Laying the line for streetcars at Granville and Robson, Vancouver (Photo: City of Vancouver Archives)
Metro Vancouver’s first public transit vehicle was an electric streetcar that rolled down Main Street in the City of Vancouver for the first time on June 27, 1890.
That makes June 27, 2020 the 130th anniversary of public transit in Metro Vancouver! Read more »
Stefan and Carolini met on the SeaBus five years ago. Now, they’re engaged after Stefan popped the question onboard the SeaBus last week.
There’s a saying that love happens when you least expect it.
For Stefan and Carolini five years ago, it was an ordinary day riding the SeaBus from Waterfront to Lonsdale Quay — a quick, albeit often uneventful, 15-minute trip they’ve made countless times. Unbeknownst to them at the time, it would become anything but. It would be the day they meet.
So naturally, a return to the SeaBus was in the books to pop the question five years later. Stefan reached out to us help him pull off the surprise proposal onboard the 7:02 p.m. sailing from Lonsdale Quay to Waterfront Station on July 17. Read more »
Retired bus operator Angus McIntyre on his first day of work in 1969.
After temporarily closing like other retailers in March to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Canadian department store Army & Navy recently announced their closure is now permanent. The COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impacts proved to be insurmountable. This ends the Canadian institution’s 101-year run that began in 1919 as Canada’s first discount department store.
Just like Woodward’s and Eaton’s before that, Army & Navy holds a special place in Metro Vancouver’s collective hearts.
TransLink’s part of a storied history of transit in Metro Vancouver than spans more than a century — it celebrates its 130th anniversary this June 27. Our buses today and streetcars before that brought generations of families to Army & Navy.
Retired bus operator Angus McIntyre was no different. He steered his way through four different employers during his 41 years as a bus operator. His incredible journey began in 1969 when he went to Army and Navy to purchase a pair of Oxford shoes for his job interview with BC Hydro, which operated transit in Metro Vancouver between 1962 and 1973.
Read his guest post on what Army & Navy meant to him and transit.
Angus McIntyre
By Angus McIntyre
I shopped occasionally at the Army and Navy downtown, when skid road was an area of the city that was a bit rough, but still considered approachable by most people.
When I moved out on my own at age 19, I bought kitchenware at the Army and Navy.
At age 21, I didn’t have a lot of money, and I needed to buy a pair of black Oxford shoes in July 1969 to go for my job interview as a bus driver with B.C. Hydro. The shoe department of the Army & Navy was in a separate building on the south side of Hastings, next to Wosk’s huge appliance store. They had an affordable pair of shoes and I got the job.
Once in training, we were supplied with a changer, a transfer punch and a change fund of $120. An instructor said the best thing for our supplies, including rolls of tokens and coins, was a tackle box from the large basement fishing department at the Army & Navy. I bought a Canadian-made Beach tackle box, which sat on the front dash of the bus next to the bracket for the changer and transfer clips.
I worked the Nanaimo bus in the evening for many years, and one of my regular passengers worked in the shoe department of the Army & Navy. He always dreaded the huge annual shoe sale, which involved bringing in the inventory and dealing with massive crowds that showed up for the sale. When he boarded the bus to head home, he would give a run-down of the day’s events.
I bought a bicycle in 1970, and about a year later met another cyclist during a rainfall. He had on a lightweight, waterproof jacket and pants that he wore over his clothes. I asked where he bought it, and he told me to go to the Army & Navy. I made the purchase, and it lasted for many years.
In the 1970s the Christmas rush downtown was always very busy, and all the department stores filled with shoppers. A visit to the Army and Navy or Woodward’s usually included a snack or a meal at the Only Seafoods at Hastings and Carrall. Over the years I also shopped occasionally at the Army and Navy store in New Westminster, which was in the former Eaton’s building on Columbia Street.
At a height of 13 metres (43 feet), the escalators at Metrotown Station’s west stationhouse are the second highest in the SkyTrain system, surpassed only by the escalators at Granville Station at 14 metres (46 feet).
It may feel like it, but surprisingly, escalators at SkyTrain stations are not out-of-service that often.
Across the SkyTrain network, monthly escalator availability during January 2020 was 99.42 per cent for the Canada Line, and 93 per cent for the Expo and Millennium Lines.† During the rest of the times when an escalator was unavailable, it usually wasn’t because it was broken, but rather it was undergoing inspection.
There are three types of inspections that happen over the course of year.
These inspections are part of our rigorous and robust maintenance program to ensure our escalators are safe and reliable for our customers, and ensures we maximize the escalator’s life expectancy.
“Because of this program many customers believe that our escalators are continuously out of service due to break downs when actually we are performing maintenance,” explains Harry Schmidt, manager of elevating devices at SkyTrain.
“Usually our inspections go as planned, and the escalator can be returned to service in a timely manner. However, if our escalator technicians discover any device or part that affects the safety of the unit during inspections, it must be repaired before it can carry customers again.”
New Bike Parkades are now open at Burquitlam, Lafarge Lake–Douglas and Bridgeport stations! We’re expanding our Bike Parkade program to new parts of the region, making it an easier for even more people to bike to transit.
You may know us for our bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus, West Coast Express and HandyDART service, but we’re more than just transit. We’re here to support you whether you’re taking transit, walking, cycling or even driving.
On a typical day prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 128,000 bike trips happening across the region. Why are there so many people cycling? Glad you asked!
Not only is cycling a healthy and pollution-free way to get around, it’s also fast! You can travel five times further on bike for the same amount of time and energy expended as walking. Try this tool to see how far you can travel by bike in five minutes!
For most trips under 5 kilometres, which account for 50 per cent of car trips in Metro Vancouver, a bicycle is faster in urban settings.
When you combine cycling with transit, you can travel even faster and further. That’s why we have Bike Parkades at transit hubs throughout the region, allowing you to easily connect to the SkyTrain, West Coast Express, RapidBus and other express bus routes.
Thank you to all the essential workers – and to everyone for doing your part, staying home, and staying safe.
With limited service available at this time, we’re asking all of our customers to use transit for essential trips only – especially at peaks hours and busy times – so space remains available for those who need it most.
What are peak hours? These are the times during the day when there’s the most demand and when transit’s the busiest.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, these hours have changed as when and where we travel, and who is travelling on transit has changed. Please keep these new peak hours and busy times in mind when planning your transit trip. If you need to take transit, please limit your travel to outside these hours so space is available for essential workers.
Need help with Trip Planning? Our Customer Information team is available to help:
Arthur Orsini makes the daily “triathlon” by bus, SkyTrain and bike to get from Walnut Grove in Langley to the Fairview neighbourhood in Vancouver where he works.
As Metro Vancouver’s transportation authority, we’re here to support you whether you’re taking transit, walking, cycling or even driving.
When it comes to cycling, our program is vast and varied. It covers everything from the BC Parkway and Central Valley Greenway multi-use paths, cost-sharing with municipalities to fund improvements, to end-of-trip facilities like bike parkades and lockers. At our Bike Parkades, you can lock up your bike for $1 a day (fees capped at $8 a month) and connect with SkyTrain or bus to continue the rest of your journey.
Arthur Orsini is an essential worker. He’s also a multi-modal commuter — that means he uses more than one kind of transportation to get to where he needs to go. In his words, he does a daily “triathlon” to get from his home in Langley’s Walnut Grove to work in Vancouver’s Fairview neighbourhood.
That’s a very fun and interesting way to describe your commute! What do you mean by “triathlon?”
I take the 555 Port Mann Express bus to Lougheed Town Centre Station, then the SkyTrain to VCC–Clark Station where I pickup my bike from a locker that I rent $10 a month, and then I bike the last portion to work. Each segment is about 20 minutes.
Where are you headed to?
I work as a Healthy Transportation Lead at Vancouver Coastal Health. My role is to deliver projects, events and facilities that support our staff in more healthy, active and sustainable commuting.
Interesting stuff! We’re asking customers to only travel on transit if necessary and outside of peak hours, so space remains available for our essential service workers. What would it mean if you weren’t able to get to work?
My job is to help nurses, doctors and other hospital and clinic staff navigate the changes in their commuting options. The pandemic has brought on a lot of new stresses for health-care workers, so we are trying to make the commute safer and more comfortable. Although I usually try to steer our staff towards cycling, transit and carpooling; at present I’m working on parking solutions and finding vehicles for staff dealing with a lengthy or crowded commute.
TransLink’s losing more than $75 million a month, but we remain committed to providing transit services for essential workers. We are continuing to push for funding from senior levels of government. In your words, why is it important transit keeps running?
I rely on transit and I know that many of my colleagues do too. We depend on SkyTrains and buses to get us to work on time, and home again after a long work shift.
Now let’s talk about you. What’s one little known fact about yourself that most of your colleagues or acquaintances wouldn’t know?
I’ve never owned a car.
What are you looking forward to the most when the COVID-19 pandemic is over?
I’m not going to miss my role as the recipient of a long list of emails from staff describing parking tickets, frustrations and over-crowded parkades.
If you could offer words of hope, what would it be?
My bike ride is the best part of my commute, so I’d encourage more people to get on a bike …even if just for the duration of a coffee break. And, with Mobi bike share offering VCH staff free 90-day Essential Worker memberships, a bit of cycling is even easier.
One final question. I hear people wondering about this a lot, how does one cycle in Raincouver without getting wet?
Rain is really no barrier to cycling. I would rather just ride in my ‘ordinary clothes’ and find them insufficient about three or four times a year rather than fully outfit myself with typhoon gear. A rain jacket and gloves is usually enough for most cloudy/rainy days.
Public transit is an essential service, and we know +75 000 people are still reliant on transit, including frontline workers. Arthur’s story is another in our series about the people who are keeping our region operating during this unprecedented time. We at TransLink applaud all that frontline workers are doing, and we’re working hard to get them to their important work – Together all the way.
Do you have a story like Arthur’s or know someone doing good these days? If so, we’d love to hear from you via our social channels or email. Together we can get through the challenges that COVID-19 has brought. Telling stories of the effects on each other’s lives can help.
There’s a new kid on the block and it’s @TransLinkNews! This new Twitter account will be your one-stop-shop to stay up-to-date on news from TransLink.
This includes media releases, stories published by TransLink and news media, as well as the livestream for media events, TransLink Board Meetings and Mayor’s Council Meetings.
For a taste of what’s to come, check out our profile at twitter.com/translinknews and make sure you follow us so it comes right into your feeds. You can also hit the bell icon to opt into receiving push notifications for when we tweet.
@TransLink will focus on providing up-to-the-minute service updates and customer service like it always has for more than a decade. The account began as a pilot during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. It laid the foundation for how we connect with more than 200,000 followers each day today.
Laura is a nurse who depends on transit for all aspects of her life, including work.
There is no playbook for the COVID-19 pandemic — something none of us have experienced in our lifetime. In many respects, we’re all making it up as we go, adapting as each curve ball comes our way. But the more things change, the more they stay the same.
We’re social beings. We value our connections. In a curious way, although we’re apart, we’re closer than ever.
This rings true for nurse Laura Mills, who says the biggest change COVID-19 hasn’t been in the work, but how it’s brought the healthcare and wider communities together.
“As health care teams we have such a sense of unity and purpose, and a renewed drive for delivering the best care we can for our patients,” she says. “And bringing community together as a whole; we are in such awe and so grateful for how our community has gathered together to offer support and kindness in so many ways.”
Every evening at 7 p.m. since the the middle of March, we’ve made our way to outside — or if you’re on transit, you would have heard an announcement — to make some noise for our essential workers. Our West Coast Express trains are sounding their horns at 7 p.m. as it pulls into Pitt Meadow Stations to drop off essential workers like Cara, returning home after a day on the front lines.
Laura’s heard the appreciation loud and clear: “It made me cry. Like that was really significant for us, so thank you for that.”
She, however, is quick to point out she cannot thank the respiratory therapists enough because they are the true front lines of this pandemic. Respiratory therapists initiate and manage life support for people in intensive care units and emergency departments.
As a neonatal intensive care unit nurse, Laura works with premature and critically ill infants.
“These infants are at a particularly high risk of getting sick, especially with respiratory illnesses, as they have underdeveloped lungs and almost no immune system,” she explains. “As nurses, 12 hours at a time, we help these tiny, vulnerable babies to heal and grow, and to help families learn how to care for their tiny new babies and walk through the fearful and unknown times of having a critically ill child.”
To get to her 12-hour shifts, which are either 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. or 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., four days a week, Laura relies on transit, which she says is usually accommodating.
Most days, she’s able to make the hour-and-20-minute commute by taking the bus and SkyTrain, but when she’s scheduled to start at 7 a.m. on weekends, she depends on the NightBus. That’s because on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the first train from Waterfront Station isn’t until 6:44 a.m. and 7:44 a.m., so SkyTrain crews have a larger overnight window to complete critical maintenance to keep the system running for years to come.
With TransLink losing $75 million per month with ridership down by 83 per cent, we made the extremely difficult decision earlier this week to reduce service in order to preserve our transit system. We remain focused on maintaining as much service as possible for the over 75,000 people using the system each weekday.
We’re prioritizing service to routes serving hospitals and other health facilities to ensure essential workers, like Laura, can continue to serve our community — all while actively working with senior government to secure more funding to reverse these decisions.
Her weekend 7 a.m. shifts have been affected by minor service modifications to the NightBus and her manager has been accommodating in changing her schedule around. It’s clear she’d be in a pickle if there’s more widespread changes to transit schedules.
“I have to take transit — not just to commute to work — but for everything,” says Laura, who sold her car as a cost-saving measure when she moved to Vancouver. “I don’t really know what would happen to me with that. I maybe have to stay in a hotel, which would be very expensive or I just wouldn’t be able to get to work at all.”
That’s why Laura’s so thankful for transit staff and other essential workers, and TransLink for operating essential transit service.
“I can’t say it enough, thank you to everyone at TransLink and the public transportation sector for the sacrifices you’ve made for supporting our communities. And for continuing to provide service for hospital access — for that, I am so, so thankful.”
Public transit is an essential service, and we know +75 000 people are still reliant on transit, including frontline workers. Laura’s story is another in our series about the people who are keeping our region operating during this unprecedented time. We at TransLink applaud all that frontline workers are doing, and we’re working hard to get them to their important work – Together all the way.
Do you have a story like Laura’s or know someone doing good these days? If so, we’d love to hear from you via our social channels or email. Together we can get through the challenges that COVID-19 has brought. Telling stories of the effects on each other’s lives can help.
Perhaps a little known fact is your community managers on TransLink’s social media channels also write for the print edition of The Buzzer that you find onboard buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus, West Coast Express, HandyDART and more!
We proudly carry on this legacy that spans more than 100 years.
The very first issue of The Buzzer, ever.
The Buzzer was the brainchild of George Kidd, general manager of British Columbia Electric Railway, which operated Metro Vancouver’s streetcar network.
It was designed as a strategic weapon in a long-forgotten battle between streetcars and “jitney” operators — private citizens who patrolled streetcar routes and offered rides for five cents. The newsletter would promote the use of streetcars by keeping people informed about service and fostering rider loyalty.
The first issue was published on June 2, 1916 and distributed on the streetcars that made up public transportation in Metro Vancouver at the time. It was titled, “Wanted – A Name” and offered to pay $15 for the best suggestion, $10 for the second best and $5 for the third best. Big money in the days when a streetcar ride was five cents.
Of course, the next issue announced the winning name: The Buzzer! In total, 11 people submitted the winning name. The second place name was “Current Comments” and in third was “Between The Lines.”
Jitney service was abolished about two years later in July 1918, but The Buzzer continued. It has become a mainstay of public transit in Metro Vancouver, remaining a constant no matter how much transit itself has changed, to keep customers informed about quarterly service changes.
The spring 2020 issue of The Buzzer
There’s about a month’s lead time for The Buzzer, so it was complete before physical distancing measures were implemented on transit and most people transitioned to working from home.
That’s why we’ve decided to bring you the spring issue of The Buzzer this month, online only, and there’s no Monthly Pass contest.
This issue’s front cover illustration is from artist Chris von Szombathy of the new 222 Willingdon Express and R2 Marine Dr RapidBus.
Inside, we cover off Spring Service Changes — which started on April 6, cellular connectivity in the SkyTrain tunnels, how you can send your online orders to SkyTrain stations, the third platform at Stadium–Chinatown Station, the voice of SkyTrain announcements and an update on the SkyTrain Customer Communications Upgrades project.
The April 14 “doodle” on Google thanks public transportation workers.
If you’ve logged on to Google today, April 14, you will have noticed there’s a new “doodle” today thanking public transportation workers! It shows the letter “g” in Google tossing a heart to the letter “e” that’s operating the bus, who catches it, before exploding into more hearts.
As an organization, we too would like to thank all of our employees for keeping essential workers moving and making essential trips possible. While ridership has declined dramatically as people have transitioned to working from home, there’s still more than 75,000 people who are still depending on transit. This includes daycare workers like Ava Jade, restaurant workers like Ryu Fukazawa and nurses like Cara Muller.
The doodle part of their “thank you coronavirus helpers” series that launched on April 6 to honour essential frontline workers, including healthcare workers, first responders and the many people keeping services like sanitation, food service, public transit, schools, and more up and running.
Google explains, “Doodles are the fun, surprising and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists.”
Today, we’d like to say:
To all public transportation workers, thank you.
#GoogleDoodle → https://t.co/X7pKp7xsuc pic.twitter.com/qcA8YSDJ8K
— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) April 14, 2020
Cara Muller is a dialysis nurse.
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our world, challenging us to improvise, adapt and overcome.
We’re now throwing surprise birthday parties for each other on Zoom, participating in new, viral dance challenges and many people have transitioned to working from home.
On transit, we’ve implemented different measures to promote physical distancing for customers and bus operators like Bryan Stebbings, and SkyTrain Attendants like Ryan Mendoza have had to change up how they help customers who are visually impaired navigate the system.
But no group has been challenged and risen to the occasion more than healthcare and workers like Cara Muller. She’s a nurse that trains patients on how to perform dialysis at home.
Kidneys act as filters, removing wastes and extra fluid from our bodies. When our kidneys no longer work properly, dialysis is needed. It often involves diverting blood to a machine to be cleaned. Dialysis can be done both at hospitals and at home, depending on the patient.
Her role is all about supporting patients who are taking care of their own medical needs, whether that’s through in-person training or chatting with them over the phone.
These days it has become a lot of phone calls and the training list has become quite full with patients preferring to do their training sooner rather than later.
Like many others in our communities, she’s dependent on transit to get to work. Every day, along with at least a dozen others on her floor at work, she takes the West Coast Express into downtown Vancouver.
“I do it because it’s faster than driving and less stressful,” says Cara.
The West Coast Express is our commuter rail service that operates during peak morning and evening periods between downtown Vancouver and Mission. For those who take it, it’s a treat, offering an unparalleled transit experience where one can enjoy the serene Burrard Inlet against the backdrop of North Vancouver’s sweeping mountains.
In the mornings, trains start departing Mission at 5:25 a.m., stopping in Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam and Port Moody along the way, and start arriving at Waterfront Station at 6:40 a.m. The trains then make the reverse trip in the afternoon, starting at 3:50 p.m.
Even though there’s now free parking at hospitals and there’s considerably less drivers on the road, she’s still choosing to take the West Coast Express because its feeling of community is so attractive to her.
She’s been taking the West Coast Express for about ten years now, so she’s gotten to really know the attendants and conductors — many of whom are long-time employees.
“I like the time of being on the train getting ready for work or de-escalating from work on my way home,” she says. Cara admits these days her commute home is a lot of watching Dr. Bonnie Henry deliver her daily updates to British Columbians.
Cara has this message for all us: “I think if everybody just keep doing what they’re doing, I think we’re gonna get out of this okay.”
And asked what she’s looking forward to most when the pandemic’s over, Cara responds, “Probably just seeing everybody and hanging out in groups again.
“Our neighbourhood is pretty social, so it’s been kind of hard just waving at people and not stopping and really chatting like we usually do.”
Us too.
Ryu is a transit customer who takes the Canada Line to get his place of work.
Ryu Fukazawa is an frontline worker that takes transit.
He works at a Mexican restaurant that serves takeout burritos, tacos and more in the Fairview neighbourhood, which is home to Vancouver General Hospital along with other healthcare institutions. Naturally, healthcare workers form a small part of their customer base, along with walk-in customers in the community and orders through food delivery apps.
Over the past few weeks, he’s seen an small uptick in healthcare workers ordering takeout from their restaurant. Being able to serve them and others in the community has been rewarding for Ryu and as an added bonus, to be able to continue working.
“It’s rewarding to be able to provide something good to the community,” he says, “Just last shift, I had a couple regulars come in and tell me that they’re surprised we were still open. I know many places have been reduced to a drive-thru/delivery-only model, and it’s really fulfilling to be able to serve those who can’t drive, or those who can’t afford the upcharge that you might face through food delivery apps.
“Work isn’t the same when I’m not interacting with my customers, and I think it’s a positive thing for both me and my guests to have even a little bit of familiarity in times of crisis like this and I’m really grateful to still be working full time hours.”
To get to work, he takes the 406 Richmond–Brighouse Stn / Steveston from his home, then he rides the Canada Line the rest of the way to Broadway–City Hall Station. Transit is the only way for him to get from Richmond to Vancouver.
Dedicated employees like bus operator Bryan Stebbings and attendants on SkyTrain are on transit’s frontlines helping Ryu and daycare workers like Ava Jade get to work and making essential trips on transit possible. As one of these people, Ryu is appreciates physical distancing on transit.
“And at first, I thought it’d be a little challenging to physically distance because it’s usually quite crowded,” he says. “But, what I realized the last couple weeks is there’s not a lot of people on transit anymore, at least on like my route, and it’s actually quite easy to like distance yourself from others.”
Over the past few weeks, ridership has gone down on the system, which has made physical distancing easier on transit. We’ve also implemented measures to help with physical distancing on transit, including rear-door boarding for most passengers and limiting seats on buses.
“Like many grocery stores and chain restaurants, we’re staying open because were deemed an essential service,” he explains. “Thanks to not only TransLink, but everyone else that’s avoiding public transport, making the trips of those who still need to take it that much more safer.”
SkyTrain’s Andrew Ferguson, a vehicle technician, and Annaliese Hunt, a control operator.
As night descends, SkyTrain’s Operations and Maintenance Centre in Burnaby becomes a hive of activity, as staff complete critical maintenance, both on the tracks and in the shop, to ensure there’s a full complement of service in the morning.
It’s a race against the clock that takes a host of characters working together to complete.
On the SkyTrain tracks, the tasks change every day. They include everything from grinding rail to smooth them out for a more comfortable ride for our customers and replacing aging tracks as part of our Expo Line Rail and Rail Pad Replacement program, to retrieving dropped cellphones and cameras for customers.
A guideway technician replaces a piece of rail on the SkyTrain tracks.
And back in the shop, as we reduce service after the evening peak, every SkyTrain car starts going through the Vehicle Cleaning and Inspection Facility to receive a disinfectant wipe down of poles, seats, ceilings, handles, windows, sills and other surfaces within the cars from cleaners.
While each SkyTrain car is cleaned, vehicle technicians like Andrew Ferguson are on the lookout for seats, lights and doors that need repairs. Andrew, who has worked at SkyTrain for five years, explains how vehicle technicians are trying to clear out as many of these faults that have been registered on the onboard computer throughout the day.
Vehicles needing more extensive repairs or are due for routine maintenance are queued up outside the shop and removed from where the automatic trains can go by SkyTrain Control. One-by-one, they’re manually driven inside by vehicle technicians to be looked at. This includes things like routine maintenance for HVAC and propulsion systems, or changing out the “shoe” that the train uses to draw power from the rails.
“There’s a bigger window at night to take care of it, especially after they’ve reduced the service for the evening,” says Andrew, “so a lot of the work is done at night when we have access to more of the trains and more time to work.”
Vehicle technicians working on a SkyTrain car
Even though the trains only carry passengers for about 20 hours a day, it’s a 24-hour operation at SkyTrain for both vehicle technicians and control operators, like Annaliese Hunt, who has worked for the company for about 26 years. Annaliese not only helps to keep the trains moving, but also has a very important safety role as a control operator.
“A control operator conducts safety critical work 24 hours a day, not just during revenue service,” Annaliese explains. “We ensure maintenance staff are given safe access to the track area where they’re working, otherwise they could be in danger of an automatic train.”
For example, staff who are performing nightly track maintenance, cannot enter without what’s called an “occupancy permit” from the control room, which they can only grant after the tracks have been powered down and the area where they’re working is removed from where the automatic trains go.
And during the daytime, control operators are monitoring the tracks and trains even though they’re operating automatically, responding to everything from a lost child on the system with SkyTrain Attendants, to system delays.
The SkyTrain Control Room, which is the nerve centre for all of its operations.
“SkyTrains are known as being automated but in actuality, they are remote controlled,” explains Annaliese. “The trains don’t move without a control operator providing commands to the computer interfaces.”
This is critical when SkyTrain has to run alternative service for example. During a system delay, like a medical emergency, a control operator would have to make on-board announcements to keep our customers informed, re-route trains so they use the same track in both directions (called “single tracking”) and help maintain system safety, powering down track sections if necessary.
Needless to say, SkyTrain’s vehicle technicians and control operators are integral to a safe and reliable service for our customers. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not lost on Andrew or Annaliese how important their work is in ensuring the region can keep moving for essential workers.
“There’s lots of important people such as the healthcare workers, grocery workers and elderly that depend on transit to get around, so our job is to keep it running and keep it safe,” says Andrew.
Annaliese adds, “The working class needs us so they can be the backbone of this crisis and of our economy. Janitors, hospital workers, CareAids, daycare workers, grocery clerks, gas station attendants, etcetera need transit. We need to be there for them.”
“I am proud to be an integral part of keeping transit moving.”
Annnaliese Hunt, a control operator at SkyTrain.
Bryan Stebbings has been a bus operator with Coast Mountain Bus Company for nearly four years. (Photo: Josh Neufeld Photography)
“I’m just so thankful that I get to, first, help out my community as much as I can, but also for my family, I get to continue to come to work.”
Those are the words of Bryan Stebbings, a bus operator with Coast Mountain Bus Company. He’s one of myriad dedicated transit staff on the frontlines ensuring the region can keep moving during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan operates the 7 Nanaimo Stn / Dunbar and 9 Boundary / Commercial–Broadway / Granville / Alma / UBC routes. The 9 route travels along Broadway, passing by the Fairview neighbourhood that’s home to Vancouver General Hospital and a cluster of healthcare institutions, so it’s no surprise many of his customers are healthcare workers.
He’s embracing this important role transporting these frontline workers and others such as grocery clerks, janitors and other transit staff who depend on transit to get to work. There’s also those who need transit for essential travel to pick up groceries and medication.
“Well, it makes you feel good,” says Bryan, who has been an operator for nearly four years. “There’s a purpose behind my work. It makes you want to get up, go out there, serve my community and get these people to the places they need to be to help us out.”
Transit staff like Bryan are also among the people on the frontlines and we’ve taken steps to protect them.
Buses have temporarily moved to rear-door boarding for most passengers, while customers who need mobility assistance can still use the front doors if needed. The red line, which customers have to stay behind, has been moved further back from its usual spot to allow greater physical distancing.
“Loading from the back door has really helped us out,” says Bryan. “I think that was so important to implement, and then obviously getting that six feet from the red line being moved back another few feet so the general public doesn’t really enter your space too much.”
The bus company has also accelerated the installation of operator protection barriers, which was already underway after a successful two-year pilot in 2017. In addition to daily cleaning schedules, we’re spraying all buses with a disinfectant weekly. This week, we began limiting seating on buses to allow for extra space between customers.
Bryan operates the 7 Nanaimo Stn / Dunbar and 9 Boundary / Commercial–Broadway / Granville / Alma / UBC routes.
While Bryan embraces helping the community out during this time, it’s being reciprocated by the community. SPARKMOUTH, a local tonic and sparkling water producer, reached out to TransLink to donate their beverage to transit staff.
“We at SPARKMOUTH want to sincerely call out and thank all of you at TransLink that are not able to stay at home because you are out supporting essential services for the rest of us,” says Jackie Fox, vice president of sales and marketing at the company, in a letter to transit staff.
“We recognize that you, on the frontlines, are keeping this region moving, and we appreciate and salute the work you do to help all of us during this challenging time.”
The sparkling water beverages will be distributed to transit staff like Bryan in the coming days.
Donated SPARKMOUTH sparkling water beverages will be distributed to transit staff like Bryan in the coming days. Thank you to SPARKMOUTH!
Special thanks to Josh Neufeld Photography.
