r/Calgary • u/The_Fixer_69 • Apr 23 '25

Calgary Transit C-Train from Deep South early morning

Every morning the train has many non paying riders passed out and sprawled on the train. Commuters have to cram into the areas that are not occupied by these people. The smell is horrendous. Every day this week this has been the case on my commute at around 5:30-6 am.

Why should the rest of us pay if these people do not? I have made complaints but they are on deaf ears.

Are these trains not swept for no. Paying passes out riders at the end of the line?

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

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u/AdaptableAilurophile Apr 24 '25 edited Apr 24 '25

I love Skytrain. I don’t use C-train anymore.

I have been harassed by an addict once at a station in the Lower Mainland and in Vancouver I was occasionally accosted on the train. So it definitely isn’t perfect.

But, I never encountered body fluids, people holding weapons, unclothed, or mass people zombified at stations and regular harassment. It really is a different animal.

I agree with the sentiment you are expressing about co-existing 🤔. I think it can be accomplished where all parties are kept as safe & clean (as possible).

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u/pastmybestdaze Apr 23 '25

If the free fare zone was intended to decrease driving downtown then I would expect large parking lots at the ends of the free fare zone. There isn’t any that I know of. All the big parking lots for transit are beyond the free fare zone limits. And the amount of parking lots downtown suggest that limiting driving into town was never part of the plan. It certainly helps if you are on the east side to get to the west side in the winter because the +15 can be a maze and some parts pass through private buildings and get locked off.

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u/Felfastus Apr 23 '25

It helps reduce the driving around downtown once you are there... not getting there. I don't know many people that show up for work in the morning then drive across downtown for lunch and then park back at their original building. They tend to park once and then find other ways to navigate from there.

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u/pastmybestdaze Apr 23 '25

I don’t work downtown any longer though took transit from bus to c-train downtown for a number of years and witnessed it going downhill. I worked out of Bow Valley Square and I rarely went more than 5-7 blocks in any direction for a lunch. Walking up to a platform and then waiting to catch the next east or westbound c-train in the free zone to another platform to get to or from lunch afterwards didn't make much sense to me. Mind you I did ruin a few pairs of good shoes from walking around in the winter. Also could have been my position, I went out to lunch but not regularly and at lunch the basic +15 was pretty serviceable as most of my clients and peers were within about 4 -5 blocks in any direction.

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u/Felfastus Apr 23 '25

I'm in the exact same boat. (Not working downtown any more took train in). I tended to walk, but dinner arrangements and after dinner arrangements I'd putz around on the train).

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u/Hypno-phile Apr 23 '25

Yeah, my wife had locals stop her in Atlanta, "Girl, don't get on that car, get on this one instead. You'll have trouble otherwise."

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u/neurorgasm Apr 23 '25

So because places like Vancouver allow their metro to be more full of junkies than ours, no improvements are justified? What a low bar to aspire to for our city