Reminder: Paralympic Games opening ceremonies, Friday March 12

Just a reminder that the Paralympic Games opening ceremonies are at B.C. Place today, Friday March 12!

That means some road closures downtown, transit reroutes, and crowds heading to the event at B.C. Place. Full details are below.

Please do remember: as with the Olympic Games, tickets to Paralympic events (including the opening ceremonies) are also good for unlimited travel on the TransLink system on the date of the event!

Opening Ceremony at B.C. Place on Friday March 12

During the Opening Ceremony on March 12:

• SkyTrain will operate “event level” service, with 55 trains running on the Expo/Millennium Lines before and after the ceremony and additional trains available for the Canada Line if needed.
• SeaBus will run two vessels following the ceremonies to help deal with crowds, and Coast Mountain Bus Company will have additional buses available if needed.
• Cambie Street Bridge and the Georgia Viaduct will be closed, 10am-Midnight on March 12. The #15 will only serve the south-of-False Creek portion of its route during that time; customers coming into downtown Vancouver will need to use Canada Line.
• Buses to and from North Vancouver will travel via Georgia/Pender to Richards, then to Georgia for the return trip
• Due to the closure of Cambie and Quebec Streets, the C21 and C23 Community Shuttles will be re-routed via Seymour, Pender and Main, returning via Main, Pender and Richards.
• An accessible shuttle bus will provide service for those with mobility issues between Yaletown-Roundhouse Station and BC Place Stadium from 3-10pm.

For more information….

If you have any questions on these services or need help with tripplanning, feel free to contact Customer Information at 604-953-3333.

If you’d like more information about the Vancouver road closures, please see the City of Vancouver’s Paralympic Transportation Plan page.

Remember, you can follow the TransLink Twitter account for real-time service updates during the Paralympics! You can also sign up for alerts to be delivered to you via e-mail or text message. See this post for even more ways to get transit info during the Paralympic period.

Transit service for the Paralympic Games, Fri Mar 12 to Sat Mar 21

With the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games underway Friday March 12 to Saturday March 21, that means some changes to transit service in the city of Vancouver.

Remember: as with the Olympic Games, tickets to Paralympic events are also good for unlimited travel on the TransLink system on the date of the event! (Your transit travel has already been included in the ticket price!)

Paralympic Torch Relay, Thursday March 11 and Friday March 12

For the Paralympic Torch Relay on Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12, there will be no bus service on Robson Street: the #5 and N6 NightBus will travel via Georgia/Pender and Denman in both directions, all day.

The #17 Oak returned to its regular routing along Robson following the Olympics, but on March 11 and 12, it will turn on Davie to avoid anticipated crowds downtown.

Opening Ceremony at B.C. Place on Friday March 12

During the Opening Ceremony on March 12:

• SkyTrain will operate “event level” service, with 55 trains running on the Expo/Millennium Lines before and after the ceremony and additional trains available for the Canada Line if needed.
• SeaBus will run two vessels following the ceremonies to help deal with crowds, and Coast Mountain Bus Company will have additional buses available if needed.
• Cambie Street Bridge and the Georgia Viaduct will be closed, 10am-Midnight on March 12. So, starting at 7 a.m., the #15 will only serve the south-of-False Creek portion of its route during that time; customers coming into downtown Vancouver will need to use Canada Line.
• Buses to and from North Vancouver will travel via Georgia/Pender to Richards, then to Georgia for the return trip
• Due to the closure of Cambie and Quebec Streets, the C21 and C23 Community Shuttles will be re-routed via Seymour, Pender and Main, returning via Main, Pender and Richards.
• An accessible shuttle bus will provide service for those with mobility issues between Yaletown-Roundhouse Station and BC Place Stadium from 3-10pm.

Reroutes and service for the general Games period, Fri March 12 to Sat March 21

During the Games themselves, CMBC will provide additional service to and from the Games venues:

• 12 additional buses available on the 99 B-Line to and from UBC, where the ice sledge hockey events will be held.
• Accessible shuttles between UBC Loops and Thunderbird Arena, and between King Edward Station and Vancouver Paralympic Centre (for wheelchair curling)

Re-routes in effect during the Games:

• With the Robson Square Celebration Site still in operation, the #5 Downtown and N6 NightBus will travel via Thurlow, Smithe, Burrard and Pender Streets,. The #5 Robson will route via Pender and Burrard Streets.
• NB: The #5 and N6 will continue on re-route via Burrard, Pender, Richards, Robson, Seymour and Pender to Burrard and Robson after the Paralympics and at least through the summer, due to the eventual reconstruction of the “Robson Street Bridge” between Howe and Hornby (Robson Square).
• #50 False Creek South will continue to run along Seymour and Howe until March 21.
• At UBC, buses are still detoured away from Wesbrook Mall. Buses will be approaching the UBC loops via 16th Avenue, Blanca and University Boulevard; and via Southwest/Northwest Marine Drive and Wesbrook Mall, approaching the UBC loop from the north. Community Shuttles will detour via University Boulevard and East Mall. Accessible shuttles will be available between the bus loops and Thunderbird Arena at event times.
• The C21 and C23 Community Shuttles will be routed away from Expo/Pacific Boulevard for the first two days of the Games. They will return to their regular routes when Expo/Pacific Boulevard reopens on Tuesday, March 16.

For more information….

If you have any questions on these services or need help with tripplanning, feel free to contact Customer Information at 604-953-3333.

If you’d like more information about the Vancouver road closures, please see the City of Vancouver’s Paralympic Transportation Plan page.

Remember, you can follow the TransLink Twitter account for real-time service updates during the Paralympics! You can also sign up for alerts to be delivered to you via e-mail or text message. See this post for even more ways to get transit info during the Paralympic period.

C74 rerouted due to work on Highway 1

Oops — here’s a reroute notice for the C74 that I missed posting on Monday. It did go out to the media and was posted on our website though, so hopefully the word has been spread far and wide.

Due to the closure of the 152nd St. Overpass on Hwy 1, the C74 Fraser Heights/Guildford/Surrey Central Community Shuttle bus in Surrey will be re-routed indefinitely.

As of Monday, March 8, the bus no longer travels along 110th Ave between 156th St. and 152nd St.

Instead, the shuttle will use the 156th St. underpass both ways. The eastbound trip will use 108th Ave to 160th St., then turn on 104th and resume its “old” route.

The westbound trip will only go as far as 110th Ave. & 156th St., then turn south and take the underpass again to 104th Ave (on the south side of the freeway, near Guildford).

When the 160th Street Interchange has been completed and traffic patterns have been established, this route will be reviewed again.

The morning after: a bit of downtown and the airport

Whoa, where did all the people go?

It’s the morning after the Games, and all the people have disappeared!

I took a quick look at Waterfront this morning, after heading to YVR to see the crowds (more on that later in this post.)

Read more »

Heads up: big crowds headed to YVR on Monday, March 1

Just a reminder that Monday March 1 will continue to be a very busy day even though the Olympics are over.

Travelling into downtown Vancouver or to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) Mon, March 1—the first day after the Games end—will be extremely busy.

The airport is preparing for record crowds as over 35,000 Olympians, officials, media, visitors and other passengers catch flights home. Passengers are advised to arrive at the airport up to four hours in advance of their flight. Most Games-time road closures will remain in place so commuters should continue to travel smart.

Remember, we will be running special service on the Canada Line to YVR, with the trains continuing overnight from February 28 to March 1 to help with the rush. See this post for the full details. Also, check out YVR’s tips for passengers flying out on March 1.

Downtown bus routes start getting back on track next week

With the Games over this Sunday, many downtown buses will go back to their regular routes (or as close as they can get) as road closures are lifted.

However, just so you know, if the road closure schedule is revised, this may affect our bus reroutes — I will keep you updated if there’s any changes.

Please have a look at the info below so you know if your bus route is affected!

Monday, March 1

The #5 Robson/Downtown and N6 Downtown will return to their initial detour route from just before the Games, NOT their regular route. (That’s scheduled to happen on Thu Mar 4.)

That means the #5 will resume service in both directions using Denman, Robson, Burrard and Pender, and since the Robson Square zip line will be open till March 21, the #5 will stay on this route until March 1–3 March 21.

The N6 Downtown will use the same detour routing as the #5 Downtown.

#6 Davie/Downtown will return to its regular route using Davie and either Seymour northbound or Richards southbound.

C21 and C23 Community Shuttles will resume service between Yaletown-Roundhouse Station and Main Street – Science World Station, but via a temporary alternate route. (Regular routing between those stations is scheduled to resume March 14.)

Note: North Shore routes #240, #241, #242, #246 and #247 will continue to use a temporary downtown terminus on Georgia through March 21. (They were originally scheduled to revert to regular terminus on March 1.)

Tuesday, March 2

The #17 Oak/UBC/Downtown is now back to its regular route.

Wednesday, March 3

#50 False Creek South/Waterfront Station is scheduled to return to regular routing along the south part of Granville Mall.

Thursday, March 4

#15 Cambie/Downtown and NightBus services N6 Downtown, N8 Fraser and N15 Cambie/Downtown are scheduled to return to their regular routes.

You can find the full details on all Games-related reroutes on the main TransLink website. Or feel free to call TransLink Customer Information for help at 604-953-3333.

Expect transit to be super busy today (and probably tomorrow)

I am probably restating the obvious here, but expect transit to be super busy today, and likely tomorrow.

Here’s one of the notes our media team sent out to the press this morning, which has some good advice for today.

A fabulous day … and we expect it to be even busier than previous days, with the combination of the weekend and the Olympics — and the great weather. As one Twitter correspondent pointed out, it’s a great day to bike!

740 feet of buses are awaiting the next BC Ferries arrival at Tsawwassen … that’s 5 articulated buses and 11 40-foot coaches, picking up over a thousand foot passengers coming in from the Island.

West Vancouver Transit has 6 40-footers and one articulated bus to meet 850 foot passengers at Horseshoe Bay.

Broadway Corridor and anything going east-west in the city of vancouver will be exceptionally busy today, and for people coming in on SkyTrain from Commercial-Broadway and points east, heading for events at BC Place and/or Canada Hockey Place should get off at Main Street-Science World station to help ease congestion at Stadium-Chinatown Station.

SKyTrain continues to run rush-hour-level service throughout the day, including “turnback” trains out of Commercial-Broadway station. and SeaBus will have 3-boat service from 10am till Midnight. Canada Line keeps setting single-day records, breaking the quarter-million mark Wednesday and \Thursday — and probably yesterday. We can expect to see all 20 of their trains in service for at least parts of today, to handle the loads.

WEST COAST EXPRESS is running its “Olympic specials”, and if you can avoid taking the 12:30 train from Mission City, that would be a good idea. It’s expected to be packed, so if you can take one of the other trains (2, 5 and 6:30pm), you’ll have a more comfortable ride. Remember, too (this is for the WCE newbies), it is OK to walk between the cars — we’ve noticed that people are crowding into the middle cars and there are still seats in the end cars.

Here’s an article from the Vancouver Sun about the expected crowds this weekend, too.

Make sure to follow our TransLink Twitter account for real-time transit info when you’re out and about! (Or try our other web and mobile resources for real-time info).

Reminder: westbound bus stop on University Blvd & Allison is closed

I’m bumping this topic up again to make sure people are aware!

We’ve been reporting this week that the westbound bus stop on University Boulevard at Allison has been closed for safety reasons. People were surging across the Boulevard and then across Wesbrook Mall, so now buses are going straight to the UBC Loop.

But please remember that buses are still taking customers to the UBC loop! We haven’t stopped UBC service—we’ve just closed that one stop.

As well, people who are not going to Thunderbird Arena and would normally get off at Allison may want to consider transferring from the 99 B-Line to a local bus (#9 or #17) at Sasamat & 10th and getting off at the Golf Course stop instead.

Reminder: the 5, 6, and N6 routes have been rerouted!

Just bumping up this topic so lots of people notice it.

The 5, 6, and N6 are rerouted, owing to the closure of Robson Street west of Thurlow!

This means they no longer run on Robson Street, but in a continuous loop using Davie, Denman, Pender, and Richards.

Visit the original post about the reroutes to see the full reroute maps and get more details.

And make sure to follow our TransLink Twitter account or our other web and mobile resources to get real-time transit info.

Edit: As of Wednesday February 17, we’ve now added an eastbound service on Davie for the Games period only. The details:

A special bus service is being introduce effective immediately for the duration of the games. An eastbound “Special” will depart from the corner of Denman and Davie to carry passengers to Pacific Blvd. The service will run from 6 a.m. to 12 midnight each day. Service should be every eight to 10 minutes. Please note this is an eastbound service on Davie only. Customers are encouraged to use the regular westbound service for returning trips.

Bus stop at University Blvd and Allison closed for Games period

Another announcement for the Games period!

The bus stop at University Blvd and Allison (#50605 — one block from Wesbrook Mall, UBC) is being closed due to customer volumes creating public safety concerns. The westbound stop is closed until March 1st.

That means there is no stop between Sasamat & 10th (just before the Safeway) and the end of the line at UBC. You’ll need to transfer to the #17 UBC or #9 UBC to get closer to Allison!

New reroutes for the 5, 6, and N6 during the Olympics

The City of Vancouver has decided to close Robson Street west of Thurlow, affecting our bus service on the 5, 6, and N6 routes. These routes will now be rerouted for the Games period.

(This means there’s no service at all on Robson. The only eastbound service on Davie is the C21/C23 Community Shuttles, and they’re quite full. Please try to walk across the street and get the #5/#6 on their new routes, which are now running considerably more often than they usually do.)

Here are the maps of the reroutes plus the descriptions posted on our Alerts page.

Reroutes for the 5 and 6

New Olympic reroutes for the 5 and 6 routes in downtown Vancouver. Click to download a PDF version of this map.

Download a PDF map of the 5 reroute or the 6 reroute (they’re essentially the same map)

From Hastings/Richards/Davie/Denman/Georgia/Pender/Homer/Hastings/Richards/Davie in a continuous loop. No service on Robson. No downtown service on Davie. Effective Feb 16 at 11:40am and for the balance of Olympic period.

Edit: As of Wednesday February 17, we’ve now added an eastbound service on Davie for the Games period only. The details:

A special bus service is being introduce effective immediately for the duration of the games. An eastbound “Special” will depart from the corner of Denman and Davie to carry passengers to Pacific Blvd. The service will run from 6 a.m. to 12 midnight each day. Service should be every eight to 10 minutes. Please note this is an eastbound service on Davie only. Customers are encouraged to use the regular westbound service for returning trips.

Reroutes for the N6

New Olympic reroutes for the N6. Click to download a PDF version of the map.

Download a PDF map of the N6 reroute

From Hastings/Richards/Pender/Howe/Davie/Denman/Georgia/Pender/Homer/Hastings/Richards/Davie in a continuous loop. No service on Robson. Effective today February, 16th at 11:40am for the balance of Olympic period.

A huge weekend for transit, plus Canada Line increases trains today

Our director of communications Ken Hardie sent out some tweets about the weekend ridership today.

Staggering stats: Canada Line moved 210,000 passengers on Saturday; Expo & Millennium Lines an estimated 500,000 yesterday…more…

More transit stats: SeaBus moved 133,000 passengers over the weekend; The trip planner handled 48,000 sessions on Friday from 82 countries.

And here’s another tweet our TransLink account sent out just minutes ago:

Canada Line has increased its operating trains from 14 to the max of 20. Capacity has increased in 2 train increments.

Heads up: many Olympic sports events start today, Sat Feb. 13!

OK, the headline to this post sounds obvious — but it actually means something to you in terms of traffic and transit in the region!

With many sports events starting up today (only ski jumping had an event yesterday), be aware that you are going to see increased crowds on transit and more traffic around the start and end times of events, as people attend and leave the different Olympic venues.

So make sure you know what’s coming up on the Olympic competition schedule and the location of key venues, in case it may affect your journey.

Please note that there are six venues in the Lower Mainland, but many people will also be headed to departure hubs for the Olympic bus network, to head up to Whistler or Cypress Mountain.

And of course, there are various celebration sites that will be popular around the region throughout the day, especially the LiveCity sites in Vancouver, the Richmond O-Zone, and the Surrey celebration site.

Just make sure to plan ahead and leave yourself extra time to travel. There’s a multitude of travel tips to know before you go at travelsmart2010.ca. We have also extended our transit service to help you get around for the Olympic period.

And you can keep up to date with the latest traffic info through our TransLink Twitter account and other real-time transit info tools online.

Heads up: Olympic opening ceremonies, Fri Feb. 12

Well, you knew it was coming — the 2010 Olympic opening ceremonies are at B.C. Place tomorrow, Friday, February 12!

Just like the dress rehearsal on Wednesday, there will be downtown Vancouver traffic restrictions in effect. Look out for some road closures, crowds of spectators heading to B.C. Place, and lots of loading in and out on a few streets. This time, the Olympic celebration sites will also be open downtown, adding to the crowds. It is not recommended that you drive downtown!

Again, Vancouver2010.com has a whole page about getting around during the opening and closing ceremonies, and here’s the parts about Feb 12:

The Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies in downtown Vancouver on February 12 and 28, 2010 will be two of the busiest days of the 2010 Winter Games and will bring 100,000 participants into the downtown core including performers, athletes and officials, ticket holders, workforce, media and broadcasters.

The Olympic and Paralympic Transportation Team (OPTT) is responsible for transporting these groups to BC Place stadium from various locations in Metro Vancouver and the Sea to Sky regions. These groups are being transported over a period of 12 hours using roughly 1,500 cars and 500 motorcoaches.

The following streets will be closed from noon to midnight on February 10, 12, 28 and March 12:

* Cambie Street bridge (all lanes closed to vehicle traffic, however pedestrian and bike access will be maintained via the east and west sidewalks)
* Beatty Street (between Smithe and Georgia)
* North sidewalk of the 1100 block of West Hastings, in front of the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel (4 pm to 5:30 pm)

On February 10, 12, and 28 there will also be a significant amount of motorcoach activity including loading, unloading and staging on Coal Harbour Quay, Canada Place and West Cordova from noon to 11 pm.

The Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Vancouver (Feb 12, 28 and March 12), and associated dress rehearsal (February 10) are special days where vehicle travel downtown is strongly discouraged. Choose a sustainable mode, such as walking, cycling or transit. If driving is absolutely necessary, plan to leave downtown by noon, or wait until the ceremonies are underway after 5:30 pm.

But make sure to visit the Vancouver2010.com page on the opening ceremonies for full details — there’s more tips and info there.

Once more, if you’re attending the opening ceremonies, be aware that security screening will take a bit of time, so you should leave early and account for that. As well, after the opening ceremonies, be prepared to walk and wait a bit for transit service: many people will be leaving the event at the same time!

Extended Olympic transit service will be in full effect

As for transit, all of our extended Olympic service will be in effect tomorrow. That includes longer hours and extended rush-hour level service on Expo and Millennium Line, event-level service on Canada Line, 24-hour service on seven NightBus routes, and many spare buses and operators on hand to carry extra passengers where needed. (UBC and SFU will also begin their spring break at this time, relieving some pressure on the system.)

And again due to the closure of the Cambie Street Bridge from noon to midnight, the #15 bus will not operate in downtown Vancouver. It will short-turn at Broadway and Cambie; customers going to and from downtown will need to transfer to the Canada Line at Broadway-City Hall Station.

Lonsdale Quay bus loop & SeaBus service currently suspended due to police incident

Update, 6:13 p.m.
The incident below has been resolved!
SeaBus is now back in service — please expect a few delays while crowds are cleared.
The Lonsdale Quay area is also reopening.

There’s currently a police incident going on at the Lonsdale Quay bus loop. Service at the loop is currently suspended and so is SeaBus service.

So please don’t go to Waterfront SeaBus terminal or Lonsdale Quay SeaBus terminal since SeaBus is currently not running!

Alternate bus service has been set up to get people between Lonsdale Quay and Waterfront (we call this a “bus bridge”). Passengers leaving Waterfront Station (northbound) can board buses on Cordova Street outside of Waterfront. Those leaving Lonsdale Quay southbound are being directed to buses on Esplanade at the foot of Lonsdale, which are taking people to Waterfront.

Please note that SkyTrain and West Coast Express service are NOT affected by this disruption — only SeaBus and the buses at the loop on Lonsdale Quay. Police are saying it will take 1-2h to clear the area (that was reported at 4:30 p.m.)

Please follow our TransLink Twitter account for regular updates on service, or any of our other web and mobile resources for real-time transit info.