Abbreviations can make one (company) look absolutely ridiculous, not that TransLink wasn’t ridiculous already.

I’ve constantly voiced my displeasure about this particular issue on my Twitter account (@kurichan_), on how such a company can make such shortcuts to something so simple. Upon hearing about the station name change in late August (merging Millennium Line’s Commercial Drive and Expo Line’s Broadway Stations to the hub now known as Commercial-Broadway), it’s sad to say that the first thing that came to my mind that it was expected the destination signage of routes #9 and the #99 B-line would be shortened much like it’s name before it (previously read on buses [for B-Line express buses] as “BWAY STN”).

Sure enough, I was right, and I was furious upon seeing it for the first time (after receiving a tweet from my brother about it). This is 2009. Storefront LEDs have more capabilities (namely scrolling, among others) than the junk affixed to buses right now. Not only that, most of the new buses (trolleys, natural gas buses and articulate buses (both diesel and hybrid) TransLink has received have ranged from a few months to at most from 3 years ago (dating back to the pilot #2101 trolley).

So recently the Commercial-Broadway hub needed a makeover, replacing signs, renovating the Expo Line side. And to correspond to signage on buses, the SkyTrain stations will now need to change their signage again. (see photo above)

This isn’t the first time a faux pas like this has happened. Buses bound for West Coast Express station and exchange, Coquitlam Station have the dubious distinction of the unthinkable “COQ STN”.

Photo: BusShots (via flickr)

However compared to other station names with a similar number of letters (8 or 9) thankfully haven’t gotten the “txt-like” signage (eg, Brentwood, Metrotown, Lougheed, to name a couple). So why do the 2 stations in question have incoherent babble displayed when it can easily be displayed in full. Many have joked that TransLink had hired a savvy 15-yr old to type up the signage. Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with costs.

I must’ve lost my fanboyism to transit in Vancouver upon returning home from Japan in May, because now I see that flaws in this system (and there are many) stick out like a sore thumb.

The significance of such a minor issue like the misspelling of a station name is great because this shows if one cannot properly correct a simple thing like this, I’d hate to see how they deal with the bigger problems. Oh wait.

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Figurine Update for October 3rd

I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I last bought a figurine, but it seems I overlooked adding Kagami figma, which I bought in late August) to the blog. Here is her gallery:

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