Evergreen line first rush hour commute tested by snowy weather

Packed trains, long waits, crowded platforms: the first test of the rush hour commute on the Evergreen Line extension was not a smooth ride, complicated by snowfall across Metro Vancouver.

For those riding the new line from Coquitlam and Port Moody to downtown Vancouver, it was was a chance to see if leaving their cars or ditching the West Coast Express would shorten their commute.

And the answer is: it depends when you travelled.

CBC's Margaret Gallagher rode the line earlier in the day and this is what it looked like around Coquitlam Central at 8:13 a.m.

But just about 30 minutes later, this was CBC reporter Tamara Baluja's experience.

So why the difference?

TransLink spokesman Chris Bryan says it looks like the discrepancy might be a result of the significant bunching of buses due to the snow that fed the stations.

And that certainly echoed the majority of the complaints on the train platform. While some trains were empty, when all the buses unloaded together, there was a a crush at the platform from the backlog of service.

Andrea Ross says she waited for almost 30 minutes before a bus dropped her off at Lougheed station.

"It was such a long wait for the bus, and then another really long wait for the train," she said. "They need better flow."

More passengers because of snow?

Several people on the Evergreen Line, like Andrew Chen, say they weren't planning to take the train but figured they might as well try it instead of driving.

"I bet this is faster than sitting in traffic — probably safer too with all the slush," he said. "But if this what it's going to be like all the time, I might only take it when I know traffic will be bad."

The weather caused hour-long delays on many parts of the transit system. At some stations, transit workers cleared the snow of the tracks because the accumulation caused the track intrusion alarms to go off.

Susan Lau says she won't judge the Evergreen line by what happened today, and she'll try it out daily at least for the next month or so. It took her almost 40 minutes to get downtown, but she think it's an anomaly.

"It's Vancouver and it's snowing. You got to make an exception."

Bottleneck at Commercial-Broadway

But the problems didn't end just on the Evergreen line. Those who take transit regularly know that Commerical-Broadway is a bottleneck point for both the Expo and Millenium Lines.

Now the station will see more passengers, as the Evergreen line commuters empty out there to transfer to other lines.

At one point, transit officials shut down access to the other platforms, while many commuters waited for several trains before they could board.

Bryan said it's too soon to say if this can be the new norm at Commercial-Broadway.

"Today is a bit of an extraordinary day. The real test will be the first week of January after the holidays," the TransLink spokesman said.

He said TransLink has also put in measures to alleviate the pressures.

"We've doubled the frequency of trains and are technically moving more people per hour," he said, in response to some tweets questioning why the trains were running with only two cars.

Instead of trains running every 5 minutes and 40 seconds during rush hour, he says it's now every 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

"Every train in our fleet aside some that we need for maintenance is in use," he said. "And once we have the full bus integration on Dec. 19, it will be a much smoother flow for passengers."

When asked how the Evergreen line will move 70,000 passengers daily by 2021 if by all accounts it seemed pretty much at capacity already, Bryan said TransLink will monitor the situation.

But if this morning's commute is any indication, there's lots of work to be done.