That Was the Year That Was

People, projects typify TransLink in 2009

The completion of projects totalling nearly $3.5 billion made for a headline-grabbing year for the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink). But impressive as that figure may seem, an even greater resource fuels the Authority and will continue to do so in 2010: its people.

“At TransLink we are very proud of the work undertaken by the over 6,000 employees of TransLink and its family of companies,” says CEO Ian Jarvis. “Too often the news coverage TransLink gets is focused on transportation funding controversies, to the point that one headline earlier this year proclaimed ‘Metro transit is broken.’ But the everyday service we deliver – the accomplishments that don`t make the headlines – tell a much different story.

“If you listen to observers around the world, ours is an efficient, high-performance system. Here at home, transit ridership continues to grow as more and more people discover it’s a convenient and cost effective travel option,” Jarvis says. “Our partnerships with municipal, provincial and federal governments have produced unprecedented road and transit expansion, with a number of remarkable launches and openings in 2009. Just as importantly, as we look back on the year, we can also mark a large number of significant accomplishments by our people.”

The accomplishments of 2009 cover the gamut of TransLink’s mandate to promote the efficient movement of goods and people around the Lower Mainland:

Opening of the Golden Ears Bridge
Opening of the Canada Line
Completion and launch of the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze, the third member of the SeaBus fleet
Opening of the Central Valley Greenway, a bicycle and pedestrian network running from downtown Vancouver through North Burnaby and New Westminster to Westminster Quay, increasing options for transportation other than private, single-occupant vehicles.
Delivery of over 240 new buses including articulated trolley and the first diesel-electric hybrid buses in the fleet.
Expansion of the Expo/Millennium Line SkyTrain fleet by 48 new railcars
Confirmation of an order of 7 new West Coast Express railcars (arriving by fall 2010)
Completion of modernization of electric trolley bus fleet
Completion of Phase 1 of the upgrade of Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain Station
Continued work on the Coast Meridian Overpass in Coquitlam
The Employer Pass Program reached a milestone of 20,000 pass-holders, benefitting from the price advantage and convenience of the payroll-deduction plan
Combined, TransLink’s transit services provided an estimated 310 million trips in 2009.
Conducted an unprecedented program of public consultation to determine the needs and desires of this widely varied region, as well as gain an idea of how people are willing to pay for further improvements.

These projects provided employment and local economic activity worth far more than the money invested. For example, building the Golden Ears Bridge accounted for more than 7000 work-years of employment, while building the new SeaBus provided 100,000 person-hours of work in British Columbia’s vibrant shipbuilding industry. Quickpass Tolling, which operates the electronic tolling system on the Golden Ears Bridge, has hired local workers from the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows area to staff its customer service operations on Harris Road. Using a multiplier of 5:1, the indirect economic activity generated by these projects is even greater.

TransLink also increased bus service to the tune of 180,000 additional annualized service hours and improved efficiency on major trolley bus routes in the city of Vancouver, thanks to the Urban Transportation Showcase on Main Street and the acquisition of higher-capacity articulated trolley buses.

The new SkyTrain cars provide approximately 30 per cent more capacity to the system, allowing longer trains to be run and, in turn, reducing the number of “passups” during rush hours.

… and the Award goes to...

“The only praise that’s worth a dam is what you get from the man at the next bench,” the American newspaperman HL Mencken said nearly a hundred years ago. TransLink’s men and women have received recognition in 2009 that would have impressed even The Sage of Baltimore:

Fred Cummings, vice president, Major Projects, received a TAC Achievement Award for overseeing the Golden Ears Bridge from design to completion. (The Golden Ears Bridge was also named “Project of the Year” by the Institute of Transportation Engineers.)
Sheri Plewes, former vice president, Capital Management and Engineering, received an Award of Excellence from the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), for overseeing TransLink’s Capital Program and leading the development of TransLink’s 2010 10-year Plan, as well as a 10-year body of work with TransLink.
Sany Zein, PEng., in TransLink’s planning division was named “Outstanding Professional” by the Institute of Transportation Engineers
Chris Morris, SkyTrain Manager, Engineering and Technical Support, was inducted as a Fellow of Engineers Canada for his exceptional contributions to the engineering profession
Radenko Knezevic, bus driver with Coast Mountain Bus Company, received an Employee Excellence Award from the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA). Radenko’s quick actions while on the job helped save the lives of four people when their Burnaby home caught fire in July, waking up the residents and using a garden hose to stop the fire from spreading until firefighters arrived. It was the third straight year a CMBC driver was honoured by CUTA.
SkyTrain was named “Best Organization” in the Fifth Annual Lieutenant Governor’s Public Safety Awards, recognizing leadership, achievement and innovation in promoting public safety in BC.
Coast Mountain Bus was named for the fourth year in a row as one of the Top 50 Employers in BC.
TransLink’s website (www.translink.ca) was recognized as the best in the business by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) for its accessibility, trip-planning tools and interactive online forum.
APTA also named TransLink’s safety and security education and awareness campaign as the best among transit agencies in North America.
The Customer Information Line, operated by the Coast Mountain Bus Company in support all of TransLink’s transit services, was named Call Centre of the Year by the BC Contact Centre Association.

Everyday Heroes

First and foremost, TransLink’s people are the ones responsible for keeping the system operating. There are those Coast Mountain staff who drive the anti-icing trucks and “ice-buster” buses overnight while most people are sleeping, preventing ice from building up on trolley overheads. There are the SkyTrain technicians who work through the early-morning hours to maintain the tracks and its hundreds of switches and electronics components. While service disruptions are noted by the public and the media, more numerous are the disruptions that have been prevented through maintenance, vigilance and quick response by our employees. During inclement weather such as the heavy snowfall of early 2009, literally thousands of bus drivers and attendants on SkyTrain, SeaBus and West Coast Express went to extraordinary measures to get to work on time so our customers could, too.

For many of TransLink’s front-line employees, “going above and beyond” is practically part of the job description:

Last January, TransLink’s engineering staff mobilized the plan and the resources to get the Pattullo Bridge opened again in only a week after fire destroyed the southern end of the deck.
SkyTrain Attendant (STA) talks distraught man out of jumping off the bridge overlooking Commercial-Broadway Station and the tracks below
2 STAs assist young woman near Granville Station who had been sexually assaulted at a nearby nightclub
BC Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC) and Transit Police joined forces with youth outreach workers to launch I-RAYL – the Inter-Regional At-Risk Youth Link – watching out for and counselling potentially troubled youth on the SkyTrain system
On two occasions, STAs perform CPR to help keep heart attack victims alive until paramedics could take over
STA handed over wallet containing $32 thousand cheque.
SkyTrain and West Coast Express employees launched an initiative to collect funds from passengers to help with the effort to help those affected by devastating interface fires in the Kelowna area this past summer. Nearly $3500 was raised in a one-day blitz.
The Coast Mountain Bus Company’s ReinBus collected over 3,000 unwrapped toys this Christmas along with cash (which is still being counted) for the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau, responding to a sharp increase in need in the Metro Vancouver region.
The West Coast Express Santa Train, a special Mission-Vancouver round trip on the first Saturday in December, collected toys and cash for the Christmas bureaux in the local communities served by the commuter rail service.
BCRTC’s “Train-stuffing” program (officially called “Moving Forward – Giving Back”) raised a trainload of toys plus cash for the Greater Vancouver and Surrey Food Banks
Contributions by TransLink helped CKNW as it raised over $1 million for the Orphans Fund and CBC Radio’s Food Bank Drive and Open House, which collect over $300 thousand.

TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis says, “To be sure, 2009 had its challenges, but I think the performance of our road and transit system and the people who made it work day-by-day deserve to be the real story of the year.

“On an average day this year our transit system served over 750,000 passengers. In February, that number will leap to 1 million per day during the Winter Olympics. TransLink is looking forward to the opportunity to `move the world` in 2010, just as we intend to keep Metro Vancouver moving forward toward a sustainable future next year.”