The longer I spend at TransLink, the more I realize how much work is put towards planning for the future of transit. Besides the day-to-day monitoring of bus routes and flow of customers, planners are constantly looking to the future of transit. Part of this process includes putting together a coordinated plan for all the communities TransLink services.
Teresa O'Reilly in front of some work on the NSATP
Starting today, TransLink is announcing Phase 3 of the four-phased North Shore Area Transit Plan (NSATP). In late 2010, analysis of the current network was carried out as Phase 1 of the plan. Phase 2, completed from January to June 2011, was the development of a long-term vision for the next 30 years. Phase 3 starts in January and goes until June 2012. Phase 4 is the monitoring phase, which will continue until the planning process begins again. To find out more about these plans, I sat down with Teresa O’Reilly. Teresa is the Manager of the Area Transit Plan Program. Read more »
Mayor Richard Walton, the Honourable James Moore, Minister Blair Lekstrom, and the Honourable Denis Lebel at yesterday's announcement
It’s been a long time coming. If you didn’t take in the local news yesterday, there was an announcement by three levels of government regarding the Evergreen Line. B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom, the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages and Senior Minister Responsible for British Columbia, Richard Walton, mayor of North Vancouver and chair of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, and Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities were all on hand to announce that Pedre Contractors Ltd. will be installing new underground power lines in Port Moody and Coquitlam and Hans Demolition and Excavating will be removing two buildings in Coquitlam and one in Burnaby to make way for the new line. Here’s the link to the official press release.
Linking to the Millennium Line, the Evergreen Line will connect Coquitlam to Vancouver via Port Moody and Burnaby. It’s scheduled to be completed in 2016. There’s a lot of work to be done in five years, so expect more announcements in the not too distant future!
A mobile map of the #9 showing the route after path (in-orange) saved using the new favorites function
Every few weeks or so, the mobile team rolls out refinements to the Next Bus service found within our mobile site, m.translink.ca. This month, I’m very excited to see three new additions that I think will greatly improve helping customers find the right bus for their needs. First up: favourites are now live! Read more »
Before I became a parent, I didn’t think about the logistics of moving myself and my child around. When my little one was little, it was easy: Put the little squirt into some sort of carrying device that makes them hug your stomach, then throw everything else you want to bring with you into a backpack. If you have a car, plunk them in a car seat, and you’re good to go. But using transit with a child isn’t as simple, especially if you use a stroller (which you’ll want to do, especially as your child gets bigger).
Like the first time I put my bike on the bus, I was a little nervous about taking my child and my bulky stroller on transit. If the bus is not full it’s usually a pretty easy experience. Bus operators lower the bus ramp if it’s safe to do so and ask passengers to make room at the front for you and your stroller. Since 1996, TransLink has made an concerted effort to only buy solely low-floor buses (except for highway coaches) that are accessible to people using wheelchairs, scooters, walkers and strollers. If the bus is full, that’s another matter.
Despite operators and most customers usually making it easy to ride on transit with a stroller, there are challenges. This Seattle area blogger wrote an interesting piece on the challenges she’s faced on transit on different Northwest transit systems and in Denmark. She makes reference to TransLink’s rules around strollers (see below) and how the roomier MKII SkyTrain series have ample room for devices with wheels. Canada Line is roomier than the MKI and MKII’s, so getting your stroller on these trains is usually the easiest. Read more »
Every once in a while, myself and my colleagues receive some interesting content from readers in our email and snail-mail inboxes. Friend of the blog Jason Vanderhill sent me a few images of transit past. The first is of a 1990 brochure, the year of BC’s public transit centennial. The next is an image of a weekly transit pass from 1947.
Public Information Officer for TransLink, Drew Snider, received this photo and a card from the participants in last year’s Shinerama. Shinerama is a fundraiser for cystic fibrosis. Volunteers, like the ones in this photo, shined one of our community shuttles at UBC as part of the activities.
I always love getting transit-related photos/images. If you have some and would like to share them, please send them to me at thebuzzer@translink.ca.
Cover page of the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Business Case and Alternatives Assessment
The business case and alternatives assessments for the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Project are now available online. When I last wrote about the project/study, TransLink was in Phase 2 (public consultation) of the project. The business case and alternatives assessment evaluate the feasibility of the project and examine if there is a good business case for installing and running a gondola from Production Way-University station versus solely running buses up and down Burnaby Mountain. Read more »
TransLink’s Regional Transportation Commissioner is seeking feedback on the proposed fare increases for 2013.
Visit the Commission’s website to find out how to share your feedback on the proposed fare increases.
If you’re curious, the Regional Transportation Commissioner plays an independent advisory and approval role in our governance structure. Here’s a diagram showing how his role relates to the governance of TransLink.
Humans are prone to routines. Every month, there are bills to be paid by a particular date, food to be made at a particular time and monthly pass (FareCards) to be purchased at your favourite FareDealer vendor. If you’re an organized person or simply want to make the best use of each day you pay for transit with your FareCard, you may pick the same day every month as the day you pick up your new monthly card. For many, the 16th of the month has been the day to do this since this has been the first day that vendors could start selling monthly FareCards for the following month.
Starting this month, the first day that monthly FareCards can be purchased will be the 20th day of the month for all vendors of the cards. Due to the large volume of FareCards distributed to numerous vendors every month, shipments of the cards happen over a few days. Therefore, FareCards go on sale at different times depending on when each vendor receives cards. TransLink is standardizing the day that everyone can sell FareCards so that all vendors have the same opportunities to sell the cards and customers to purchase them.
Rituals and routines are not things that can be changed easily. So, it will take some getting used to for some people to pick up their cards a few days later than normal. However, repetition is a powerful force that will hopefully make the 16th of the month a distant memory. Mark your calendars for the 20th of January and the 20th of each month following for the rest of the year, my friends!
The first Buzzer of 2012 is out. This month is all about art and the Canada Line. If you ride the Canada Line regularly and spend any time around the stations, you’ll notice some pretty cool art within their vicinities. If you don’t take the Canada Line, then you might want to visit the stations to see the wonderful works of art featured around them. They change every six months or so and are always engaging. The images of them in the Buzzer don’t do them justice, so you really should take them in, in person.
The cover of the new Buzzer
Also included in this month’s Buzzer is an OnTrack and Compass Card update. OnTrack is the name for all the upgrades, improvements and updates to the SkyTrain lines system wide. With the Expo Line being over 25 years old now, TransLink needs to make sure things run smoothly for the next 25 years. This work started in spring 2011 and will continue in 2012. There have been a number of service impacts already due to these changes and will be more in the future.
Beside keeping SkyTrain in good working order, OnTrack is also about getting the system ready for Compass Card, which includes installing fare gates and card readers to name just a couple of the items that will be part of switching from tickets to smart cards system wide. Construction of fare gates has already started at several stations on the Expo and Canada Line. Compass Card will be fully operational in 2013.
As usual, we have the Contest Corner, Back Issues and Coming Events featured in this issue. I’d also like to note that the image of the FareCard on the front cover and Contest Corner section should read “2012″ not “2011″. Of course, if you win a card this month, you’ll get a card for 2012 (a 2011 card wouldn’t be very useful now, would it!).
The cover artist this month is Karen Garry. Karen is multi-talented artist with many weapons in her creative arsenal. You can check out her other work on her website. I got the chance to pick Karen’s brain about her work and interests: Read more »
A belated Happy New Year to you all! The trolley busses we use may not be that old, but the technology is pretty much the same as when BC Electric ran the trolley buses. Here’s a fun piece on dewiring and resetting trolley wires on Global News.
A subway bench that is clean, stain resistant and doubles as an art piece and leaning device. Could this be the coolest/best transit bench yet?
Montreal has the biggest one in North America, and Vancouver will soon have its own bike share. But it seems like U.S. cities are not as on board with the idea as their Canadian counterparts for a variety of reasons.
A look at the London Tube map of 2015 and 2019 – This blogger talks about expansion of the Ginger Line. I wonder if this will take you to the house of a certain Spice Girl?
Melbourne has a new rail stop (Epping), and it looks kinda like something the Empire would build in Star Wars. Here are some time-elapsed videos of the Epping and Thomastown stations and others in the state of Victoria in Australia.
Even cooler (and probably nearly as bright) is the new 1.4 billion dollar Fulton Street Transit Centre in New York. It features an amazing skylight called an “oculus” that brings light four storeys below street level.
A nice shot of our reindeer bus on the Metrobabel blog.
Jarrett Walker of the Human Transit blog writes about a project that asks people to write music about metro stations around the world.
2012 looks like a good year for expansion of transportation programs in North America. But will the funding last long enough for the projects to come to fruition?
The Toronto Star references the Burnaby Gondola in a piece that questions if a gondola is better than boring new tunnels for Toronto transit.
Googles Mapnificent helps you figure out destinations that are reachable by public transit within a particular time frame. I wonder how this can be used with Trip Planner in the future?
Happy Holidays from the TransLink Family! Click on the picture to see our holiday ecard.
Just a reminder that our 2011 holiday service schedule starts today. You can find all the details on the Winter Holiday Service Schedule page. Don’t forget, for the very latest on transit service conditions or more detail on these items, check the TransLink Twitter account, call 604-953-3333 or try the TransLink Alerts page.
And, of course, happy holidays to you readers and your families! I hope you have a fun and festive holiday season, and a most happy new year!
Note: The Buzzer Blog is on holiday until at least Wednesday, December 28, 2011, when Robert will be back on editorial duties. From me, Tina, thanks and it’s been fun!
The Newton bus exchange is getting a set of eight new bus shelters this week, to replace ones the previous advertising contractor removed more than a year ago. I thought I would post a couple photos of this early Christmas present for residents of Surrey’s Newton area. Read more »
Today, the team behind TransLink’s mobile site has a holiday present for site users — more updates, including GPS-enabled map search, route links available in the Next Bus bubble, and route text view! Read more »
Though time is short until the biggest gift-giving day of the year, I thought I would continue the annual tradition of gift ideas for transit fans. I realize that many of the items on this list would come a bit late if ordered this week, but these make excellent gifts at any time for the transit fan in your life!
In addition to the ideas below, you should also take a look at the lists put together by Jhenifer in 2009 and 2010. She found some incredible items, with the Lego Public Transport Kit my personal favourite (which, incidentally, I saw in stock at a local toy store just yesterday).
Real stuff off the system
A unique memento for the SkyTrain fan
For many transit fans, there is something thrilling about owning a real piece of a transit system. And right now you have an opportunity to own a piece of real SkyTrain rail. SkyTrain celebrated its 25th anniversary late last year, and had a unique memento created to commemorate the occasion (pictured at left). Wouldn’t you love to have a real piece of SkyTrain rail gracing your desk at home or at work? If you are interested in purchasing one and can pick up locally, they are available for $50 each – contact me directly for more details.
The San Francisco Cable Car Museum also offers real stuff off of San Francisco cable cars, including a key ring made of authentic cable car cable, a 20 lb Gripman’s Bell and pieces of authentic cable and rail from 1909.
Vancouver Technical School students showing their appreciation for bus operators.
Starting in the early hours this morning, students at Vancouver Technical School handed out hot chocolate to bus drivers as part of their 15th annual Bus Driver Appreciation Day. Every year on the last day of school before Christmas holidays, the students make hot chocolate and serve it to bus operators as they pull up at their stop on Broadway outside the school. Read more »
