How did a community planner from Baltimore end up leading one of Canada’s largest transit agencies? TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn shares, in a special full-length video episode, what’s next for Metro Vancouver transit, the innovations he’s excited about, and why every rider matters. Plus, a few unexpected glimpses into the man behind the title, including his love of music, tattoos, and the curious story of a lost umbrella.

Discover more about TransLink and the person tasked with leading the organization. Watch on YouTube or listen everywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts!

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

HOST JAWN JANG: Hey, welcome to What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast. I’m your host, Jawn Jang. And today, we’ve got a one-on-one with the CEO of TransLink, Kevin Quinn. 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: All right, so here we are. It’s the final episode of season four, and I still can’t believe that we’ve even done four seasons of the podcast up to this point. But since we began, we’ve met with so many different people across the TransLink enterprise Skytrain attendants to bus operators, mechanics, engineers, transit police, chief constables. We’ve met with incredible people, but today very, very exciting news because we are joined by a man who really needs no introduction. He is he is the TransLink CEO, Kevin Quinn. You see him at press conferences. You see him telling the TransLink story wherever we have an opportunity to get that story out. And so it is my great pleasure for the first time making his What’s the T debut, Kevin Quinn. Kevin, thanks so much for joining us today.

KEVIN QUINN: Thank you so much for having me. Really happy to be on the podcast.

JAWN: I’m really happy that you’re here. It’s something that I’ve been trying to build up all the courage and confidence to, to do. Uh, we’re in our fourth season, so I felt like we finally, I’m finally at a point where I can do this. And so, um, really, really happy to have you here. And I know our listeners have been very curious. You know, when we’re doing media events, for example, you are a true celebrity. Our listeners, our customers know about all that. Well. They want to get to know more about Kevin Quinn. So, sure. I think this episode is going to be very useful in sort of peeling back the curtain a little bit and getting to know Kevin Quinn on a more personal level. With that said, sir, are you ready for this? Love it. Let’s do it.

Okay, let’s get to know Kevin Quinn, first of all, away from his role as CEO of TransLink. But we’d like to maybe have you take us through your story. Like how did Kevin Quinn become the TransLink CEO and where does that all begin? Your background in transit planning? Maybe take us off there.

KEVIN: Yeah, sure. So, uh, you know, I grew up right outside of Washington, DC in a suburb called Silver Spring. Uh, ended up moving to Baltimore. Uh, and really, my first job out of, uh, getting my master’s degree was in community planning, so I was a community planner. So think about, um, you know, planners shepherding projects through a land use and a zoning process, you know, real estate projects. But what that meant was I was out in the community three, four nights a week, really engaging with community members, getting up and in front of people and talking to them about tough subjects. I mean, Baltimore is a is a charming, lovely place. It also has its issues. It is plagued by by violence and crime. And so it’s a tough place. Um, so I did that for a few years, and that was a wonderful experience. I then moved into a rural transit planning. So, you know, think about these, um, rural areas, you know, systems that have, I don’t know, 10 or 20 buses. Right? There’s a manager, there’s, you know, 10 or 20 drivers, a couple mechanics. Maybe the work on a bus is done out of a guy’s garage, right? There’s not even, like a formal shop. Right? And so I would go out there and help them navigate really complex state and federal, um, procurement policies. So, like helping them buy buses, helping them to build facilities. Um, and that was really meaningful for me and understanding, um, how impactful transit can be on people’s lives. We think of transit, I think a lot of times as like a big city thing. It is equally, if not more impactful on rural communities. Um, I then ended up at the Maryland Transit Administration as the director of planning, and I oversaw the capital projects, capital program, data and analytics, mapping, sort of traditional long range planning, plans and things. Right? Um, I did that for a few years, really overseeing eventually Baltimore’s um, bus network redesign. It was one of the biggest network redesigns in the United States at the time. Um, and about a month before that bus network redesign is going to launch, my CEO is let go, and I was appointed acting CEO. And so it was a really crazy interesting time in my career. I ended up as the CEO. I did that for four years. And oversaw some really good improvements in Baltimore. And, now here I am.

JAWN: Now Baltimore is, uh, not terribly close to Vancouver. In fact, it’s all the way on the other side of the continent.

KEVIN: Almost couldn’t get further away, you know?

JAWN: Honestly. Yeah. Um, so TransLink, like when there was an opening here with the departure of the previous CEO, your predecessor, was it a case where you saw the opening and you were like, oh, this might be interesting. You threw your resume in, or was it the other way where TransLink maybe reached out to you and said, hey, seems like you know what you’re doing over there in Baltimore, why don’t you come help us out in Metro Vancouver?

KEVIN: Yeah, I certainly saw the the opportunity when it became available and threw my name in the hat. TransLink is really well known, really well regarded in the transit industry. And so, um, I was really excited to be able to apply and even just for the chance to have such an opportunity like this.

JAWN: Had you ever come to Vancouver prior to arriving as the CEO?

KEVIN: Yeah, I had come to Vancouver before I had an opportunity to, um, get out and run a little bit on the trails and see the city. And, uh, it was a beautiful city, beautiful experience. And so only got me more excited to come out and run the transit system here.

JAWN: Quick question. East coast, uh, Maryland. Baltimore. Well known for their seafood. So is Vancouver. How do you compare? I mean, you could be completely biased here and there’s no wrong answer. I’m just naturally curious.

KEVIN: Well, so, you know, Baltimore is known for crabs, right? So crabs, old bay seasoning. Right. There’s I have this real a lot of childhood memories around, you know, sitting around a table, uh, with newspaper on it, eating crabs with my family.

JAWN: Delicious.

KEVIN: Um, out here is much more fresh fish. The the a lot of the fish is much, uh, much more delicious. And so.

JAWN: All right, they’re on par. Maybe?

KEVIN: Okay. Maybe on par.

JAWN: I love that.

KEVIN: Yeah. I was thinking it’s like 90s, you know, rap rivalry, East Coast versus West coast. You know, can you really choose you know. Yeah.

JAWN: Yeah.

KEVIN: You’ve got, you know good rappers on both sides.

JAWN: Absolutely. Yeah. Oh my goodness I was not expecting that reference. That is incredible. Uh you know what. Let’s get right into it then. Since we’re talking about music, um, I’m very curious and I’ve thought about this myself when I’m just walking down the hallway and I happen to pass you. And I wonder what Kevin’s listening to right now. Because every now and then you got your headphones in. I know you’re in meetings like, 90% of the time. Yeah, but when you’re not at meetings and you’ve got a bit of time to maybe listen to music that you really appreciate, what is that your favorite song? Maybe your favorite band? Favorite album? Any of those three if you want to share that with us.

KEVIN: Um, sure. So, uh, lately I’ve been listening to to a lot of Krong Bin. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the band Krong Bin. I’m not gonna pretend to check it out. Uh, really good stuff. Uh, some really good songs on that album. Uh, they were one of the best artists of the year. I think it was last year. I don’t know, so, um, highly recommend that. Uh, otherwise, I think I lean in sort of a folk rock kind of genre of, um, I don’t know, iron and wine or camp or, you know, some of these other artists. Um, but I love some good pop, too. Some good rap, you know. Yeah, I, you know, a lot of genres.

JAWN: Well, when Taylor Swift was in town for the eras Tour, we definitely saw you dropping a number of references when we had you out for speaking opportunities. So, uh, the man knows how to be agile, but starting to think that rock happens to run in your family because your son plays in a rock band.

KEVIN: He does.

JAWN: Maybe share with us a little bit more about that. Give a shameless plug here while you can, because I’m sure our listeners would love to check out your son’s band.

KEVIN: Yeah, absolutely. So. So my son Jack is 12. He’s a drummer in a band called The Coyotes. And, uh, they’ve developed quite a following around Metro Vancouver and played a number of shows. Uh, they’ll be playing, um. Oh, let’s see the Golden Spikes Festival on, on Canada Day weekend. Uh, in Port Moody. They’ll be doing actually the, uh, Port Coquitlam Car Free Day in September. Uh, a number of shows coming up. You can follow them on Instagram at coyotes dot the. And you can imagine, you know, Blink182 Metallica some Paramore.

JAWN: Paramore. Love that.

KEVIN: Some Foo Fighters. So a lot of covers of that kind of a genre, but also really starting to come into their own and develop and write original music as well, which is really exciting to see these kids come together and become a really great band.

[EXCERPT OF THE COYOTES PLAYING GUITAR PLAYS]

JAWN:  That’s one thing I wish I took more seriously when I was around that age. Um, but unfortunately my school had too many students, so they literally asked us, like, does anyone want to skip going to band and do gym for two semesters in a row? And I unfortunately made that decision easy. A’s. But as I’m older now, I’m like, I have no musical talent and I wish I had done this before. Do you play any instruments by any chance, like do you?

KEVIN: I do not. I wish I did, I wish I did. I think maybe I was a drummer in a past life and maybe I’ve passed that, that love on to him. But no, I don’t play anything.

JAWN: Okay. All right. Fair enough. Um, I, I do appreciate that. Drummers to Dave Grohl, Foo fighters, I mean, you name that. So that’s those are good bands to be compared with. I’m going to go out and make an assumption here that maybe when you were named as TransLink CEO back in 2021, you probably made a little bit of history as the first CEO in TransLink history to have full sleeve tattoos. And it probably lends naturally in line with your love of rock or the music scene. I’m wondering, could you share with us what those sleeves look like, and maybe just kind of explain what those tattoos mean to you?

KEVIN: Yeah, sure. I mean, so, you know.

JAWN: It’s a big moment, folks.

KEVIN: It’s nothing crazy. We’ll sort of unveil unveil the sleeves a little bit. So, you know, I, I wish I had a really good story for you here that, you know, this symbolizes my leadership journey or that it represents, you know, all the transit systems I’ve ever ridden on. Right. I wish I had something. Um, it’s a series of geometric patterns and mandalas. You know, maybe if you were to push me, It represents a bit of of of balance and order versus, I don’t know, maybe chaos and a little bit of mischief. Um, so there’s not much more to it than that. My right arm I had done in Baltimore, um, and, uh, you know, so arrived here in Vancouver with that and then and then on my left arm, I was looking for an artist here in Vancouver. And so big shout out, perhaps to Crystal at Dark Ocean Tattoo. She did a great job. Um, and I have to say, it’s, uh, a bit of an equalizer. You know, when you go into a boardroom, it’s a great icebreaker when you go into a shop of mechanics and bus operators, and you can kind of sit around and compare tattoos and, and, and talk about tattoo artists that you like and what your next tattoo is going to be. It’s a it’s a great way to talk to people and approach them on a real human level. Uh, and so I’d say it’s been extremely beneficial in my job, um, to have tattoos and to just approach people as, as normal people, as fellow humans, right?

JAWN: I love hearing that, actually. Because again, most of the time when you’re out in the public, you’ll be wearing a suit. And it’s hard to tell that you do have these incredible tattoos. Um, now, another question that I know our listeners are dying to know. Kevin, what’s your signature dish like when you are fast food? Yeah. When you when you got to make dinner for the family, it’s time that we, uh, check out what Kevin’s like in the kitchen. Like, what’s your go to item to whip up there?

KEVIN: Yeah. So there’s probably two. And I think of them because they start with with dada. So there’s dada mac and cheese.

JAWN: Okay.

KEVIN: So I make a special mac and cheese. And there’s also dada’s pancakes.

JAWN: Okay.

KEVIN: And so the special ingredient in dada’s pancakes is orange juice.

JAWN: I thought it was gonna be love.

KEVIN: I know and and love.

JAWN: But orange juice?

KEVIN: So, yeah. Put a little orange juice in there as a bit of a sweetener in the pancake mix. So those are probably the two signature dishes that my my family knows me for.

JAWN: I mean, I think you got your breakfast covered and you’ve got your lunch dinner covered.

KEVIN: You’re good.

JAWN: You’re you’re good. What else do you need? It’s all.

KEVIN: It’s all you need right there.

JAWN: Okay. Fair enough. Uh, no veggies at all included. But, yeah, I know.

KEVIN: There’s no vegetables, right?

JAWN: We’ll skip over that.

KEVIN: Pure deadass carbs. Right? That’s all it is.

JAWN: Love it. Um, we actually, I tasked our our research team, which really is just Anita Bathe, our senior manager on my team. Um, she came up with some interesting stats that I’m going to throw your way real quick.

KEVIN: All right.

JAWN: So we did some digging. Again, Anita. Last year. Yeah. You had a total of 303 trips on the system using your compass card. You tap that card 899 times. Impressive. However, your daughter.

KEVIN: Yeah.

JAWN: Beat you out 373 trips. I gotta know, is there, like, some kind of competition going on in that Quinn household? Because right now she’s got bragging rights over you?

KEVIN: Yes. Yeah. That’s true. We didn’t need to bring this up. The fact that she. That she beat me on this, she’s going to love hearing this. Um. I don’t love that. We’re very competitive in the Quinn household. We are a big transit family. I do take transit a lot. I take the SkyTrain and the bus every single day. My daughter takes a couple buses to school every day. We are big transit family. She and her friends are not shy about giving me feedback on the transit system and where we need to make improvements, but absolutely. And you know, all of those trips I do think give, give me some perspective on the system. It’s a great opportunity to interact with operators, with Skytrain Attendants, with staff that are out on the system. Um, it’s an opportunity to experience in real time what all of our riders experience every single day, and to come back and question staff and make improvements, uh, to, to fix things that need to be fixed. So, you know, again, I appreciate you bringing that up. My daughter Iris will, uh, will love hearing that. She is, uh, has beaten me yet again in her transit trip.

JAWN: Well, again, those are 20 24 numbers. So, uh, 2025, uh, we’re we’re not finished yet, so maybe we’ll see exactly what happens when we get the stats for next year. But, um, just want to dig on that just really quickly. That means you do actually take transit to work every single day.

KEVIN: I do.

JAWN: That’s what you’re saying?

KEVIN: Yes. Yeah. Every single day to get to Sapperton. I live in Coquitlam. Um, and take transit every day to to get to Sapperton, where our headquarters is located. And, uh, yeah, it’s it’s great to be out on the system every single day and see what’s going on.

JAWN: A couple follow ups to that. Do customers recognize you? And if they do, is it okay with them with you? Rather if they were to say hello, like, do you mind that? Because, you know, Canadians are polite by nature, right? We don’t really want to be annoyances to anyone. But you are the CEO of TransLink. You’re an identifiable person. Is it okay if somebody says, hey, Kevin, like, hi, that’s the CEO, that’s cool. Can I take a selfie? Is what I’m really trying to say. 100%.

KEVIN: So sometimes there are selfies. Sometimes folks do just want to give me feedback on the system. And again, you know what’s working? What isn’t working. I’ve also very much had it where I’ve had a TransLink jacket on and someone says, hey, uh, do you work for TransLink? And I say yes. And they say, you know, here, I found this umbrella on the system. Could you take this to the lost and found? And I say, yeah, sure. You know, I’m I’m happy to help. Just a guy working for TransLink and that’s fine.

JAWN: That’s great.

KEVIN: And I’m happy to, you know, get that get that umbrella back to that person.

JAWN: Amazing.

KEVIN: Yeah.

JAWN: Amazing. Uh, at the, um. Yeah. What is it? The waterfront. Uh, lost and found, centre, Allen? It’s Stadium–Chinatown. Yeah. That’s it. Thank you very much. But, um. Yeah, indeed. I hope our. I hope that person got the umbrella back. That is it. Uh, speaking of feedback, if you now had the chance to go back in time and speak with the Kevin Quinn who was on the first day of this job as TransLink CEO, what piece of advice would you give to that? Kevin Quinn from about four years ago.

KEVIN: Oh my gosh. Um, I’d probably say, uh, relax. It’s going to be okay. It was, you know, starting this role in the middle of the pandemic was, uh, drinking from a fire hose and was a lot to take in and a lot to learn. We have a we have a geographically very big region, and getting out and exploring and getting to know the region and getting to know bus routes has taken some time. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself at the very beginning to to get out there, and that was good, right, to get out and know our bus routes. Um, but probably, uh, you know, slowing down a little, uh, talking to folks, you know, could have could have used a little more, uh, toning down, but four pretty great years, right? It’s been great. Yeah. I mean, you know, look, we’ve we’ve, um, we’ve been leaders in ridership recovery in North America. We’ve passed three Investment Plans in four years. We’ve advanced RapidBus and HandyDART improvements. Uh, you know, Interac on the system, Compass improvements. I mean, we’ve done a lot of really, really cool things. Um, that said, there’s a lot more to do, and I’m excited for what’s in store for us in the future.

JAWN: You said those magic words that maybe we should dig on here a little bit. Investment plan. And we did just recently approve an investment plan, and I know a ton of people were working very hard behind the scenes to make that happen. Maybe explain it like I’m a five year old because there are going to be listeners and people, customers generally, that just might not understand why an investment plan is important. They might have some understanding. It’s got something to do with money, but perhaps explain that and how it sort of fits into what we’re facing as an organization with our fiscal cliff. Why do these two things? Why are they so important?

KEVIN: Sure. So, um, maybe we’ll talk about the fiscal cliff just first. So, you know, back in 2019, uh, things are going great. TransLink is booming. Ridership is off the charts. Uh, where other systems really, uh, were seeing drops in ridership, TransLink was increasing and in fact received the Transit System of the year award in 2019 from the American Public Transit Association. So things are going great. Beginning of 2020 hits pandemic hits. We dropped to 14% of normal ridership levels and our fare revenue plummets. And, you know, the pandemic in many ways kind of broke our funding model. We have a funding model that’s a bit of a three legged stool built on property taxes and fuel taxes and fares. Fuel taxes. Fine. Uh, but, you know, when we’ve seen this high adoption of electric vehicles and more fuel efficient vehicles, um, you know, that revenue has decreased over the years. Our fares, we kept those fare increases below inflation levels. In short, this is a long way of saying, you know, we haven’t been bringing in enough money to pay the bills, right? The revenue hasn’t matched the expenses. And so inflation has made everything cost more. Um, and so a lot of the work that we have been doing and a lot of the work that these investment plans has been trying to do is to fill that funding gap. Uh, we’re legislatively required to do an investment plan every three years. And, uh, in doing so, we’ve been sort of filling that gap with provincial and federal money that allows us to keep our services moving for our customers every single day, and that’s really unique and shouldn’t be lost, because not every transit agency in North America can say that they kept services running at 100% levels.

JAWN: Right.

KEVIN: It’s pretty rare, actually, and I think it’s been a real benefit to us in generating that ridership recovery. So, you know, we did recently pass an investment plan that keeps our funding and services rolling through the end of 2027. Uh, and so we’ll need to do another investment plan in 2027 to close the remaining gap of that fiscal cliff, again, bringing in revenues to match the expenses. All the projects that TransLink wants to be involved in, a lot of those are funded through investment plans. If not, maybe all of them, I’d say. Yeah, that’s exactly right. All of our all of our funding, our funding, not just for operations, not just to run the buses and the SkyTrain, but for capital projects, for new facilities. We want to build for station upgrades. All of that is contained in our investment plans. We know that other transit agencies, as you mentioned, faced bigger challenges or similar challenges to what TransLink is facing now.

JAWN: With that, with that gap in in our budgets, taking a look at other agencies around the world, Kevin, is there an example that you think TransLink could or should follow that might work here in Metro Vancouver? Obviously, understanding there are nuances between different cities around the world and what might work for them might not necessarily work for Metro Vancouver.

KEVIN: Well, we’re not, you know, to be clear, we are not alone in our funding challenges. You know, the pandemic hit every transit agency incredibly hard. Um, and I would suggest that that has forced agencies into a bit of a wave of innovation as it relates to funding strategies and how to fund transit systems. Um, places like New York are doing congestion pricing. Um, other places are looking at a sales tax, right? Either a percent of a sales tax or a penny on every purchase.

JAWN: Right.

KEVIN: And that helps fund the transit system. Other systems are increasing the fuel tax. So if the fuel tax is a declining revenue source through more electric vehicle usage, they just increase the amount of that fuel tax kind of kicking the can down the road. Other places are partnering with the private sector to help fund projects.

JAWN: Right.

KEVIN: So everybody’s taking sort of a different approach because every region is different. We have a funding model that is quite diversified. A lot of other transit agencies rely many on a single source of revenue, and so they have to tackle their funding challenges differently. So I think for our part, we are learning from other systems and watching what they are doing. I also want to be really clear, though, that we are leaders in tackling funding challenges, and this investment plan was really important. You know, the province has put forward a commitment to introduce a new revenue source for TransLink. That’s going to be really important for us and our search for a sustainable funding model for us. Stability is the key. We want to provide stability for riders. We want to have a stable financial model that allows us to provide reliable, predictable service both today as well as into the future.

JAWN: And what about TransLink also expanding into real estate development? I mean, this is the, you know, the first kind of project that I’ve seen, like TransLink do like this since I’ve lived here, which is almost my whole entire life. But in speaking with, um, a few folks that have come from different parts of the world, other transit agencies do this too, and it’s a good way to make money for them too.

KEVIN: That’s right. You know, Hong Kong is the big example where, you know, real estate development, real estate investment is used to fund a lot of capital projects and system upgrades. Uh, we started a real estate development program a couple of years ago. Uh, we have one project underway right now at the corner of Broadway and Arbutus, a partnership with PCI developments. We’re really excited about that. That’s our first one, and we’ve identified several other sites where we have a critical mass of land to be able to do very significant real estate development. We see that as a new revenue source. You know, we talked about those those other revenue sources that we have. We see real estate revenue as a new one that we can tap into to help fund our system, to help fund expansion and keep our system moving. That real estate development is going to be a key piece of our revenue going into the future.

JAWN: If you had told, like 15 year old Jawn Jang that one day TransLink could be his landlord, you know, he would have said, what are you talking about? But that is the reality as we move towards here into into 2026 and beyond. You know, I think diversification is such an important thing.

KEVIN: Absolutely.

JAWN: So many different things. Um, bring it to another lane here. Just a little bit. What’s the philosophy for the work that we do every day? I’m curious. Is it about making sure the regular customers that we have keep coming back? Or do you go a different approach in trying to make transit a more attractive option, perhaps for people that might have a misconceived idea about what transit is and don’t naturally take it every day?

KEVIN: Yeah, it’s a big question. You know, I think we as an agency focus appropriately so on on the customer experience. Um, and we have taken a look at, at the different types of customers that we have. Uh, and each one of those customers values something a little differently. One might value efficiency. One might value cost effectiveness. One really values safety. Others want to have a remarkable customer experience on the system. And I think as we look at investments across our network, we try to tap into each of these rider types to be sure that each of them is having the customer experience that they want to have to, to be a new writer, to tell their friends they should be writers, to keep writing every single day. A lot of my core philosophy comes down to really three aspects the aspects of safety, of trust, and of worth. And it’s these three pieces that undermine sort of my leadership philosophy, you know, really this idea that we have to keep riders safe. First and foremost, safety is always going to have to be number one for us, right? Um, secondly, that they trust us and trust in a transit system is really demonstrated in reliability. Does that bus show up when it says it’s going to show up? Does the train show up when it says it’s going to show up? That is that is trust. That is how a rider trusts a transit agency. And the third piece is worth. You know, people have ideas, employees have ideas, and those ideas have value. And, you know, our ability to put those ideas into action and to take those ideas seriously is how we demonstrate a customer’s worth to us, right? We have to listen to our customers on all three of these aspects. I think we do a good job. Is there more to do? Absolutely. There’s absolutely more that we can do to to listen to our riders. A lot of the projects that we have slated for the future, say an upgrade of the Compass system or new stations or more service that we’re rolling out to overcrowded lines are how we demonstrate an increase. Uh, and, you know, to safety, trust and worth for our riders.

JAWN: I’m not sure how much more you could do when you’ve got the CEO of TransLink trying to return a lost umbrella to a customer sometimes.

KEVIN: That’s part of the puzzle, too.

JAWN: There you go. But, you know, in terms of expansion, of course, rapid transit expanding across the region. You brought up Broadway Arbutus as an example of real estate, but it’s also going to be the terminus station for the Broadway Subway project, which is in development with the province. Langley’s, uh, sorry, Surrey-Langley SkyTrain also coming online and BRT. We’ll touch on the other two projects in a little bit, but maybe focus on BRT a little bit. Bus rapid transit to explain it really quickly. It’s like the super version of our rapid bus systems. And I know a lot of people in Metro Vancouver take the RapidBus every single day. If you look at our lists every year, the RapidBus lines are often in the top five, top ten most heavily used bus lines in Metro Vancouver. So when it comes to introducing BRT technology to Metro Vancouver, Kevin, why is it a preferred solution for Metro Vancouver? Why do you think it should work here in Metro Vancouver?

KEVIN: Yeah, I mean, I think you’ve characterized it well that it’s, um, you know, essentially a rail service on wheels, right? It’s it’s fast, it’s frequent. It’s using dedicated lanes. It’s communicating with traffic signals. This idea that you’ve got really fast, frequent bus service that isn’t getting stuck in traffic and can move very quickly. And I think it’s a real game changer, uh, and a strong component of our ten year vision access for everyone plan. And in that we’ve identified nine corridors for bus rapid transit. We’re advancing planning and design work on three of those corridors now. Uh, and I think for those corridors, it is going to be tremendous. Uh, and the real benefit of it is that, you know, we can implement it faster. We can do it cheaper than Skytrain, to be honest. And I think we think we think it’s going to play a really big role in the transit future of Metro Vancouver.

JAWN: What you just said there, I think, answers my next question pretty nicely, but people will often hear the argument for BRT and simply come the other way and say, yeah, that’s all nice, but why don’t we just build more SkyTrain? SkyTrain is cool. SkyTrain is like Vancouver. It’s iconic here. Why don’t we just do that?

KEVIN: Yeah. You know, look, people love SkyTrain, I love SkyTrain, I take it every day, right? I think SkyTrain is amazing. It is also really expensive.

JAWN: It is.

KEVIN: It is tunnels and infrastructure and elevated guideways, um, systems. It can be very, very expensive. BRT can be constructed for a fraction of the price at a fraction of the time. And here’s the other thing. The other argument that I would make to folks is it’s not to say that BRT has to be the end solution for that corridor. You know, there are many systems they put in place a BRT, the ridership grows. They find that BRT isn’t quite enough to handle it, and it gets upgraded to a rail line.

JAWN: Right.

KEVIN: And you can build BRT in such a way that it doesn’t preclude that becoming rail in the future. So I don’t think it has to be either or BRT or rail. It can start as one and become another.

JAWN: Um, having grown up a little bit in Seoul, South Korea, and having visited there not too long ago, took the BRT in Seoul. Wonderful experience. And I always thought that like the subway system was tremendously good in Seoul. And of course it is. But there were a lot of times where actually taking the BRT was more efficient, faster and more reliable than actually taking the subway. Because the subway in Seoul has so many stops along the way. BRT is nice and efficient.

KEVIN: That’s right. It’s very efficient. And here’s the other thing. You know it’s flexible, right? So let’s say, you know, you’ve got BRT going down a corridor and a new job centre opens up and you want to route the the BRT over to that new job centre, right?

JAWN: You can just pivot it, right?

KEVIN: A huge subway line rail system that’s in the ground, right? You cannot as easily, you know, hang a right and head over to that new job centre.

JAWN: Plus, it also feels great when you’re in the bus and you just drive by all the swarms of people waiting in traffic.

KEVIN: There you go.

JAWN: It does feel good.

KEVIN: It’s beautiful.

JAWN: Um, you did mention, of course, the expansion to SkyTrain. These. There are a lot of projects that similar to Broadway Subway, Surrey-Langley, and so many others across various different industries that will often get delayed and coming out of the pandemic. I think we saw this was true for almost every industry out there. Supply chain issues. Cost of labor, labor shortages. Maybe if you take a step back from just transit and focus on the root cause of these things. Kevin, is there a reason, a simple explanation as to why, like delays seem to happen and why programs and projects seem to go over budget like this?

KEVIN: I mean, in, in in a broad sense, infrastructure is really complicated. There are utilities. There’s permitting, there’s labor costs, material costs. The pandemic, we saw material shortages. We saw labor shortages. Inflation increased the price of of everything. And so that causes delays to projects. And so, you know, I think for our part, we’ve tried to introduce, um, you know, new project management practices. You know, we do a different type of risk analysis than we did five years ago to try to get ahead of this and to be sure that when, um, when there are delays that it impacts our projects as least as possible. I mean, here’s the thing. Things are going to happen, right? I think that’s the one constant that I’ve learned is that, you know, things are always going to change. Um, there are going to be surprises. It’s how we respond and react to those surprises, how we prepare, how we, um, build resiliency into our projects. That is what’s going to make the difference.

JAWN: Is that something that you’ve had to adjust and maybe learn as you took on the role of TransLink CEO is obviously coming through the pandemic. It was a very unique experience.

KEVIN: So you’ve got it right. The pandemic introduced a number of variables. I mean, it was, you know, worldwide and especially in the transit industry, it was the the largest crisis the transit industry has ever faced, both from a ridership perspective and a funding perspective, but also from a capital delivery perspective. It introduced new variables and things that we’ve never had to think about before. And so, yes, did that require, you know, some learning and some rethinking and getting the team together and say, how are we going to approach this differently? Yes. 100%.

JAWN: And you’re not the only one. So many other people had to do that, I’m sure. But, uh, yeah. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to try and plan an entire transit system coming out of the pandemic.

Um, in conversation with Kevin Quinn, the CEO of TransLink. Kevin, of course, it’s impossible to predict the future. Some things are easy to predict. Toronto Maple Leafs getting bounced in game seven. Easy to tell. However, when we are trying to predict 2026, we know one thing is for sure the world will come to Vancouver. The FIFA World Cup. Uh, I can’t wait personally as a sports fan, but it’s going to take a lot of work for TransLink to make sure we’re ready to handle that kind of a workload. So how are we preparing for something like that? And have you seen or done anything like this before, maybe going back to Baltimore, having a large international event like this?

KEVIN: Yeah, I mean, so we are incredibly excited to host FIFA. I think it’s a great opportunity. Um, for Vancouver, it’s a great opportunity for TransLink to to show what we’re made of, right, and to welcome people onto our system so that they arrive and say, you know, wow, that was a an incredibly seamless experience. So I think for us, it’s a bit of operations planning. It’s planning around our compass system. It’s recognizing that not everyone coming to this region speaks English. And so what are we doing from a signage perspective? Uh, you know, approaching things from a multilingual perspective, right. Um, we have had some recent examples. You know, we did host, uh, the last three Taylor Swift concerts. You know, we were able to clear, you know, 50,000 people out of the stadium, that many of which were taking Skytrain. We cleared our platforms in 45 minutes. That’s something to be really proud of. And that was a bit of a test run for us in how we were going to handle some, some really large crowds. Uh, we’ve had some other big events. We’re going to continue to have big events, but I think our team is well positioned to to really be able to handle FIFA successfully.

JAWN: I’m really having a hard time trying to predict what’s a more rowdier crowd. Taylor Swift fans, Swifties or like soccer hooligans, I’m going to go with soccer hooligans. Yeah, okay, that’s probably the right answer. But yeah, I’m excited to see what that’s going to look like. Um, you know, you are from Maryland. Yeah, USA versus Canada. You’re the CEO of TransLink. You work and live in Metro Vancouver. Which team are you going to support if they end up facing off against one another? How is that going to look?

KEVIN: Yeah, I have no alliances. We’re we’re well we’re going Team Canada, uh, whichever way it lands.

JAWN: All right. That’s perfect. That’s all we really wanted to know.

KEVIN: Yeah.

JAWN: There you go, Kevin, before we wrap things up for the listeners, for the watchers, the viewers. Um, what’s the one takeaway you want them to leave this conversation with? Maybe learning something new about you, but also feeling X about TransLink? What should that X be?

KEVIN: Um, I think people should know that, um, you know, TransLink is an organization that really cares. It’s a very mission driven organization that is really quite dedicated to providing an amazing service for Metro Vancouver. I think that we are a gem of a transit system here in North America. I think we are absolutely one of the best. On the other hand, there’s work we need to do. You know, we do have overcrowding on our system. We have an investment plan that is, uh, going to that is providing funding to allow us to expand service. Um, there are issues that we need to tackle, and I think people should have confidence that it is a team and an organization that is just so dedicated, incredibly dedicated to our customers, to our employees, to providing a great customer experience and and listening, listening to our customers, to the needs that they have and knowing that, um, they’ve got a transit agency that’s on their side.

JAWN: I know. I really appreciate you coming on this podcast. I’m sure that our listeners will really appreciate it as well. A chance to get to know you a lot more. Sure. And learning things about you that I had no idea before. So, um. Thank you. I really appreciate the time here today. He is Kevin Quinn, CEO of TransLink. Thanks again for your time. Hey, thanks so much for having me. This was a lot of fun. Kevin Quinn is the CEO of TransLink, but in truth, TransLink is all of us. From bus operators to mechanics, from planners to analysts. Skytrain Attendants to CEOs. We are TransLink because you are TransLink. Whether you’re in the bus or on the train, whether you’re coming home or if you’re going to work. Our promise to you is to always put you first your safety, your time, and your connections to the people and places that matter most. So, on behalf of the entire TransLink enterprise, thank you for taking transit and have a safe trip.