TTC vs Translink BC: First Impressions

One of the things I was most worried about when I decided to move back to Vancouver was getting around on public transportation. I rarely used public transit when I was in Vancouver and when I did, I was always very confused.

Yesterday was my first real day of attempting to figure out how to get around in Vancouver, which is why I wanted to do a first impressions of Translink compared to the TTC in Toronto.

I don't drive so I've been using public transit in Toronto to get around in Toronto so obviously, I have to learn my way around public transit in Vancouver as well.

First of all, I have always found Translink to be very confusing. I don't really know why but it just seems confusing to me, so I might be slightly biased.

Let's start off with fares.

In Toronto, you pay once to get on and if you grab a transfer, you can go one way till the transfer's no longer valid.

In Vancouver, there are 3 different zones, so you either pay for one zone, two zone or three zone if you are going between these zones. Once you pay, you can use that fare for up to 90 minutes within the zones you paid for.

This is definitely, one of the things I find most confusing since I have no idea where one zone begins and one zone ends. So every time I want to go somewhere, I have to punch it into translink's website to figure out a)how to get there and b)how much I have to pay. I'm hoping with time, I will learn where the zones begins and ends. Hopefully!

Now the actual buses seemed the same-ish till I saw one number being used with two different names and that confused me. I am not sure what it means and I haven't had to use a bus with two different names, so I'm really not sure.

Subway vs Skytrain

I definitely prefer the subways in Toronto over the Skytrain. First of all, the Skytrain is like one big loop while the subway goes north and south and east and west. The subway is a lot easier to understand in my opinion than the skytrain. I also couldn't figure out, which side I was supposed to be on because the instructions only told me to go towards say Waterfront but the platform doesn't say that anywhere till the skytrain actually comes into the station. Again, so weird and confused me.

Those are just some of the things that really stuck out to me and made me miss the ttc. I know that not a lot of people are a big fan of the ttc in Toronto but I like it because of it's simplicity and how easy it is to just get around.

Here in Vancouver, things just seem more confusing and I am seriously hoping that once I get use to it that I won't feel that way however I highly doubt it.

In Toronto, I use to just google map where I wanted to go. In Vancouver, I have to google map it and go on the translink site to see how much I need to pay. It's an unnecessary extra step.

Where have you travelled to that had the most confusing public transportation you have ever used?