stuck with the heart of a sad punk

I took my first SkyTrain alone today. It was the scariest experience, but something I had never done before. While Rebecca went to her cousin’s baby shower, I came back downtown from Surrey. Heidi and Frank’s new baby girl is adorable, might I add. She’s just a matter of weeks old. Tiny, tiny, little thing, but a cutie none the less.

Back to the SkyTrain, it’s hard to get lost on when you are riding it. I mean, for a good portion of both lines that are currently running, it’s all above ground. You always have a good point of reference with where you are along the line. This is vastly different from the New York subways. That’s a counting game plus a visual check of each station as you go down the tunnels of Manhattan. Each time I went there, I was able to adapt to the system faster than the last visit.

The drawback of the SkyTrain is that there really are not enough lines in the area around Vancouver. That might sound whiny of me, but the potential of a line going all the way into West Vancouver seems like an efficient idea in my mind. Right now, you can take a SeaBus across the inlet to get over to North Vancouver, but even the communities around the inlet would be served nicely by another line. At the same time, I just love the idea of clean, mass transit. And trains.

Buses and boats are good, but something like the SkyTrain offers efficiency that can far surpass the other two options. It’s not just about fossil fuels either. Take today for example. A good portion of highway one was closed due to an accident on our way out to Surrey this morning. Luckily it was on the other side of the freeway, heading back into Vancouver, but the traffic back up was horrendous. And that’s just on a Saturday! Coming back on the train this afternoon, the radio still said to expect delays, but I was back home in 45 minutes. That’s pretty hard to beat. It nearly makes me want to never own a car.