We delve into the behind-the-scenes efforts that ensure the safety and reliability of transit. Discover how we prepare for emergencies in the community, coordinate with local governments, and manage large events like Taylor Swift concerts and FIFA in the future to keep our transit system running smoothly.

Come behind the scenes with us as What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast with Jawn Jang reveals the voices and stories that drive Metro Vancouver’s transit system forward. Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts!

Transcript

JAWN JANG: Hey, welcome to What’s the T: the TransLink podcast. I’m your host, Jawn Jang. Here’s what we’re checking out on this episode. How is TransLink preparing for the big one? Let’s tap in to What’s the T.

VOICEOVER 1: The next station is.

[INTRODUCTION MUSIC PLAYS]

VOICEOVER 2: Welcome to What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast.

JAWN: There are some things that are just unique to growing up in Metro Vancouver, like reminiscing about the old days when the Rainforest Cafe was still open at Metrotown.

[AUDIO EXCERPT FROM AN AD FOR “THE RAINFOREST CAFE” PLAYS]: Enticing. More adventurous. Tropical. Exotic. Spectacular. Rainforest Cafe, a wild place to shop and eat.

JAWN: Or when you and your friends would line up outside A&B Sound, just to see if you could buy a copy of your favourite band’s new album.

[AUDIO EXCERPT FROM AN AD FOR “A&B SOUND” PLAYS]: It was the first super sale of the last year of the century at A&B Sound, with 900MHz cordless phones for $88 and 300MHz computer systems for just $999. It’s the super sale at A&B sound, but hurry, we might only have a few more months of electricity.

JAWN: Just so we’re on the same page. That was a real commercial by A&B sound, talking and joking about the upcoming Y2K bug. Yeah, that’s how much of a throwback that is. Well, there are some things, like I said, that are just unique to growing up in Metro Vancouver. And if it’s not any of those, maybe it’s just living with the fact that we grew up being told again and again that this region is well overdue for the big one. Obviously, natural disasters are very hard to predict, but when they strike, it can be utterly devastating for those that are impacted. And in our slice of the world, we’ve seen wildfires, atmospheric rivers and floods, thunderstorms and snowmageddon in just the past few years alone. But an earthquake stands out to most of us because it’s something that most of us grew up hearing about. And the science suggests that, yes, all of this is actually true. And while this podcast isn’t here to solve the issue of how do we prevent earthquakes from happening, we did want to bring up the fact that TransLink has an important role to play in responding to emergencies situations. And yes, that includes having plans on how to respond after the big one.So to that end, let’s meet Dorte Mason. She is Translink’s director of safety, emergency and environment Management, and her team work to ensure safety for customers and employees. This work encompasses everyday transit use to planning and preparing for real and hypothetical scenarios. Because when large events arrive in Vancouver, such as the recent Taylor Swift Arrows tour, there needs to be a safety plan in place to prepare for any and all situations, and the same principle can apply for natural disasters.

DORIT MASON: I think our customers should know that our system is safe and secure, and our operating companies and TransLink itself. What we do is we provide that safe and reliable service, and behind the scenes, you have people that are thinking about the safety of our customers, the safety of our employees, the safety of the public as well around our infrastructure. And then if something’s bad is going to happen, how do we prepare so that we can actually deliver that safe service?

JAWN: I think that’s so important because of course, the everyday customer they are thinking about, how am I going to go from point A to point B? We’re not always thinking, and we as in the customer, we’re not always thinking about like, oh, how safe is our trip? Because we sort of expect that safety is just built in into you. Your experience with public transit. But as we know, and the work that your team does door like, there’s a lot that goes into making sure that safety is, is always something that you can rely on. But I’m sure there’s a lot of work, maybe behind the scenes to ensure that. So maybe you explain a little bit more about what that looks like, maybe from like a day to day, boots on the ground sort of perspective.

DORIT: Well, I think the that our listeners really need to understand that each of our operating companies focus on safety, and they have teams that end up going out there making sure that the the system is safe. We have frontline staff that are out there helping our customers. We have transit police. We are so lucky to have a transit police. We have, our Coast Mountain bus security members that are out there. All of our frontline staff are thinking about how to deliver that. And, training happens in behind the scenes. We try to coordinate as much as we can, but it really is this teamwork that we’re doing to create that safety so that the customer doesn’t even need to think about, is this system safe? We’re thinking about that all the time. Safety of our staff and our employees and our customers. That’s the number one thing that we’re doing to deliver a reliable service.

JAWN: Of course. I’m curious, you know, with a lot of the work that you do, you mentioned, sometimes it’s about anticipating scenarios and situations. We never want them to happen, but it’s better to have something planned than not. So we live in Metro Vancouver. It’s no surprise. I’ve been growing up with this message. Our whole my whole life here. And I’m sure you have as well. The big one that that one earthquake that we’re all waiting for. Our parents have heard about it. Their parents have heard about it. It hasn’t happened yet.

DORIT: Knocking on wood.

JAWN: But when it does, it’s likely to disrupt a transit service. So I guess my question to you, like if an earthquake hits and it’s the big one, and you’re happening, you know, happen to be in a Skytrain, or maybe you’re on a, you’re on a bus, what should you do? Aside from maybe just yelling because it’s probably going to be pretty scary out there.

DORIT: Don’t yell.

JAWN: Okay.

DORIT: Just act. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, actually, Jawn, I’m more concerned about the crustal earthquakes, the ones that are closer to us than the big one that is out on the West Coast because, the closer the earthquake epicenter is, the bigger the damage can be. And we have had crustal earthquakes here before we have them every once in a little and once in a while we are ready for something to happen. And so what does that mean for us? We absolutely have an emergency response protocol. So we have an emergency concept of operations, which means we can organize ourselves to come together to understand what the impacts of that event are and then coordinate our response. And it is a teamwork piece. So each of the operate the bus, the Skytrain, our transit police, we’re all integrated together because we want to continue to deliver that service. But a major earthquake will impact us. But I just want to actually bring you back to what you should do if there’s an earthquake. So, each of us needs to again participate and act. And so if you are in an earthquake anywhere in the world, you want to drop, cover and hold on. And if you’re on a bus and you’re sitting, you want to essentially crouch down into your your back seat and protect your head. The operators are going to stop the busses and pull over to the side of the road. If it’s safe, our Skytrain systems will halt and there will be assessments made before there. Proceed. So as a customer, you need to listen to the frontline staff to get directions because again, we want to make sure that people are safe before they exit the building or exit our infrastructure.

JAWN: And I’m assuming our frontline staff. This seems like a silly question, but I’ll ask. They’re all trained to respond the right way. When a situation like this happens, I have to assume it’s it’s built into their to their regular training.

DORIT: Each of our frontline staff actually gets training on emergency response. The each of the operating companies is a little bit different, but there is communications that would happen between the operators and te. Com as you mentioned, our front line stores or transit police, they would respond as needed to ensure the safety. So it all comes down to safety. If you forget all of your training, you want to make sure that people are safe. And our frontline staff definitely are trained in making sure people are safe.

JAWN: That makes a lot of sense. Maybe now we kind of look at the role TransLink can play when responding to certain emergency situations. And I know that TransLink in the past has been of some help to, emergency services responding to displaced citizens and residents who might need evacuation from a certain area or might need shelter just for an emergency basis. Maybe just expand on on how TransLink can play a role in making sure we can get those people to safety.

DORIT: We are considered to be an incredible resource for our local governments that we serve in this region. And if they were to have an apartment fire, they call our calm office and say, we need to have a bus to help with evacuation. And we directly support, what is called emergency support services. And local governments are putting that into place. We are so lucky to have to be able to support whenever we have the resources there. They will, deliver a bus that either sits at the apartment, by the apartment fire or will take those evacuees to reception centres within them. The communities. So, we do support our communities in a time of need.

JAWN: In conversation with Dorit Mason Translink’s, director of safety, emergency and environment Management, talking about how TransLink prepares and responds when disaster strikes. We’ll be back with more on what’s the T? The TransLink podcast. Welcome back to what’s the T: the TransLink Podcast. Joined by Dorit Mason, Translink’s Director of Safety, Emergency and Environment Management. Learning more about how TransLink plans and responds when disaster strikes. To that end, or it. I think it’s important to note that during emergency situations, just like police cars, ambulances and fire trucks, our busses have a priority on the roads to move people out of a dangerous area. But that might be a fact that not everyone is probably aware of.

DORIT: Oh, absolutely. And in fact, because the local governments know how important busses are, moving evacuate evacuees or even moving people through those areas, they will give us priority order or priority access through those routes. An example of that actually is when we’ve had larger events such as Taylor Swift that we just planned for and the congestion down there. The transit police working together with the police, have jurisdiction making sure that our busses can get through when there’s crowded areas. They will definitely give the bus, priority service, priority access.

JAWN: I really did want to ask you about Taylor Swift, so let’s just go there now.

DORIT: Okay? Let’s go there.

JAWN: Aside from what’s your favourite Taylor Swift song? Because of course, everyone probably has one. But because there was such a large and spectacular, huge, almost international event, right? The whole world came to visit, for three nights when those concerts were happening at BC place, your team was probably very busy making sure that we did everything possible to ensure customer safety and safety for those that were visiting from out of town, which was a significant portion of the people, the concert goers that were actually a BC place.

DORIT: Well, I have to say that we move people, we move people really well, and we move lots of people really well during things like celebration of like hundreds of thousands of people. The difference with Taylor Swift and FIFA coming right is that there are going to be so many people that are from out of town, they don’t know our system at all. And so, for any large, gathering special event, we do plan for that where we get the operating companies together, we get communications, we get, the communications team. So internal communications, media communications, wayfinding, we talk about service planning, what is needed to actually deliver the customers to their larger events. We get together and we figure out what do we need to do. And it also means working with the local governments as well. So, for Taylor Swift, for FIFA, we’re working very closely with, City of Vancouver. And it is making sure. Are the roads being closed down. Do the busses need to go on these roads if they can’t go on these closed roads, which other routes are going? And that is cos mountain bus, they do that so well. And so again it is this teamwork that comes together and myself and my team and also my partners and, and the bus company and rail company will be pulling that and gluing that planning together. But we all come together to help and really, really provide that great service to customers.

JAWN: Doors, since we’re talking about it when it comes to ensuring safety on the system for everyone, our staff and our customers. What did you agree though? Like safety is a partnership. It’s not just us that has to do our part. Everyone has to kind of pitch in.

DORIT: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. So, we do our partnership within the enterprise with the bus, the rail, all of our operating companies inside there is also the role of the customer as well. And the customers need to understand that, for example, in winter safety, we’re doing everything we can to keep our system safe and to deliver that service. They also need to understand, is it safe for me to go out there today, understand the weather? Am I wearing the right shoes? Plan their trips? Is the bus actually able to come to their stop? If not, which is the next stop that I have to come to? So, it really is a partnership. We’re going to deliver our service, and we need our customers also do to be safe and to think about that.

JAWN: That’s a really, really great point. I’m just curious it and I know we’ve already taken up so much of your time. Very appreciative of that, by the way. Moving forward, what is your main concern for safety when it comes to our transit agency? Is there something that really maybe sometimes keeps you up at night and you’re thinking like this, this is something that we got to be very ready for, prepared for, and we want to make sure we’re in the best position for when or if this happens. What might that be for you?

DORIT: I think it all comes back down to the relationships, the partnerships. The better your relationships and the stronger you are beforehand. Doing those planning pieces makes your job so much easier when you have an emergency. The thing about emergencies is they never follow the script. They’re always unique. But if you know that you have to plan for winter weather and you have at least the framework there, if you have to tweak things a little bit here or there. That’s okay, because you’ve got those relationships in place, you can work together to actually deliver that safe service. So, for me, it is really creating those relationships, understanding what hazards and risks we might be having, and then trying to do whatever we can to deliver that safe and reliable service. When an incident happens.

JAWN: Emergencies and disasters are situations that nobody wants to think about. It’s not in human nature to want bad things to happen, but the reality is that some circumstances are simply beyond our control. So, the best thing we can do is to plan, train and prepare. Because when faced with disaster, knowing how to respond and react quickly and professionally can save lives. So, my thanks to Dorit Mason and the entire safety teams, not just at TransLink, but also its operating companies, from daily operations to preparing for the big one, they do incredibly important work to make sure that your next transit trip is safe and reliable. My thanks to producers Allen and Sydney for being reliable all of the time, and my thanks to you for listening and subscribing. I’ve been your host, Jawn Jang, and until next time, have a safe trip!