A few reflections as we come to the end of the Games
A few reflections as we come to the end of the Games
This is mildly off-topic (or is it?), but I wanted to share a few personal reflections as the Games come to an end today.
I think I speak for myself and all the folks at TransLink and its family of companies, when I say that these 17 days have been an extraordinary time for our public transit system.
Working here, I’ve always seen how much my colleagues care about providing good service for all of you. It’s truly wonderful that we were able to demonstrate this so vividly during the Games, and that so many of you have been so public with your recognition and commendations.
And while the immense work of our staff, led by the prescient planning work of our Olympic transportation team, has helped us move an unprecedented number of riders on our system—I know it could not have worked without the help of you, our transit riders for the Olympic period.
You have been cheerful, positive, and endlessly patient on busy trains and buses. And you have been generous in reducing vehicle traffic for the Games, working to help everyone get where they need to be.
Speaking with staff, I have heard over and over again that it has been a pleasure to serve you on the transit system, and I know it will continue to be a pleasure for us to help you get around the region well.
So I’d like to say thanks to you all, staff and riders alike, for a wonderful Olympic transit experience. Here’s to a beautiful friendship after the Games period, through the Paralympics, and onward into the future!
Great work TransLink on getting so many people to the events and around the city. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the transit system held up to the immense crowds.
I think one of the best things about the Olympics is the new electronic services. While I’m still upset we don’t have real time transit information on “Next Bus” on my Blackberry. The Blog and twitter feeds made the congestion much more manageable. For example the 3 hour service outage today came out on Twitter allowed me to redirect to Canada Line to minimize impact. I saw many waiting to bus stop oblivious to the outage.
I realize not everyone has a cellphone. But many do and are prepared to share outage information with fellow riders.
It was actually kinda fun and I think Translink did an outstanding job during this time. Now if only we could keep those extra trains on the Canada Line!
Thanks a lot, to everybody involved at TransLink, and especially to all of the volunteers who have made everything work so, so smoothly. I’ve spent every day of the past two weeks downtown – commuting via SkyTrain from Coquitlam.
Everybody has greeted me with a smile (and I was sure to give lots of them back!) and a generous heap of great spirit. Thank you all so very much! =-)
Kudos to Translink. Great job. I’m just sad the extra service levels have to end. It was amazing seeing so many people downtown, without the noise and pollution of so many cars.
You guys did a great job, and thanks to you, Jhenifer, for your thorough, informative, and enthusiastic coverage of what was truly a high-water, gold-medal moment in Vancouver’s transit history.