Monday, August 17, 2009


You're probably aware of this by now, but, just in case - I think human beings are very weird. This is a photograph of one of the trains on Vancouver's "Skytrain" (clever, huh?) system. They've been in operation for a number of years, and I'm certainly not knocking them. In fact, I think the Skytrain's great. As long as you're going where it goes, it's fantastic. The trouble is that it's still under-funded, and so doesn't really go all that many places.

Well, today we got a new one. Running from the airport to downtown. For opening day, rides were free. And this is where the "weird" comes in. People were lined up - hundreds of people! - to take a free ride. My bet, however, is that most of those people would never ride the train as part of their normal travels around the city. And, my other bet is that, once the 2010 Winter Olympics are over, funding for new Skytrain routes, routes that would have more practical utility, will disappear. This new one, as I said, runs directly from the airport ("Hello, visitors!") to downtown ("Will you be needing room service?"). For anyone actually trying to commute to work in Vancouver, it's pretty much useless.

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