Sky Train in Vancouver

[bulldogcruisers]

Can anyone tell me if you can use a credit card for the Sky Train in Vancouver?  Also what is the cost one way?

[clo]

https://www.translink.ca/Schedules-and-Maps/SkyTrain/SkyTrain-Schedules.aspx

[Deesquared]

Yes, there are Fare Machines at all the stations. You can purchase a ticket using a credit card. Sorry, I don't know the cost, but the link posted by clo should help.

 

One thing to be aware of is that if you are taking the Skytrain from YVR Airport to the cruise terminal at Canada Place (or anywhere for that matter), there is an airport surcharge. I think it's $6?

[bonsai3s]

5 hours ago, Deesquared said:

Yes, there are Fare Machines at all the stations. You can purchase a ticket using a credit card. Sorry, I don't know the cost, but the link posted by clo should help.

 

One thing to be aware of is that if you are taking the Skytrain from YVR Airport to the cruise terminal at Canada Place (or anywhere for that matter), there is an airport surcharge. I think it's $6?

 

Agree with Deesquared.  We took the Skytrain from YVR to the Waterfront Station.  From there, it's only a couple of blocks to Canada Place cruise terminal.  We used our credit card to purchase the tickets.  It was pretty easy to use, plenty of room for our luggages inside the Skytrain, and took about 35 minutes.  Note: When we walked out of the Waterfront Station, we must've looked obviously confused...a wonderful lady wearing a vest "Information" came up to us and asked us if we needed help.  We politely asked which way it was to the cruise terminal.  She pointed us to the right direction...nice.  Happy sailing.

[martincath]

If you're flying in, the warning about the extra cost is definitely warranted. While it's only CAD$5pp, for 4 people that can mean that a taxi is actually cheaper than SkyTrain inbound (arrive on a weekday, $9.25pp incl the extra fee - weekends, or evenings if you are sensibly arriving at least a day early rather than on embarkation day, are discounted to $8pp). Fixed fare cabs are $36 to the pier, or $32 to almost all downtown hotels.

 

heading the opposite way - arriving by ship - and the value just can't be beaten though, as there's no added fee so tickets are no more than $4.25pp. And if you have a modern credit card with a NFC chip (little WiFi symbol) you don't evne have to bother with the ticket machines, as you can simply tap your card on the far gates to enter and exit - and it'll do the math and bill your card the relevant price for a journey of that distance at that time of day).

 

Train ride is 26mins end to end, frequency of trains varies from about 6mins to 20 (but only late evenings for the latter, so worst-case if you're hustling to the ship or airport right away is 36mins plus walk time of ~7mins - in other words, usually quicker than a taxi as well as cheaper).

 

And the Canada Line - the one between airport and downtown - was designed from day one to handle baggage well. Every seat has room underneath and extra legroom compared to other transit vehicles, so each adult can easily fit themselves, a big suitcase, and a carry-on or backpack in their own seat area. Plus, since airport is one terminus and nearest station to pier is the other, you will always be among the first folks to board - so you will almost always easily find seats rather than having to stand, unless you hang out downtown long enough that rush hour commuters start using the train.

 

Edit - if you're doing the 'fly to Seattle and train or bus to Vancouver' thing though, the other SkyTrain lines have zero luggage storage room anywhere. There's literally nowhere you can place a bag that doesn't get in the way - and since a cab from the Amtrak station is only about $12, and tons of cruisers come up on the Seattle train precruise every day in season, even if you're a solo or couple you can spot others with cruise bag tags and split the cab to the pier - for the same price, maybe even less, than SkyTrain fare without any luggage hassles...

Edited February 27, 2020 by martincath

[em-sk]

6 hours ago, martincath said:

If you're flying in, the warning about the extra cost is definitely warranted. While it's only CAD$5pp, for 4 people that can mean that a taxi is actually cheaper than SkyTrain inbound (arrive on a weekday, $9.25pp incl the extra fee - weekends, or evenings if you are sensibly arriving at least a day early rather than on embarkation day, are discounted to $8pp). Fixed fare cabs are $36 to the pier, or $32 to almost all downtown hotels.

 

heading the opposite way - arriving by ship - and the value just can't be beaten though, as there's no added fee so tickets are no more than $4.25pp. And if you have a modern credit card with a NFC chip (little WiFi symbol) you don't evne have to bother with the ticket machines, as you can simply tap your card on the far gates to enter and exit - and it'll do the math and bill your card the relevant price for a journey of that distance at that time of day).

 

Train ride is 26mins end to end, frequency of trains varies from about 6mins to 20 (but only late evenings for the latter, so worst-case if you're hustling to the ship or airport right away is 36mins plus walk time of ~7mins - in other words, usually quicker than a taxi as well as cheaper).

 

And the Canada Line - the one between airport and downtown - was designed from day one to handle baggage well. Every seat has room underneath and extra legroom compared to other transit vehicles, so each adult can easily fit themselves, a big suitcase, and a carry-on or backpack in their own seat area. Plus, since airport is one terminus and nearest station to pier is the other, you will always be among the first folks to board - so you will almost always easily find seats rather than having to stand, unless you hang out downtown long enough that rush hour commuters start using the train.

 

Edit - if you're doing the 'fly to Seattle and train or bus to Vancouver' thing though, the other SkyTrain lines have zero luggage storage room anywhere. There's literally nowhere you can place a bag that doesn't get in the way - and since a cab from the Amtrak station is only about $12, and tons of cruisers come up on the Seattle train precruise every day in season, even if you're a solo or couple you can spot others with cruise bag tags and split the cab to the pier - for the same price, maybe even less, than SkyTrain fare without any luggage hassles...

 

One thing to add. If your buying tickets using a credit card your fine buying more than one ticket on the same credit card.   If you not using tickets and instead of going to use the credit directly at the fare gate to tap in and out you do need a separate credit card for each person.

[bulldogcruisers]

Thank you for all the information.  It is a great help to me.

[martincath]

10 hours ago, em-sk said:

One thing to add. If your buying tickets using a credit card your fine buying more than one ticket on the same credit card.   If you not using tickets and instead of going to use the credit directly at the fare gate to tap in and out you do need a separate credit card for each person.

Good point - if you're traveling with kids, or adults with a card that lacks NFC payments, you will need as many NFC cards (or 'tap to pay' phones with other cards loaded to them) as you have people in the group as you cannot pass a card back over the gates. Ticket machines are also the only way to access discounted tickets for kids or Seniors, as the 'tap' system is coded to always charge full adult fare rates.

[scottbee]

Just a clarification for our out of town visitors.  "Skytrain" refers to all of our subway/elevated lines.  This causes no end of confusion of people who see the escalators to "Skytrain" that are ½ block from Canada Place, but lead to the wrong platforms for the airport.

 

The Skytrain "Canada Line" is what operates from the airport to downtown.   Now if you're doing this route, here's the other useful tidbit, that will save you some walking:

 

When the train arrives in Waterfront Station, use the "Way Out - Granville St" exit (the end of the platform that the train entered from), which puts you at the corner of Granville and West Hastings.   Turn left onto West hastings walk one block, turn right, and Canada place is two blocks straight ahead.  This is a shorter walking route than via Waterfront Station itself, and is downhill (vs uphill).

 

[bulldogcruisers]

Thank you for the additional information.  It will help us greatly

[port msp]

What everyone else said.  We've used the Canada Line for all three of our cruises out of Vancouver.  Wonderfully convenient and easy to negotiate.  There's plenty of baggage space in the cars.  

 

A couple things to keep in mind; 1) if you travel "heavy" ie lots of baggage, it might be a bit taxing as you'll be doing some walking and it isn't all flat pavement.  I'd guess it's about 200ish? yards from getting off the ship to the platform.  Not a big deal, but if you're wrangling several roll aboards, it could be cumbersome.    

 

2) On your return to YVR, take into account that on all three occasions, we were not allowed to check in until 4 hrs before the scheduled flight time.  I don't know if this is just for international flights, a local YVR regulation, or the rule everywhere, but as our flights were early afternoon, and we'd arrived at YVR around 8am, we had to hang out in the lobby/checkin area for several hours before they would let us check in and go through security.  (our last cruise out of Vancouver was fall 2017, so this may no longer be the case)  Come to think of it, our last cruise in Oct 19 was out of FLL and we arrived 6 hrs before our flight and went through security.  Anyone have a thought on this?  I googled it but didn't find anything definitive.    

 

There are seating areas and a Starbucks where you can caffeine up and get a bite to eat.    I suppose one could stay on the ship longer, or wander around Canada Place with your bags in tow.  For me, the cruise is over and it's time to get to the airport and on to the next phase.  

 

Happy Trails.

[martincath]

2 hours ago, port msp said:

...2) On your return to YVR, take into account that on all three occasions, we were not allowed to check in until 4 hrs before the scheduled flight time.  I don't know if this is just for international flights, a local YVR regulation, or the rule everywhere, but as our flights were early afternoon, and we'd arrived at YVR around 8am, we had to hang out in the lobby/checkin area for several hours before they would let us check in and go through security.  (our last cruise out of Vancouver was fall 2017, so this may no longer be the case)  Come to think of it, our last cruise in Oct 19 was out of FLL and we arrived 6 hrs before our flight and went through security.  Anyone have a thought on this?  ...

Yes, it's still enforced - primarily when flying to the US, and it's 3 hours preflight now from the reports I've seen. Domestically and International (non-US) the 4 hour limit was always simply down to storage space, varied by airline, just like many busy airports - but thanks to US Preclearance methods there's the additional issue that bags heading to the US are held separately just like people are 'fenced off' in the E gates area. The new (well, it's been a few years now...) system that CBP use take a photo of your bag and links it to your boarding pass, the holding area for checked bags is even less infinite than the domestic and other int'l areas, but your bag cannot be released for stowage on the plane until you have passed through Preclearance.

 

I know that it's still 4 hours for int'l as my relatives are all very occasional travelers and insist on being at the airport waaaaaaay too early 'just in case' - we've always been able to check bags 4 hrs before for UK flights. A lot of folks have been saying that a 3 hour limit is being enforced at YVR for US flights though, even when the airline still says 4 hours (e.g. Air Canada).

[port msp]

4 hours ago, martincath said:

Yes, it's still enforced - primarily when flying to the US, and it's 3 hours preflight now from the reports I've seen. Domestically and International (non-US) the 4 hour limit was always simply down to storage space, varied by airline, just like many busy airports - but thanks to US Preclearance methods there's the additional issue that bags heading to the US are held separately just like people are 'fenced off' in the E gates area. The new (well, it's been a few years now...) system that CBP use take a photo of your bag and links it to your boarding pass, the holding area for checked bags is even less infinite than the domestic and other int'l areas, but your bag cannot be released for stowage on the plane until you have passed through Preclearance.

 

I know that it's still 4 hours for int'l as my relatives are all very occasional travelers and insist on being at the airport waaaaaaay too early 'just in case' - we've always been able to check bags 4 hrs before for UK flights. A lot of folks have been saying that a 3 hour limit is being enforced at YVR for US flights though, even when the airline still says 4 hours (e.g. Air Canada).

Thank you for the up to date info!   I wonder if you could bypass the 3 hour limit and head to security if you were carry on only. 

[martincath]

10 hours ago, port msp said:

Thank you for the up to date info!   I wonder if you could bypass the 3 hour limit and head to security if you were carry on only. 

Since you can print a boarding pass 24 hours in advance on any airline I can think of, you could certainly try - but there's way less to do inside the E Gates than anywhere else in the airport. If for some reason you can't avoid being at the airport way too early for your flight, I'd stay outside the Secure area until the 2 or 3 hour mark - there are more options for sitting, eating, and killing time. YVR's blog actually ran an article about stuff to do there, to entice folks who aren't even flying to come hang out!

[port msp]

6 hours ago, martincath said:

Since you can print a boarding pass 24 hours in advance on any airline I can think of, you could certainly try - but there's way less to do inside the E Gates than anywhere else in the airport. If for some reason you can't avoid being at the airport way too early for your flight, I'd stay outside the Secure area until the 2 or 3 hour mark - there are more options for sitting, eating, and killing time. YVR's blog actually ran an article about stuff to do there, to entice folks who aren't even flying to come hang out!

Yeah, I'd printed off boarding passes the day before on the last cruise, but we were checking bags as Alaska in September seems to require more in the way of clothing options.   I asked the Delta personnel why we couldn't go through to security but was given "it's policy" as a reason.  I suspected that it had to do with capacity in the E Gates area, but the preclearance explanation sounds more logical.  Yes, the E concourse  is pretty limited in its offerings.  At least there's a Timmy's!   I suppose it might be worth a shot next time to go carry on (this requires prior approval from the much better half), or just do some exploring in the pre-security areas next time as it sounds likes there are better offerings.  Thanks for the link.  Local knowledge is always appreciated.  

[Prost Seattle]

Another benefit of using Skytrain is avoiding downtown Vancouver traffic.  Yowzer it is congested in the afternoon!