, it's now bizarrely more complicated with the weird zones that they recently added after half a decade of consultations that were meant to... stream line intercity travel! for example, if you take the metro in Montreal, then ride it until Laval, you have to buy a specific type of ticket with the two zones.

Meaning that if you just buy the normal ticket in any Montreal station and make the mistake of going to Laval, you can be fined and they do tons of ticket traps because they know that people make that mistake pretty ogten. It's not even a separate line or something. And the same card wouldn't let you take a bus in Laval because again, it's another ticket (but not the same as the one for the dual zone metro that I was talking about earlier...). Just a huge mess when it used to be much simpler before they "streamlined" it.

In addition to how hosting the Olympics hurt Montreal financially, there was substantial tax revenue loss from the trend of corporate headquarters moving from Montreal to Toronto staring in the 1960s due to Francophone policies.

Yeah they seem to do this every recession. I don't see any value in forcing French language which btw, people from France laugh and make fun of Quebecois. I've seen it at work too.

clean and soulless >>>>>>>>>> distinct and gritty for public transit

i'm from vancouver, and every day I take the NYC subway i wish it was cleaner and more soulless, more hospital sterility, harsh 6500K lighting, glass and stainless, and less literal grit

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