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i) Opening of St Pancras Station close to where we lived, an amazing meld of national and international train services along with some great restaurants such as french bakeries and the longest champagne bar in Europe. A concept other large train stations should follow, in my opinion.

ii) Seeing the christmas light show at New York’s Grand Central station, where people would be stopped in their tracks, if you pardon the pun, and actually start talking to each other.

iii) Seeing how the staff at Camden Town tube station reacted to a lady who had passed out on a platform, how quickly they reacted, and how much they took great care of her. You never know when something like this is going to happen to us and thankfully there are staff around to look after us.

iv) Seeing how incredibly kind Vancouver public transport staff are to members of the public who need that extra assistance getting onto and off the buses. Bus drivers here are actually so friendly this is certainly unique to me of all the cities I have lived in.

v) Travelling on the number 16 bus in Vancouver where driver John would run a trivia quiz and award chocolate to people who gave the right answer. He puts so many smiles on people’s faces.

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- The opening of the Millennium Line.

- The bus drivers’ strike in 2001. Although having no buses around was sad, it meant I got to take the Westcoast Express (not affected by the strike) into town from Coquitlam for 4 months, which was a commute of pure awesomeness.

- A random 2003 roadtrip through the Kootenays and the ghost town of Sandon, where we stumbled upon a bunch of old retired Vancouver Brill T48/T48A trolley coaches being restored by the residents there. It was like running into some good old friends you thought you’d never see again.

- The grand opening of the new Vancouver Transit Centre at Hudson & Marine in 2006.

- Saying goodbye to the old E901/2 trolley buses, and welcoming the new fleet of low-floor trolleys.

- Articulated trolleys!

- The opening of the Canada Line.

- The creation of the informative yet entertaining Buzzer Blog for a daily fix of important transit-related stuff. :)

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Staying on topic, here my top transit of the decade best and worst.

2000 I visited London,UK to meet with my aunt, where I also discovered London’s underground system.

2003 Blackout: On hot summer afternoon in Toronto (my hometown) a massive blackout crippled the city. The blackout spread from Eastern Canada to the U.S.. The streetcars were left idle on the streets and the subway was shutdown. Luckily, I was at home at the time of the blackout. But on the positive side as night began to settle I was able to see the stars shining brightly in the sky. :)

2006 TTC Wildcat strike: With no warning, TTC workers walked off the job, shutting down the entire transit sytem.

2007 I moved to the Vancouver and explored the SkyTrain system on my first day in Vancouver.

2008 Vancouver says goodbye to the iconic old trolleybuses.

2009

June: The first new SkyTrain rolls into service, I got a chance to ride the new SkyTrain a month later

August: The Canada Line officially opens.

September: The termination of the 98 B-Line

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1) Canada Line (especially because of the wider trains, next train arrival times, nice Hyundai Rotem trains, displays on board the train showing the next and terminus stations, bicycle room on the trains and the open joint allowing us to walk between the trains once on board.

2) Introduction of GPS systems on buses

3) 98 B-line especially because of the technology (longer articulated buses, bus arrival times at bus stops, eventually adding of the rear door boarding, announcing of the next stop and bus lanes along No 3 road).

4) Orion Highway coaches

5) Nova buses

6) Hybrid buses

7) SMS next bus service

8) Community Shuttles (especially the C93, C96, C94, and the now discontinued C95).

9) ntroduction of new bus routes or improved frequency of routes (especially the 301 and 410).

10) New low floor trolleys and elimination of non accessible trolleys.

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He asked the outgoing driver to make sure the wheels were pointed straight. I’m sure the passengers on that bus found it very humourous or very frightening.

Supposedly it’s a well known story around the Oakridge depot and was supposedly published in a book about transit. If I had been on that bus, I’m sure it would have ranked as one of my top 10 transit moments!

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