October 30, 2020, 12:22 pm
West Coast Express is a commuter rail service that has been serving the region since Nov. 1, 1995 with more than 2.6 million boardings per year. Every weekday customers get on and off at one of eight stations travelling between Downtown Vancouver and Mission.
Opening for service in November of 1995, the West Coast Express has been the backbone of commuter journeys between Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley for almost a quarter of a century.
The service provides important inter-modal connections and serves an ever-growing ridership, as the population of the Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley increases. It operates along 70 kilometres of track and stops in the municipalities of Port Moody, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and Mission.
The team that keeps these machines running is small, but mighty – and they are celebrating a quarter century of connecting the people of Mission with Vancouver this month.
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October 27, 2020, 11:18 am
Bus operator Fraser Doucette and Transit Supervisor Blake Webb believe in delivering great service to our customers. So, for them, making sure the destination signs on our buses provide clear route information simply makes sense.
“When I moved to Vancouver in 1971 from the Kootenays, every bus said where it was going, either the exact destination or the name of the street it ended on,” says Fraser, who has been driving our electric trolley buses in Vancouver for over 26 years. “You just knew where the bus went.”
But, with the increase in bus routes over the years, Fraser says things aren’t so clear anymore.
“Today, eighteen different bus routes say ‘Downtown,’ which can be confusing for our customers.”
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October 22, 2020, 3:06 pm
Outdoor patios are helping Metro Vancouver’s breweries double capacity and continue to quench beer lovers’ thirst during tough times.
You might have noticed more tents, string lights and heaters popping up across Metro Vancouver’s public spaces. Businesses have been working hard to winterize their outdoor patios so they can safely accommodate more residents to keep sipping into the colder months. Read more »
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October 20, 2020, 3:53 pm
Halloween is approaching 🎃 🎃 🎃. Even though this year might look quite different, it doesn’t mean we cannot get into the Spooky Spirit and celebrate it safely and with fun!
No matter how you will be celebrating – having fun with pumpkin carving, decorating your place into the Stranger Things house or Hogwarts, picking a scary movie from your to-watch list, or all of the above – dressing up in an epic costume can make the day even more memorable.
Brainstorming costume ideas will be a great activity for kids and your close ones to come together and get into the holiday mood. Time to get that old clothing item you haven’t worn in ages and put it to a good use 👻!
To get your creative juices flowing, we’ve pulled out some examples of the great costumes spotlighted on our system over the past couple of years.
For this year, please remember to be safe, wear a mask, and maintain physical distancing.
Let us know in the comments what are some of the fun costumes you’ve seen in the past or would like to try out 🧛🧙👾🤖.
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October 20, 2020, 1:33 pm
TransLink today announced that CEO Kevin Desmond has advised the Board of Directors that he will be leaving the organization in February 2021. After almost five years as CEO, Desmond is stepping away from his role and returning to the U.S. where he will be seeking new career challenges.
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October 19, 2020, 3:22 pm
When Davinder Kaura joined Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) as a bus operator in September 2019, he was thrilled, looking forward to meeting his new coworkers. Little did he know how much their generosity would come to mean to him.
Supporting Aryan
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October 19, 2020, 11:45 am
Bicycles which have been left abandoned or discarded in TransLink’s Bike Parkades will be removed and donated to charity over coming weeks. The Bike Parkade cleanout is a first for TransLink and will ensure an efficient use of bike storage space as customers return to using the transit system.
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October 15, 2020, 11:00 am
We all know that that sinking feeling knowing you forgotten something and frantically trying to remember where you might have forgotten it. And of course, the process we all go through ranking just how important the item is.
On a typical day, as many as half a million people could be taking transit in Metro Vancouver, so not surprisingly our Lost Property office at Stadium–Chinatown Station processes tens of thousands of lost items each year.
But sometimes, lost items are reunited with their owners without ever making it to our Lost Property office. We know how important items such as wallets and keys are to our customers, so staff make every effort to track down these items on the transit system right away.
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October 13, 2020, 1:56 pm
TransLink and HUB have teamed up to highlight patios across Metro Vancouver for the next few weeks. This week we’re featuring Main Street in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood!
Main Street has seen huge changes as many restaurants have taken advantage of previously dedicated parking spots to expand their patios. If you’ve taken a walk in the area, you’ve no doubt walked through scenes of people enjoying their small group outings on a variety of colourful patios. In Mount Pleasant alone, there have been over 40 curbside patios that have popped up through the City of Vancouver’s Temporary Extended Patio Program.
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October 9, 2020, 3:19 pm
To tell the story of the Expo Line Memes for TransLink-Oriented Teens (ELMTOTs) Facebook group, we first have to tell the story for New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens, or NUMTOTs.
Founded in 2017, The Guardian aptly describes it as “a global network of millennials who want to make cities better.” More than 209,000 members share memes, articles and discuss myriad topics on public transportation and New Urbanism.
Ernest Ng, who is one of the ELMTOTs group’s founders, noticed that while there was a lot of Vancouver content in the NUMTOTs group, there wasn’t a local group dedicated sharing Vancouver content. He created SkyTrain Memes for Bike-Lane-Oriented Teens on April 20, 2018. Needless to say, STMBLOT didn’t quite roll of the tongue like NUMTOTs.
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October 9, 2020, 11:02 am
TransLink customers can now take their bikes on SkyTrain at all times and in all directions on both the Expo and Millennium lines. This change will make it easier for customers to cycle and take transit during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the ridership is still low.
“We’re always looking at ways to improve our customer experience, especially as we navigate these unprecedented times,” says TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond. “This change will give customers more opportunity to integrate cycling into their daily commute with transit and will hopefully encourage more people to leave their cars at home and support more greener modes of transportation this fall.”
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October 9, 2020, 8:27 am
Every year, we challenge teachers and K-12 students to take learning beyond the classroom during I Love Transit week, which is the first full week of October. We provide free bus rides for students and offer a chance to win a behind-the-scenes visit to TransLink.
It’s all part of our efforts to encourage kids to walk, bike or roll to school and to get to know the TransLink system. This way, kids are armed with the tools and skills to foster independence and become transit riders for life.
We’ve been offering free bus rides for close to 15 years and in 2014, we added the behind-the-scenes visit — called I Love Transit Camp — to bring kids even closer to transit. This year, we’re doing things a little differently and bringing a TransLink bus to a winning kindergarten to Grade 12 class in Metro Vancouver.
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October 8, 2020, 11:26 am
This photo was taken before 2020
Cats or dogs? Pepsi or Coke? Football or hockey? The CEO of TransLink, Kevin Desmond, sat down with us to discuss a few of the Internet’s most debated rapid fire questions, but also all things transit! With his long record of growing transit systems in North America, Kevin shares some of the most memorable moments of his journey to becoming the CEO and things he loves the most about public transit. Hit the play button to start listening below or on SoundCloud.
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October 6, 2020, 10:32 am
I Love Transit: Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe is October 5–9! Since 2009, we have shared interesting stories celebrating our riders, transit enthusiasts and all the things we love about transit over the course of a special week dedicated to just that, our love of transit.
Trip plan, doing it and just repetition until you’re comfortable.
That’s the advice from Lucas Gates, a relatively new transit commuter. He regularly takes the Canada Line and 1 or 2 buses, depending on the time of day, to get to work at the Pacific Autism Family Network.
Lucas loved the SkyTrain growing up and has fond memories riding it with his grandfather, but admits not having the same excitement for the bus… until recently.
Changes in life put him into high gear to learn how to use the full breadth of the transit system.
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October 5, 2020, 4:16 pm
I Love Transit Week is back for the 11th year! It’s a week-long celebration of all things transit and we are excited for you to be part it. In keeping with tradition, we’ll have a host of awesome opportunities prepared for you for this exciting week.
Feeling lucky? Take part in our social media contest and share your responses about what you love about public transit for a chance to win one of the three Dr. Bonnie Henry Compass Cards loaded with a Monthly Pass.
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