New SeaBus sailing into town tomorrow

The new SeaBus, the Burrard Pacific Breeze, at its christening ceremony in July.

Keep an eye out for the new SeaBus—the Burrard Pacific Breeze—sailing in from Victoria on Friday, October 9.

The SeaBus is scheduled to leave Victoria at about 9 a.m., with a tentative arrival time of 2:30 p.m. in Burrard Inlet. (Send me your photos if you snap any, and I’ll post them up here!)

The Burrard Pacific Breeze will be heading for the North SeaBus terminal, where it will then undergo sea trials, staff training, and certification by Transport Canada. Once that’s through, the SeaBus will enter revenue service, which we estimate to be in December or so.

And to tide you over in the meantime, here’s some photos from the christening of the Burrard Pacific Breeze, if you haven’t seen them before.

SeaBus stars in NBC’s 2010 Olympic countdown pin

The NBC 2010 Olympic pin.

Look who made it onto the NBC 2010 Olympic countdown pin!

A colleague picked this up from NBC headquarters in New York. It looks like you can buy it from NBC’s online store for $15 US, although the site was a bit temperamental when I tried accessing the item’s page. (Search for “pin” on the site!)

SeaBus service augmented on Sat Sept 12

Due to a concert Saturday evening in West Vancouver, SeaBus will maintain 15-minute (two-vessel) service until midnight to handle the anticipated extra traffic.

(That’s the Summer Sessions at Ambleside concert with Sarah McLachlan, Neil Young, and Sheryl Crow, btw.)

SeaBus elevator out of service

Eep — SeaBus elevator users, take note.

The elevator at the SeaBus south terminal – from the terminal to the overhead walkway leading to Waterfront Station – will be out of service for scheduled maintenance beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8. The work is expected to continue for eight weeks.

A shuttle bus will be in service from the Waterfront Station main entrance at Cordova Street to the SeaBus terminal for customers needing the elevator. Ask a Marine Attendant at the SeaBus terminal for assistance.

But please do note that the shuttle is not intended for use by cyclists. If you’re on a bike, you can enter through the SeaBus terminal via the door adjacent to the Helijet Terminal.

Thanks so much for your patience through all this. We are very sorry for any inconvenience!

SeaBus running one boat service on Sunday, Sept 6

SeaBus riders, take note again: there will only one boat service on Sunday September 6, with half-hour service starting at 8:00 a.m. The MV Burrard Beaver is off for its annual required Transport Canada Safety Inspection! It was the Otter’s turn last Sunday.

SeaBus running one boat service on Sunday, August 30

SeaBus riders, take note: there will only one boat service on Sunday August 30, with half-hour service starting at 8:00 a.m. The MV Burrard Otter is off for its annual required Transport Canada Safety Inspection! It’s the MV Burrard Beaver’s turn next Sunday, September 6.

The new SeaBus is in the water!

The Burrard Pacific Breeze, in the water at the Victoria Shipyards!

It’s still being worked on and tested, but our new SeaBus is finally in the water at Victoria Shipyards!

A colleague in our fleet management department sent me this photo last week. Apparently the Burrard Pacific Breeze has a few weeks worth of work before it’ll be complete and able to operate under its own power. I’m told the christening ceremony is usually held immediately prior to the launch of the vessel; but in our case, it was a few days beforehand.

So, right now the ship is still missing seats, ceiling panels, wheelhouse controls, and tons of wiring. They’ve got electricians working 24 hours a day to get the boat wired up and ready to go. And late next month they’ll start doing functional tests!

As well, if you’re interested, my colleague Drew Snider has some more video of the SeaBus christening over at his blog, Vancouver on the Lines. All the christening videos can be found at the TransLink media relations YouTube account.

The christening of the new SeaBus

The Burrard Pacific Breeze, getting ready for its christening!

Last Friday, the new SeaBus—the Burrard Pacific Breeze—had its official christening at the Victoria Shipyards!

Smashing job! SeaBus employee Maureen Hayes stands with husband Stephen (right) and Victoria Shipyards Senior VP Spiro Risvas as she christens the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze, the third SeaBus.

Owing to tradition, a woman had to christen the SeaBus, so Maureen Hayes, the longest-serving female SeaBus employee stepped up.

Maureen’s worked at SeaBus since 1983 — and her husband Stephen was one of the original SeaBus crewmembers, sailing on the first two SeaBuses when they came to Vancouver from Victoria in 1977!

All the event photos are posted at the Buzzer’s Flickr account, so have a look if you’re interested. There’s a SeaBus cake and a picture of the special belt buckle produced by Victoria Shipyards for the employees who worked on the new SeaBus!

Our media relations guy Drew Snider was also at the event, and he wrote about the ceremony on his blog. There’s also audio from the event posted at the TransLinkInfo YouTube account: video 1, video 2, and video 3.

For more info on the christening, check out the official press release, which includes an in-depth SeaBus backgrounder.

The interior of the SeaBus: it's not quite ready for passengers yet!

FYI, the basic ship is complete, but the interiors need to be finished, plus ship testing and staff training still needs to be done. The Burrard Pacific Breeze will come to Vancouver and start serving the North Shore probably around the end of 2009.

(And super neat factoid: as part of the training, the crew has to be able to find their way around the vessel in the dark, in case they have to deal with emergencies involving fire, smoke or a power outage at night!)

Third SeaBus gets its hulls assembled at the Victoria Shipyards

The Burrard Pacific Breeze, currently under construction at the Victoria Shipyards.

Here’s a little update about the third SeaBus, which is currently being built over at the Victoria Shipyards. Along with two photos, I got this email from fleet management this morning:

I thought you might be interested to know that the hulls and the superstructure of the 3rd SeaBus have now been connected! Or at least, they’ve been assembled, and will now be welded together. The mast hasn’t been mounted to the vessel yet, but they’re expecting to do that later this week.

One more photo of the SeaBus under construction is below. FYI, the third SeaBus is slated to go in service at the end of 2009. Here’s an earlier post showing the passenger house arriving at the shipyards in February.

Edit: I asked for more description of the pictures btw, and here’s what I got:

Since the vessel is a catamaran, it has two hulls. The two hulls were being built separately from each other, and the superstructure (passenger house, cross structure, and wheelhouse) were being built separately from the hulls for ease and speed of construction.

The photos show the hulls that have been lined up next to each other, with the superstructure being lowered onto the hulls. Now that the superstructure has been lowered onto the hulls, the shipyard will weld the three units together, thus making a ship out of the three pieces!

Another shot of the Burrard Pacific Breeze at the Victoria Shipyards.

SeaBus ftw! :D

Next week is I Love Transit Week – and the Buzzer’s first live meetup!

Here’s the surprise I warned you about in the February Buzzer: from Feb 23-27, it’s going to be I Love Transit Week on the blog!

Why? Because while there are things we don’t like about transit, I know there are many things that we do like about the system. And there just hasn’t been an official opportunity to celebrate what we like – until now!

So next week, I’ll have essays, discussion posts, and more, encouraging you to share what you enjoy about transit and what the system means to you. Plus I’ll cram the March print Buzzer as full as I can with your contributions from this week.

(If you want to write an essay, photo essay or put together any other transit tribute, please email me your contribution and I’ll put it up during the week!)

The Buzzer’s first live meetup!

A sampling of the I Love Transit buttons that will be available, thanks to the Mustache Press! Four of these have been designed by the kind and super talented Jason Vanderhill.

I Love Transit Week will also include the Buzzer blog’s first live meetup: I Love Transit Night!

Come down to the End Café on Thursday Feb. 26, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.! (2360 Commercial Drive – it’s located right next to Commercial Drive Station.)

We’re going to play transit games and test everyone’s knowledge of the system. I’ll also have buttons, bus and SkyTrain cutouts, and more fun transit-related items on hand. And while we can’t provide the drinks, appetizers will be supplied. All ages and levels of transit-nerdery are welcome!

If you’re coming, please RSVP to thebuzzer@translink.bc.ca – I’d like to get a head count so I can plan for food and such.

And let’s get this week started early — feel free to share what you like (or even love!) about transit in the comments below!

Passenger house of third SeaBus arrives at Victoria Shipyards

The SeaBus passenger shell arrives at Victoria Shipyards last week.

Thanks to the Victoria Shipyards, here is a photo of the aluminum SeaBus passenger house that was floated out to their yards last week. (It was the subject of the SeaBus photo opp from last Tuesday, if you managed to catch it.)

This is the main passenger house of the third SeaBus, the Burrard Pacific Breeze, which is being built out at Victoria Shipyards and should be finished by this fall. If you click the photo for a larger version, you can actually see the words “Burrard Pacific Breeze” written on the middle of the passenger house.

The passenger house actually arrived at the shipyards last Wednesday morning (Feb. 11, as the photo date indicates). The picture shows the house after being offloaded from the barge. From here, the passenger house will be moved into an indoor shop, the wheelhouse/HVAC modules will be mounted above the passenger house, and they’ll start outfitting the interior of the vessel.

Just thought you’d like the update!

Don’t be alarmed, SeaBussers — it’s just Exercise Silver out on the water

SeaBus, going about its business on a regular day.

Just a warning that the SeaBus will be part of an Olympics security exercise this evening — so don’t worry if you see more marine security vessels in Burrard Inlet at about 7:45 p.m.

The SeaBus should be empty for this exercise, so passengers shouldn’t be inadvertently involved!

The details from the release I was given:

The V2010 Integrated Security Unit is conducting Exercise Silver this week in the Vancouver and Whistler areas. Exercise Silver is a functional, integrated command and coordination exercise developed to test security, safety and emergency management frameworks from local to the National levels.

The exercise will provide a believable and realistic environment and will test relationships and organizational limits.

Exercise Silver will continue this evening with a ‘live action’ event in the Burrard Inlet. At approximately 7:45pm, the Integrated Security Unit will coordinate a marine based exercise. The public should be advised that there will be an increase in marine security vessel activity during this time. The exercise will involve a response to an emergent criminal incident on a TransLink SeaBus. The exercise will be highly controlled, and access to the area will be restricted.

The exercise is expected to take place over a two hour period. Public Affairs staff from the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit and Joint Task Force Games will be available on the promenade at Canada Place. Please be advised that the scenario will occur in darkness and at a significant distance from shore.

SeaBus photo opp: 4pm

Update to the last post about the SeaBus photo opp: the barge will apparently be leaving the dock at 4pm. Not sure when it will pass under the Lions Gate Bridge from there… but keep an eye out if you’re in the area! Sorry for the short notice — I just found out!

Heads up: third SeaBus photo opp

One of the older SeaBuses out on the water, awaiting the arrival of its new friend the Pacific Breeze!

Transit photography fans: there will likely be a photo opp for the third SeaBus tomorrow!

Basically, a large portion of the Burrard Pacific Breeze will be taken by barge from a warehouse in North Vancouver to Victoria Shipyards in Victoria, where construction will be completed.

You should recognize it fairly easily — it’s the aluminum shell of the passenger house.

The departure is dependent on tides and currents, so I don’t have an exact time yet—I’ll keep you posted once I get that information. But once it departs, feel free to head out to the Lions Gate Bridge and watch for it.

I won’t be able to make it out, so if you do get some shots, it would be great if I could share them on the blog! Send them to the Buzzer’s email and let me know how you’d like to be credited.

The third SeaBus finally gets its name!

Our two existing SeaBus vessels, as pictured above, will be joined this fall by a third SeaBus: the Pacific Breeze!

Hey, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for — the third SeaBus is named the Burrard Pacific Breeze!

A big congratulations goes out to Robert Waldman, who was the only one to suggest the name out of over 1,200 entries.

“It was a no-brainer,” said Robert, who works at Hastings Park Racecourse. “B.C. is Canada’s Pacific province, and ‘breeze’ suggests the tropical [influenced] weather we often get around here.”

How did the name get picked? Once all the entries were in, the mayors from the North Shore selected their top six names. Then the 5,000+ members of the TransLink Listens Online Advisory Panel voted for the final choice.

For submitting the winning name, Robert gets to take part in the official launching and christening ceremonies and ride on the inaugural voyage of the Burrard Pacific Breeze. He also receives three three-zone monthly FareCards, which will certainly come in handy for Robert.

“I take the bus to work every day,” he says, “even though the others at work laugh and say, ‘you’ve got a car – why take the bus?’ But I love not having the hassle of traffic.”

As for the third SeaBus, the Burrard Pacific Breeze is currently being built and should be on the water in fall 2009. When the Breeze initially goes into service, the other two SeaBuses, the Burrard Otter and Burrard Beaver, will take turns getting a full refit.

Between them, the Burrard Otter and the Burrard Beaver provided over 5.5 million rides in 2008. Having all three SeaBuses in operation will allow capacity between Lonsdale Quay and Waterfront Station to be increased by 800 customers per hour, in each direction.

Congratulations again to Robert! The Pacific Breeze is a lovely name!