The pink safety whistles from our Whistle Blower campaign -- they are available at Collingwood Community Policing Centre, at 5160 Joyce St in Vancouver.
We had 1,000 pink whistles in the office this week!
They’re part of the “Whistle Blower” safety program, which was launched in May 2007.
The program provides free, super loud whistles to anyone who requests them, so they can make as much noise as possible if attacked or threatened.
It’s a partnership between TransLink, SkyTrain, the Collingwood Community Policing Centre, Vancouver Police Department and the Transit Police.
You can pick the whistles up at the Collingwood Community Policing Centre, 5160 Joyce Street in Vancouver, which is where we delivered these whistles this week. (We’ve given away 2,000 whistles so far – this is the third order of 1,000 whistles since the program began!)
The Kulleet crossing the Fraser after leaving Fort Langley, heading for the Albion terminal.
Update: the Albion Ferry will remain in operation with one vessel right now, MV Kulleet. The last sailing from Albion will be at 10pm, and the last from Fort Langley will be at 10:15pm. And we’ll decide closer to the start of service tomorrow (4 a.m.) what level of service can be provided then.
I’ve also got some great visuals of the MV Kulleet sailing through icy waters. Terry Muirhead, a local transit enthusiast and photographer, took these pictures yesterday and sent them in. (He last sent in some pictures of the retired trolleys setting sail.) Look at those chunks of ice in the river!
(Listen to Drew Snider’s media update on the Albion Ferry shutdown above… or just read on…)
Yikes — owing to ice on the Fraser River, the Albion Ferry is shut down until further notice. The ice is building up against the docks, making it impossible for the ferries to land safely.
Unfortunately, that means the many customers who walk on the ferry and leave their vehicles on the other side will need to take an alternate route to get to their vehicles. CMBC is looking into providing alternate bus service due to this situation, but no word yet if they can get the resources to help out right now.
Drew’s Youtube clip says that the Albion Ferry was last shut down due to ice seven years ago, and back then, it took two days to restore service. And apparently, this current ice situation is worse than that previous ice problem seven years ago, meaning that it could be longer than two days before service is restored.
Stay tuned to the TransLink info profile on Youtube for more updates on the situation. I’ll update the blog if any more major news happens.
The Lost Property Office, located in a corner of Stadium Station.
Regular readers will remember that I did a story on the Lost Property Office in the March 14 Buzzer. However, since this blog lets me show you way more photos and details, I thought I’d go back to Lost Property and do an update to that article.
I went down to Stadium Station, where the office is located, and work leader Barb Szumilak gave me another tour behind the scenes. They collect about 4,000 items a month, and really, just about anything you could lose on transit winds up at the office. So next time you leave a shopping bag or an umbrella behind, go down there—they really might have it! Let’s take a closer look.
