Tadman wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:14 pm
bdawe wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 2:18 pm
Three train stations? They had three intercity terminals at one time,
CN Station for Via/Amtrak
CP station for WCE
Rock station for Rocky
Crazy thing is, CN and CP stations are both enormous grandiose terminals. CN sees 2-3 Canadians/week and 2 Cascades/day, CP sees something like 5-7 commuters/day. Rocky sees probably 4 trains per week in the high season.
Since the Rocky Mountaineer is mostly a tourist operation, I wouldn't count it. But from what I've seen of it, it is probably better suited to their operation than Pacific Central or the old CP terminal. But the CP terminal (Waterfront) is very busy so long as you look past conventional railroads. When you add in the Skytrain passengers and the Seabus passengers (many connecting from one to the other), that is a lot of people moving through there. And it has been very nicely restored.
As for ferry terminals, I assume you are talking about BC Ferries at Tsawwassen and Horseshoe Bay. Those ferries are not intended to be commuter ferries but rather to move vehicles as well as their occupants. I always assumed the terminals are where they are for two reasons: 1) lots of space for staging vehicles (at peak times, there can be a multi-departure wait for those without reservations) and 2) minimizing the sea distance to be covered given the ships are much slower (under 20 knots) than the driving speed. For the person trying to get from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria (I've done it), the shortest travel time comes driving to the terminal where the shortest possible sea crossing results. Note that for their busiest route, Tsawwassen (Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (Victoria), the Swartz Bay is just about as far from Victoria as Tsawwassen is from Vancouver. But Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay is 90 minutes on the ferry; DT Vancouver to DT Victoria on the same speed ferry would be over eight hours.