Kevin Quinn took the reigns as TransLink’s Chief Executive Officer one year ago in July. He reflects with Tina Lovgreen, TransLink’s spokesperson, on the journey so far and what’s next.

Video Transcript

[Tina] Hey Kevin, ready for lunch?

[Kevin] Let’s do it.

[Tina] If you could pick one word to describe this year, what would it be?

[Kevin] I think it’s been very productive. We’ve gotten a lot done. I’d say it’s the collection of things that we’ve been able to get approved over the last year, especially the last six months. So, our regions 30 year transportation plan, we passed an investment plan

[Tina] During a pandemic!

[Kevin] During a pandemic, that’s right. The Mayors’ 10 year priorities, Transport 2050: 10-Year Priorities, we got that approved. But also some really important fundamental pieces of our program, like our Customer Experience Plan and our Climate Action Plan. So all of these have gotten done in the last six months. It’s laid quite the foundation for all the work that we want to do. Going ahead.

All right. Ready to do this!

[Tina] So I’ve noticed you take transit a lot. You’ve been on the system

[Kevin] Yeah.

[Tina] You’ve tapped your Compass Card over 900 times last year.

[Kevin] 900 times!

[Tina] I’m pretty sure that’s well above average.

[Kevin] It might be, yeah. I’m out on the system a good bit. Out on the SkyTrain a lot, the bus. You know, I’ve taken transit every single day to get to work. I haven’t driven once to the office, and I take transit to all my meetings. We, you know, when I first started, we were around 40, 50%. And it’s been really nice to have kind of a front row seat to watching us, you know, increase that ridership number to where we are today in the mid-seventies. And what we have really seen is that when people have some place to go, they are taking transit. But, you know, aside from just kind of that ridership number, it’s about options, it’s about accessibility. And, you know, that’s where we’ve really got to focus on moving forward.

[Tina] Have you had a chance to explore B.C. with your family a lot?

[Kevin] We have. We’ve gotten out to Vancouver Island a couple of times, out to the Sunshine Coast, a couple of times some more kind of local parks and things on the North Shore. This first year has really been about laying the foundation, right. It’s been about laying the foundation for all the projects that we want to do.

And so going forward, now’s the time to implement. It’s time to build. It’s time to get all those things and make them a reality. So I’m really proud of the work that that the team has really done in laying that foundation. I think we’ve got a great setup for the future.