We’re back at it with another week of #MyTransLink. A special place where we share the regions photos as submitted by you – Metro Vancouver’s community, neighbours and visitors. Scroll on down to check out the latest in #MyTransLink.
June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day and Canadians coast to coast will be celebrating the heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding achievements of the First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples! While these groups have similarities, each group has some distinct differences that make them unique through cultural practice, languages and more.
Between June 16 and 28, there are a myriad National Indigenous Peoples Day events happening throughout Metro Vancouver! We’ve compiled a selection below — transit can get you to these events. Plan your trip using our Trip Planner, and sign up for Transit Alerts and know before you go.
TransLink works, operates and serves on the traditional territories of 46 Coast Salish First Nations within Metro Vancouver.
The upgrades at SkyTrain’s Joyce–Collingwood Station are now complete and not only is there a new, upgraded elevator and escalator to improve passenger access, there’s a colourful public art installation that wraps around the new stationhouse and the nearby bus loop! Read more »
Last year’s Car Free Day on Main Street!
Car Free Day Vancouver is back on June 15, 16 and July 7 and we’ll be there to talk Transport 2050 with you.
Transport 2050 is a new shared regional strategy that will help navigate the next 30 years of transportation in Metro Vancouver!
It’s that time of the week again, where we share the regions photos as submitted by you – Metro Vancouver’s community, neighbours and visitors. #MyTransLink celebrates the beauty of our region through select transit-related shots. Scroll on down to check out the latest in #MyTransLink.
After just one month of engagement, Metro Vancouverites have completed almost 9,000 surveys and shared almost 900 bold and creative ideas for the future.
TransLink is leading the development of Transport 2050, a new long-term transportation strategy for our region. And thousands of you who live, work and play across Metro Vancouver have stepped up to have a say!
Transport 2050 will set out what our region needs to build, do, and provide to meet our transportation needs between now and 2050. And a regional strategy needs regional input, so we’ve launched the largest engagement in our history to ask: What’s important to you? What are your transportation priorities? And, what are your ideas for the future?
After just one month of engagement, Metro Vancouverites have completed almost 9,000 surveys and shared almost 900 bold and creative ideas for the future. Below are some highlights from Phase 1 of engagement but if you haven’t taken part yet – don’t despair! You can participate until September 22. Read more »
Being a SkyTrain Attendant means you’re a jack-of-all-trades. On any given day, you may need to help someone find their destination, assist a customer having a medical issue, or even manually drive the SkyTrain (if needed in extreme weather). The list of situations SkyTrain Attendants may find themselves in is long and often falls into the, ‘and other duties’ portion of the job description.
That’s what SkyTrain Attendant Pat discovered last week when he encountered a distressed raven that trapped itself behind a fenced off area.
During his shift at Holdom Station, Pat heard what he described as a child crying loudly. After analyzing the area, he found a raven mimicking the call for help, and a friend circling around to keep it company.
If you ever find a distressed animal by transit centres and don’t know what to do, we recommend notifying our SkyTrain Attendants or call the Wildlife Rescue Helpline (604-526-7275) with a message detailing what you have observed. This is for the best interests of the animal and you.
In this situation, Pat was able to help. Going beyond the ordinary is just one of the things our SkyTrain Attendants do everyday.
Your friendly neighbourhood SkyTrain Attendants have a broad responsibility to provide all our passengers (feathered or not) with a smooth transit experience. To learn more about what they do, take a look at Cheri’s interview as she talks about her 17+ years dedication to the job.
Clay McMullen, a UBC staffer, is one of close to 48 people participating in TransLink’s vanpool pilot program.
For the last five years, Clay McMullen has been making the stressful, bumper-to-bumper commute between his home in Abbotsford and the University of British Columbia’s Point Grey campus where he works.
The 200 kilometre round trip requires Clay to leave for work at 4:40 a.m. and then leave UBC for home at 3:30 p.m, five days a week.
“Money isn’t the big thing — the big thing is the stress of being behind the wheel,” says Clay.
But since February, the daily three-hour combined commute has gotten a lot easier.
“Two or three, or six of us can share this burden in a vanpool.”
Clay now commutes with six of his coworkers, who live in the Fraser Valley and South of Fraser, as part of a vanpool (a carpool but with vans!), organized by TransLink in partnership with Modo.
He says this small change has been a major boon to his lifestyle.
“Vanpool is good for the environment, good for my stress levels, and good for my wallet.” Read more »
Join us on June 19, 9 a.m., at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Wilson School of Design in Richmond for our Annual General Meeting (AGM)! You can also watch the livestream on Periscope and Facebook.
You’ll hear from speakers about TransLink’s unprecedented year in 2018 and commitments for 2019, including an update on Transport 2050 — our largest public engagement ever.
We welcome questions from everyone at our AGM, so bring them and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Ask away in the comments if you’re watching the livestream. Any questions that we aren’t able to get to will be getting back to you a.s.a.p.
June’s Open Board Meeting will follow at 10 a.m. after a brief break.
When: Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at 9 a.m.
What: Annual General Meeting and Quarterly Open Board Meeting
Where: Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 5600 Kwantlen Street, Richmond, BC (near Canada Line’s Lansdowne Station)
May 26 – June 1 is National AccessAbility Week – a week dedicated to changing the way we think, talk and act about accessibility and inclusion. TransLink is proud to offer a fully accessible fleet to people with different types of mobility, enabling everyone to travel by bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus, and West Coast Express. Our fleet of vehicles has low floors with ramps and high floors with lifts, and all SkyTrain stations have elevators. It’s all part of our commitment to making transit accessible for as many people as possible. Read more »
While some people dread their Monday morning commute, that was not the case this Monday morning as SeaBus passengers destined for both Downtown and the North Shore were treated to a five-minute whale of a show in the Burrard Inlet. Read more »
Tags: Killer Whale, Orca, SeaBus
Bike to Work Week this spring is May 27 to June 2!
Step up and bike to work, school and everywhere in between during HUB Cycling’s Bike to Work Week, May 27 to June 2! Read more »
Tags: bike to work week, BTWW, cycle, HUB
All four buses for our battery-electric bus pilot are now here!
The two Nova Bus LFSe buses and two New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE buses are undergoing pre-delivery inspection at the manufacturer’s facilities.
Once they’re accepted by TransLink and Coast Mountain Bus Company, they’ll undergo additional testing, and fareboxes and radio equipment will be installed before entering service this summer.
The 2.5-year pilot will put battery-electric buses on route 100, traveling along Marine Drive through Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster. Read more »
Last Thursday, we launched Dine the Line to explore local eateries with three journeys, one for each Skytrain line. But no matter what kind of foodie you are, there’s a fun drink in town that has captured the hearts of many in our community.
Whether you are a novice drinker of boba milk tea or acquired an advanced taste of taro slush, bubble tea is the beverage that’s buzzing today on The Buzzer Blog! As a favorite beverage of many in Metro Vancouver, here are some by Skytrain stations that you can check out while you are venturing on your Dine the Line journey:
Surrey Central Station (Expo Line)
Chatime
Address: 10255 King George Blvd
Walking time: 4 minutes
Chatime is one of the few franchises in the lower mainland, and provides a wide variety of signature drinks, but also colourful toppings like rainbow jelly to add more fun to your drink.
Bubble 88
Address: Unit 102- 10209 King George Blvd
Walking Time: 4 minutes
If you or your friend are cramming for the summer semester, (we can hear your struggles SFU Surrey students) Bubble 88 offers a selection of Taiwanese dishes to accompany your drink. Take your tea and food to go at the same time!
Metrotown Station (Expo Line)
OneZo Tapioca
Address: 4929 Kingsway
Walking Time: 12 mins (but 5 mins with the 144 bus)
Boba pearls are the dark starchy balls at the bottom of most drinks, but OneZo makes their drinks more fun with colored and flavoured pearls! They also make them fresh in house everyday.
Stadium-Chinatown Station (Expo Line)
Shiny Tea – International Village
Address: Unit 2113 88 W Pender Street
Walking Time: 6 minutes
If you are a classic tea drinker, Shiny Tea is a bright spot that offers more traditional tastes in tea bases and tea-flavoured soft serve. Check out Daily Hive’s video on their tea-flavoured soft serve. (There is a shortcut if you get off the SkyTrain and head toward TransLink’s Lost Property Office to find an exit on the right.)
Lougheed Town Centre Station (Millennium Line)
CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice
Address: E-501 North Rd
Walking time: 5 minutes
Close to the Lougheed Town Center bus loop, Coco offers tropical yogurt-based drinks using Yakult, which adds more of a refreshing taste rather than creamy.
Lincoln Station (Millennium Line)
Bubble World
Address: Unit 120 – 2991 Lougheed Hwy
Walking Time: 3 mins
Another casual Taiwanese eatery, Bubble World offers a wide variety of bubbly and shaken beverages. Their menu also offers desserts to share with friends.
Vancouver City Centre Station (Canada Line)
The Alley
Address: 985 Hornby Street
Walking time: 8 minutes
A bit a farther than the others listed in this article, but still great for a power walk! The Alley recently opened, making themselves known for their colorful and photogenic drinks, but a bit more expensive than the others on the list.
Passion Tea Room
Address: 1020 Howe Street
Walking time: 8 minutes
Another power walk for tasty bubble tea: Passion Tea Room provides lots of specialty fruit slush, milk teas and ice tea blends for a hot summer day!
Richmond-Brighouse Station (Canada Line)
Gong Cha
Address: Unit 130 – 6068 No. 3 Road
Walking Time: 2 minutes
If you like cappuccinos, try out a drink with milk foam at Gong Cha! This place has the shortest walking time from a Skytrain station, so you might as well grab a waffle too.
How far will you go for boba? Let us know what your favourite drink and bubble tea place is in the comments below!
Winter is gone, and summer is coming! Aside from the season and unpredictable Vancity weather, the temperatures are changing too. We’re here to explain the variance of heat and AC you’ll encounter on your commutes and give tips on how you can make it a more comfortable experience too.
Temperature on the Bus
Buses that have joined the TransLink fleet since 2012 are climate controlled, so that means there’s air conditioning onboard! As we renew and expand our fleet, they’re making up a larger portion of our fleet. If you’re onboard a bus that has air conditioning, let’s keep those windows shut so the air conditioning can do its job.
As well, climate control means there are times when it seems that both the heating and cooling is on simultaneously. This is so the system can “dry” or dehumidify the air on a cold or humid day.
Temperature on SkyTrain
Over on SkyTrain, our Mark II and III trains both have cooling and heating systems.
Each car has a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit on its roof. It uses sensors that determine the outside air temperature versus the air inside the car, then that will follow an algorithm that helps maintain an optimal temperature for passengers.
Our Mark I trains only has a heating system, so over summer, pop those windows open to keep cool. There are also overhead fans that help with cooling too.
The SkyTrain operates admirably with a 95 per cent on-time performance, but from time to time, there are delays. It’s important to note that if your train is stopped in between stations or just outside a station, that you listen to the onboard announcements and check Transit Alerts. If you need to, open a window for ventilation and use the intercom to speak with SkyTrain Control. Not only is forcing doors open dangerous because the tracks carry live power, it can lengthen delays as a SkyTrain Attendant will need to respond to that individual train.
How to make your commute more comfortable
Planning ahead with Trip Planner is super helpful to know how much to bring with you and time that you take to commute. Do you have some breather room to take a break from the heat? Or wanting to explore cafes close by SkyTrain stations? (PS: we have another article coming up on that shortly.)
Everyone shares the public space on transit, so we can help each other make it a better commute together. When many people are on the bus at once during a hot day, please be mindful of personal hygiene and refrain from wearing scented products.
Water is always the best option to keep hydrated. While food and drink aren’t allowed on transit for cleanliness purposes and courtesy of others who may not tolerate food smells, water is an exception (if it has a lid). We’d like to provide caution about drinking on a moving vehicle, so it might be best to wait until you reach a bus stop for a quick drink.
If you are going to be transiting for most of the day, it’s best to plan your outfit that will be convenient for your commute. Wear clothing that is comfortable and an outer layer that will be easy to take off due to changing temperatures.
Lastly, we want to make sure that everyone will have a safe commute no matter where your destination is this summer. Let us know if you have any suggestions on how you keep yourself comfortable during your trip also in the comments below!
Bus, SkyTrain | Helen | 
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