17-year-old sets unofficial record speedrunning Vancouver transit

JamesChen/Shuttesrtock

A 17-year-old Metro Vancouver resident embarked on a unique feat and set an unofficial record speedrunning the local transit system.

Redditor EpicElite333 shared his achievement on the Vancouver subreddit earlier this week, and we connected with the unofficial record holder to learn what inspired him to attempt this and how he fared on his journey.

“I fully enjoyed the experience and comparing it to other metro systems. I’ve only been on three others. I like it the most due to its views and cleanliness,” he told Daily Hive.

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This concept of speedrunning Vancouver transit began in 2018 when Stephen Quinlan travelled through every Metro Vancouver station in just under three hours.

Quinlan is in the Guinness Book of World Records for travelling to all Vancouver SkyTrain stations in two hours and 49 minutes. He completed that feat in May 2018.

Here’s how it works.

Challengers have to visit every SkyTrain and Canada Line stop as quickly as possible. EpicElite333’s route was Richmond-Brighouse to Bridgeport to YVR to Waterfront to King George to Lougheed Town Centre, to Lafarge Lake-Douglas, and finally to VCC-Clark.

“This is the route that minimizes Skytrain exchanges and subsequently room for error,” he said on Reddit.

Thankfully, there were no delays or hiccups during his run, and the new unofficial record holder told us what inspired him.

“I was interested in attempting it as I’ve never rode the SkyTrain past Waterfront, let alone to Lafarge Lake-Douglas. August 5 was also the last day the Skytrain was fully operational before the construction of Capstan Station and the fares were the same in each zone as it was BC Day.”

He told us he’s an avid transit rider, mainly riding the 351 bus to Bridgeport Station.

“Recently, I have been taking the SkyTrain as a cheap, time-saving alternative to bussing, as I’ve been travelling the Lower Mainland these past few months.”

This journey was a bit of a swan song for the transit rider in Vancouver, as he’s heading to UBC Okanagan and is “very sad to leave the city.”

“There are a considerable amount of amenities that Vancouver has compared to Kelowna and the transit system is far better here in Vancouver.”

They would be interested in doing something similar in Kelowna, but there’s no feasible route.

“I’m not going to every bus stop.”

He shared his entire journey on YouTube, in case you have two hours and 47 minutes to spare. The new unofficial record time is 2:47:53.

Considering the amount of time he spent on transit for this speedrun, we asked if there were any improvements he’d make to the transit system.

“I think two things that TransLink could do is expanding the SkyTrain car size and maintaining the track quality.”

We have seen some considerable delays due to track issues on SkyTrain over the past few months.

He added that the track issues are a “major problem as the ear-screeching noise when the Millennium Line SkyTrain was going from Moody Centre to Burquitlam was very unpleasant.”

“This applied to basically the entire line, and most people were covering their ears from the noise.”

Cariad, another transit speedrunner, congratulated the new unofficial record holder.

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Someone in the Reddit comments pointed out that the record will only hold up until the Broadway Subway Line opens up in a couple of years. Others said he should be at the Olympics.

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Has this inspired you to take the Vancouver transit speedrun challenge? Let us know in the comments.