As 2018 ends, The Buzzer blog takes a look at some of TransLink’s milestones from the year that was!

Improving the customer experience was a big focus for us this year.

We made paying for transit even more easier with the roll-out of Tap to Pay. For customers without Compass Cards such as tourists, this feature means no more ticket line-ups, digging for exact change, or worrying about pre-calculating zones — just tap your Visa or Mastercard contactless credit card or mobile wallet, and be on your way. In less than two months of its launch, Tap to Pay hit a milestone with more than one million taps.

We introduced Vancouver actor and comedian Seth Rogen as the guest voice on transit. We also made it easier for our customers to take transit home after 2 a.m. The NightBus district pilot was a success and this new well-lit hub on West Georgia Street at Granville Street is now a permanent fixture.

This year, we continued to make headway delivering the 10-Year Vision – the largest transportation expansion in Metro Vancouver’s history.

• In 2018, we implemented 65,000 annual service hours as part of Phase One of the 10-Year Vision.
• This brings the progress on Phase One to 275,000 annual service hours delivered 2017-2018.
• We will implement 500,000 annual service hours total by the end of 2019, as promised in the Phase One Investment Plan (2017-2019).

The first four of the 56 new Mark III SkyTrain cars (for Expo and Millennium Lines) were delivered and we’re happy to say they are now undergoing testing on the system.

Yet another milestone for this year was the approval for Phase Two of the 10-Year Vision. This sets the stage for unprecedented increases to transit services beginning in 2019.

Stay tuned for more improvements to your commute as we deliver on the new B–Line routes, roll out our new double-decker buses, make improvements to our major road network, and more in 2019!

As part of the TransLink Maintenance and Repair Program, we also made investments in aging infrastructure across the system to keep customers safe, comfortable and moving across a reliable transit network every day.

The highlights include completing upgrades to the bus exchanges at 29^th Avenue and Joyce–Collingwood stations, starting the SeaBus seismic upgrades and terminal renovations, launching the Granville escalator replacement project, began work to introduce real-time transit information on SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium Lines, and more! Stay tuned for updates on the new platform at Commercial–Broadway!

These are just some of the milestones we achieved in this year. Scroll through the timeline below to take a journey through 2018 with The Buzzer blog:

Are you on mobile? Click here to open the timeline in a new window.
Author: Tanushree Pillai