I Love Transit Week is back this year, October 1-5, and our theme is Connections—the future of transportation in Metro Vancouver. Teachers, unleash your inner explorer and take learning beyond the classroom! We have two exciting contests for you and free bus travel for your students:

I Love Transit Camp contest (Grades 3–12)

I Love Transit Camp is a unique opportunity for kids (and their teachers and chaperones!), grades 3 through 12, to get a behind-the-scenes look at TransLink operating companies’ facilities, tour the bus and SkyTrain yards, and much more!

One winning class will get the opportunity to attend I Love Transit Camp in October (date will be determined with the winning teacher) to learn about how transit works and have some fun at the same time. Check out all the fun that was had in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

To enter, visit translink.ca/ilovetransit, fill out the form and tell us in 150 words or less what the future of transportation in Metro Vancouver looks like and what/where will it connect you to! Is it to your best friend’s house, perhaps Toronto, or somewhere even more ambitious like Mars? Photos, videos, drawings, recordings, poems and whatever else you can dream up that best represents your vision can accompany the submission. Let your imagination go wild. There are no wrong answers. Wanna put your class’ application over the top? Send us a video/drawings/poetry/song or whatever to thebuzzer@translink.ca with the subject, “I Love Transit Application” or drop it in the mail to The Buzzer, c/o Social Media Team, 400 – 287 Nelson’s Court, New Westminster, BC, V3L 0E7. See below for some ideas of winning submissions.

Contest closes at 4 p.m. on Friday, October 5, 2018 and you’ll want to read the terms and conditions.

Need some help to get started? Here’s the rubric our judges will be using and some prompts for your class:

• Its 2028, describe your trip to work using public transportation of the future.
  (What’s new and changed? What’s stayed the same? What’s surprising about public transit 20 years from today?)
• You are riding on a bus, reading with your head down. The bus stops to pick up some passengers and you look up. The view out the window is not what you expected! You’ve been fast forwarded to the future! What do you notice? How has transit changed for the better?
• Use all of the following words in your essay about the future of transit: New, Faster, Fun, Moving, Sustainable, Future, More, Less, Happy.

The day will start at 9 a.m. and wrap up around 4 p.m. It will include snacks, a pizza lunch, prizes, t-shirts and a chance meet some of the key people (and the Transit Police dog!) that help TransLink move close to a half-a-million people a day and plan for the future.

Here’s the tentative itinerary:

Depending on the school of the winning class, we will pick up the winning team at their school and take a ride to the Burnaby Transit Centre (BTC)!

BTC is home to little-known transit operations such as fleet overhaul, where they fix and update almost everything on a bus, including bus painting and seat re-upholstering. We’ll also tour the bus yard where we’ll see both articulated and 40-foot buses! After that, we’ll have a little lunch then say goodbye to BTC.

Next, we’ll hop on the SkyTrain to head down to Edmonds Station where we’ll walk down to SkyTrain’s Operations and Maintenance Centre. There, campers will get a behind-the-scenes look at the facility where SkyTrain cars are maintained and cleaned, and visit SkyTrain Control! They will also get to try the SkyTrain simulator and SkyTrain staff will be on hand to answer questions.

A visit with Transit Police and Transit Security to tell us all about everything they do will cap off the day. I’m told they’ll be bringing their vehicles and a special guest if we are lucky!

Throughout the day we’ll be taking breaks for fun games and more!

Questions? Email thebuzzer@translink.ca and we’ll be happy to answer them!

Want an idea of what we’re looking for? Check out these submissions from the last year that impressed us!

DayPass contest (K-12)

K-12 students can ride the bus for free during I Love Transit Week (Oct. 1–5), so it will be a perfect time for teachers to plan a field trip on transit! You may have taken advantage of this in previous years during iWALK.

Want to take your class on transit another time? Enter for a chance to win up to 35 Compass Cards with a DayPass loaded for your class, including teachers and chaperones, to use for your next field trip! DayPasses provides unlimited transit use on all buses, SkyTrain and SeaBus for one day from the first tap in until the end of the service day.

*Please note that we have a limited number of Day Passes available, so not everyone who applies will necessarily win

Contest closes at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 5, 2018 and you’ll want to read the terms and conditions.

Free bus travel for students (K-12)

Students in kindergarten through grade 12 will eligible for free bus travel during I Love Transit Week.

We ask teachers who are planning to take advantage of free bus travel for field trips to plan the transit portion during off-peak hours, between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

*Please note that this does not include SkyTrain, SeaBus and West Coast Express. As well, regular fares apply to adults accompanying children and high school students on the system. 

You’ll want to visit translink.ca/ilovetransit to learn more and enter our contests!

Author: Allen Tung