What's Your Favourite Canada Line Station?

[metroXpress]

So it has been a week now and I am sure most of you have already tried the new Canada Line. Just a quick poll here asking everyone on SSP to participate....What is your favourite Canada Line Station?

It could be any aspect: it's design, it's location or simply it's over feeling..etc.

You can only choose one and you are not allowed to cancel your vote.


Thanks for voting

[canucks23]

Richmond-Brighouse looks awesome at Richmond Center.

[mr.x]

Underground and elevated stations are like apples and oranges, you can't put them in the same list.

Favourite underground: Broadway
Favourite elevated: YVR

[CLC]

Those underground stations do share similarities. Broadway-City hall is the most unique but not my cup of tea.

Richmond-brighouse is my favorite elevated station but I do prefer underground stations more (I love subway feel)

I would need to ride the line a few more times coming week before a decision on my vote.

btw I think there should also be a poll on the least favorite station, it would be interesting to know the result

[raggedy13]

I voted for Broadway-City Hall simply because I like the layout and relative expansiveness compared to the other underground stations (but I don't like all the plain concrete on the ceiling above the tracks etc). However I did really like the open and airy feeling of Richmond-Brighouse, the only above-ground station I've used so far. I'm sure my opinion will change the more familiar I become with the system but that's where it stands at the moment.

[argon007]

i like richmond centre-bridghouse station because it looked awesome...

[BCPhil]

I'm voting for Vancouver City Center because it is one of the only stations fully integrated into the surrounding "environment". What I mean is that not only does it have a nice big station house above ground right on the corner of Georgia and Granville, but it is also fully integrated with both the Vancouver Center and Pacific Center.

I was quite surprised just how short the hallway between the Pacific Center and the station was, so it wins my vote.

Some of the other stations, like Waterfront, Bridgeport, and YVR are connected to the surrounding structures, but by fairly long hallways or walkways. And most of the stations are fully independent structures.

Vancouver City Center is right there between everything, it feels like part of the city, not an add on.

All they need to do is change the name though. There already is a VCC station. Downtown or Georgia would have been better or even name it after someone. I would have gone with Pacific Center - Georgia Street.

It would also be nice if they expanded the emergency exit into a full exit so you could enter/exit right off Robson Street.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by BCPhil

It would also be nice if they expanded the emergency exit into a full exit so you could enter/exit right off Robson Street.

I believe there are provisions to have a Robson entrance in the future, which explains why the concourse/station house is so massive.

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by mr.x

I believe there are provisions to have a Robson entrance in the future, which explains why the concourse/station house is so massive.

That makes sense. It is a massive concourse and could probably handle the extra people. It just seems like a natural idea, the corner of Robson and Granville has a lot of pedestrian traffic. Waterfront is nice like that where you can either enter the station or exit onto Hastings the other way. It would be nice to walk down Robson from the shops and right into the station instead of walking the extra block north, then back south onto the platform.

[officedweller]

The south entrance at Waterfront is way better than the earlier proposal to have the south entrance in Sinclair Centre (which I think is still possible as a future entrance?) - it really ties the station to the CBD much better.

Originally Posted by Allen

I think a direct connection to the existing Granville Stn would be necessary too.

I don't think you'll ever see that. The station is in the wrong location for a direct connection since both Pacific Centre and Vancouver Centre malls physically obstruct a direct connection from the City Centre Station mezzanine. City Centre Station would have had to have been at Dunsmuir (with another station at Nelson, as previously studied/planned) for there to be a connection.
The best you can hope for is off hours access through Pacific Centre and Vancouver Centre but then you run up to The Bay. If tThe Bay installed sliding glass partitions to form a corridor in off hours, then it would be doable. But you may as well just walk up to street level and access the stations that way.

[metroXpress]

^ that's great to hear...

I think a direct connection to the existing Granville Stn would be necessary too.

[BCPhil]

I don't think you need a direct connection. The surface connection between the 2 stations is actually pretty close, like half a block. But it's nice to walk indoors during business hours if its raining, even if it's not direct.

What I think you will see though is more interest in the Vancouver Center. It will be the most direct route between the stations (indoors) and soon enough will see a lot of foot traffic. The stores there will get a boost, and probably a boost in rent too. It would be a great hallway for service, food, and drink businesses to get established in (yet another Starbucks and Tim Hortons?).

If the Bay did do a little bit of work to their store it would be easy to get through it after hours into Granville station. With some sliding glass walls they could get people down to the basement or through the floor. It might even be in their interest to remodel the basement and turn it into an even more shop like environment, and extend the hours of just that floor to compete with the People's.

A lot of people already cut through the Bay during business hours to get to Skytrain, I think it will be a more popular thing to do once people get used to the Canada Line. I bet a lot of BCIT students will do that, enter in the Dunsmuir entrance, go through the Bay and through the Vancouver Center to get to the Canada Line.

[mr.x]

^ I believe drastic changes are coming to the Bay over the next few years...the store will be remodeled and they will cram in two or three American department stores in it including the Bay. The basement will become a Zellers.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ I believe drastic changes are coming to the Bay over the next few years...the store will be remodeled and they will cram in two or three American department stores in it including the Bay. The basement will become a Zellers.

Where did you get that from?! O__O" ZELLERS in downtown is just gross... Zellers is gross.

[mr.x]

^ lol, Zellers is gross (and so is Winners, on the top floor of Futureshop....too bad they didn't put office floors on top of that)....but i don't think it's THAT bad. I mean, the basement floor of the Bay is hardly ever used.

It was in the papers awhile ago when it was announced that another American bought the Bay, and they had major plans to rejuvenate it by filling it with different brands and department stores. They even hired some people from Hong Kong's Lane Crawford to run the "new" Bay.

[Spork]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ lol, Zellers is gross (and so is Winners, on the top floor of Futureshop....too bad they didn't put office floors on top of that)....but i don't think it's THAT bad. I mean, the basement floor of the Bay is hardly ever used.

It was in the papers awhile ago when it was announced that another American bought the Bay, and they had major plans to rejuvenate it by filling it with different brands and department stores. They even hired some people from Hong Kong's Lane Crawford to run the "new" Bay.

Noooooooooooooooo! I love the Bay downtown! It provides such an awesome mix of clothing. Their other locations pale in comparison to the DT location, however.

[jlousa]

Yes there are big changes planned for the Bay but I don't think the above post is on the right track. instead expect something closer to a Nordstroms style store with a Nordstrom Rack dept in the basement.
I also would not be surprised to see the Bay end up in Canadian hands again within the next few years.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I also would not be surprised to see the Bay end up in Canadian hands again within the next few years.

Oh wouldn't that be nice ! ! ! I freaked out a couple of years back when I saw that Eaton's had been bought out by Sears, on a trip home from Paris.

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Oh wouldn't that be nice ! ! ! I freaked out a couple of years back when I saw that Eaton's had been bought out by Sears, on a trip home from Paris.

It wasn't so much that Sears bought out Eatons. But that Eatons went bankrupt. The Bay could of bought of eatons if they had wanted to.

[mr.x]

Here's an article from June 2008...of course, i highly doubt they had any concrete plans back then. Things could have certainly changed:







American retail chain buys Hudson's Bay Company
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 04:27:16 PM

Andrea Macpherson
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - An American department store chain is promising better brands and service with its billion dollar takeover of the Hudson's Bay Company, which includes The Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters. But some Vancouver shoppers aren't sure the makeover will work.

People in Downtown Vancouver have mixed reviews over the Lord & Taylor takeover. "I'm not sure...The Bay has been around for a long time and you're used to what it has been. But the USA seems to be a little more up on clothing and more choices, so we'll have to wait and see."

HBC, which has a 338-year history that contributed to the exploration and development of large parts of Canada, has been under American ownership since 2006, when it was bought for $1.1 billion by entrepreneur Jerry Zucker. Since Zucker's death in April, there had been speculation that HBC would be sold.

The new company, to be known as the Hudson's Bay Trading Co., has 75,000 employees and annual sales totalling more than US$8 billion. The company says its biggest stores, such as the one in Vancouver, could see The Bay, Lord & Taylor, and Zellers all in the same building.

Mr. Baker later said he could envision a big Bay store with a Zellers in the basement, Lord & Taylor and the Bay upstairs and a Fortunoff store at the top, possibly.

Mr. Baker said in a statement he plans to convert the Bay's most high-profile 10 to 15 stores to Lord & Taylor. It's a high-end U.S. fashion department store chain that was bought by Mr. Baker's holding company in 2006 and has since enjoyed a turnaround under his watch. It has also moved to more high-end fashions after closing some of its weaker outlets, leaving it with 47 stores. HBC has about 580 outlets in all.





In other articles, they also mentioned selling the less busy Zellers and Bay locations and focusing on maybe a dozen or more stores in the nation's major urban areas like the ones in downtown Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.