Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Spork]

Originally Posted by Express691

Yes; well I guess this all comes down to company regulations. ScanBC can say whatever can describe the incident, but Translink's policy states that they have to say medical emergency in order to respect the family of those involved in the incident.

There were people complaining about being late for work because someone was stupid, which implies that they are assuming that that individual was completely fine with no mental health problems.

As for the extent of the situation, All trains were single tracking between Patterson and Broadway with no stopping at 29th. There was a bus bridge to connect Joyce-29th-Nanaimo and Millenium line trains were short turned at Columbia.

Wow, it was that early in the day? I took the train at about 10pm from downtown and it was still closed. When we went by the station, there was a train stopped short and a number of people holding up some sort of pop-up white barrier to block our train's view from what was happening.

[Express691]

Originally Posted by Spork

Wow, it was that early in the day? I took the train at about 10pm from downtown and it was still closed. When we went by the station, there was a train stopped short and a number of people holding up some sort of pop-up white barrier to block our train's view from what was happening.

Well I got the news from CPTDB after someone called a red india (suicide) at around 9:00pm last night.

[st7860]

http://www.scanbc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Skytrain
"INDIA
Human contact with train"

[Express691]

http://www.translink.ca/en/Schedules-and-Maps/Transit-Service-Changes.aspx

Service changes for the September rotation have been released.

[dandor31]

Originally Posted by Express691

http://www.translink.ca/en/Schedules-and-Maps/Transit-Service-Changes.aspx

Service changes for the September rotation have been released.

Awesome to see the late night increases! Some of the busiest night busses (N8/N9/N17/N19/N20/N24/N35) have an additional trip Mon-Sat. And the N19 now runs until the first Expo line trip so we have another 24/7 route. As well the 3 and 14 have late night increases to 20min and 15min frequencies, respectively. Glad these improvements can still happen without new funding

Although I still think Translink should rebrand the N17 as the N14. I think everyone now equates 17 to the Oak St bus.

[Gordon]

44 UBC:

PM Peak gets a service increase to 12min headways Eastbound but the same 15 min headways eastbound. seems to be a strange way to operate a route.

[SFUVancouver]

403 (No. 3 Road/Steveston Hwy) gets a bump in frequency to every 15 minutes on Saturdays 9am-6pm. There would previously be times when the 15 minute frequency would inexplicably drop to 30 minutes then revert to 15 minutes. Happy to have more predictability. Would also have liked to have seen a further bump in 410 frequency to alleviate crowding. Perhaps an up-gauge to 18 metre articulated buses during peak periods might be in the pipeline some day?

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

403 (No. 3 Road/Steveston Hwy) gets a bump in frequency to every 15 minutes on Saturdays 9am-6pm. There would previously be times when the 15 minute frequency would inexplicably drop to 30 minutes then revert to 15 minutes. Happy to have more predictability. Would also have liked to have seen a further bump in 410 frequency to alleviate crowding. Perhaps an up-gauge to 18 metre articulated buses during peak periods might be in the pipeline some day?

Large agree on the 410. Glad to hear about the 403.

[ninjakafi_81]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Would also have liked to have seen a further bump in 410 frequency to alleviate crowding. Perhaps an up-gauge to 18 metre articulated buses during peak periods might be in the pipeline some day?

Too bad this can't be an everyday thing :/

• Video Link

My mistake in the title of the video as I rushed it, it's supposed to be 2012, not 2013.

[officedweller]

Of interest - Proterra electric /battery powered bus in Seattle:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/atomictaco/albums/72157655961322952

http://kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/News/release/2014/August/21_battery-buses.aspx

[Klazu]

Did anyone sign up for the Transit Day special access to see the SkyTrain monitoring center in early September?

[Express691]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Did anyone sign up for the Transit Day special access to see the SkyTrain monitoring center in early September?

Thats for the kids. Adults signed up to go see the Burnaby bus yard. Luckily im 1/20 winners of the contest.

Quick question, how long would a normal track replacement take? People are complaining about it not being between 1-4 in the morning.

[Mac Write]

Translink really needs to do a "In-depth" "SkyTrain at night" video series (get very weeky like "Life of a speeder," "Life of a cleaner," "Life of s train at night" etc etc.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Express691

Thats for the kids. Adults signed up to go see the Burnaby bus yard. Luckily im 1/20 winners of the contest.

Are you sure? I only read about it in Metro News, but they were pretty explicit that kids get to see SkyTrain command center + Skytrain/bus maintenance depot and meet transit police. Adults only get to see the SkyTrain command center.

Too lazy to google right now (yet I took the time to write here - that's what dedicated SSPers do! ), but I have a strong memory about this one. But perhaps the news story had it wrong. Totally possible.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Are you sure? I only read about it in Metro News, but they were pretty explicit that kids get to see SkyTrain command center + Skytrain/bus maintenance depot and meet transit police. Adults only get to see the SkyTrain command center.

Too lazy to google right now (yet I took the time to write here - that's what dedicated SSPers do! ), but I have a strong memory about this one. But perhaps the news story had it wrong. Totally possible.

The kids (with a guardian) transit camp days goes to the Skytrain command center and then over to the Burnaby Transit Center for buses. The adults only one will only go the Transit Center.
http://buzzer.translink.ca/2015/08/annou...k-2015-aug-31-sept-4-two-camps-and-more/

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Translink really needs to do a "In-depth" "SkyTrain at night" video series (get very weeky like "Life of a speeder," "Life of a cleaner," "Life of s train at night" etc etc.

Back in April/May I submitted to TransLink a proposal that would of covered a lot of this. Sent them a pretty large writeup of places me and a cameraman would like to film at. Tried as best as I could to be flexible to them as I could be to make the freelanced offer even more appealing. Took them about a month to reply and the response was as expected for all the other media requests I've sent them in the last two years be it for video or still photography:

"blah blah blah, photography is prohibited during upgrades blahblah potential security issues blahblah supervision blah blah blah you can film the system....just don't be on TransLink property.
Thank you for the inquiry and good luck.

-TransLink Robot"

Even when I circled around Metrotown Station earlier this year to get good photos before the renovations I was still approached by transit staff and asked to show proof I was permitted to be taking the photographs. I was later contacted as a followup to the ordeal but damn, give me a break.

I don't know how BC Transit was (excluding those three EXTREMELY well done videos that GEM/Yaletown productions made in the 80's) but TransLink is absolutely hating the idea of people coming in and filming them doing their jobs/the operation of the system. Granted just how much the public and press have grilled them recently for problems lately be it their fault or not, aside from that extremely brief and closely supervised tour they gave I think it was CTV after the power failure last summer they've been telling anyone else in layman's terms to "get f%#$@d."

I guess being tight-lipped about everything is one way to ensure the safety of the system but it doesn't at all encourage public confidence, especially when you have posters telling passengers to report people taking photographs in the system.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Even when I circled around Metrotown Station earlier this year to get good photos before the renovations I was still approached by transit staff and asked to show proof I was permitted to be taking the photographs. I was later contacted as a followup to the ordeal but damn, give me a break.

I guess being tight-lipped about everything is one way to ensure the safety of the system but it doesn't at all encourage public confidence, especially when you have posters telling passengers to report people taking photographs in the system.

This I find ridiculous. For Pete's sake, this is not Murica where freedom is under constant attack by evil forces and axis of evil.

[Meraki]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Translink really needs to do a "In-depth" "SkyTrain at night" video series (get very weeky like "Life of a speeder," "Life of a cleaner," "Life of s train at night" etc etc.

For anyone who hasn't seen BBC's "The Tube" it's a fantastic series which is exactly that, but for the London Underground.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cmsfd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cmsfd/episodes/guide

[GlassCity]

I've had a few people come up with the idea to just have one single SkyTrain after the last one, maybe at 3:30 am for example, to give everybody partying downtown a ride home once everything shuts down while allowing maintenance to be performed between 1 and 3 and then afterwards as well. Would that be possible at all?

[nname]

Then they need to reopen all the stations, move all equipment away, re-power the track, have one not-in-service train before and after to drop-off and pick-up attendants, re-clear all the platforms again, have someone in the terminus to clean up the train, then shut down the system again, move equipment back... Pretty much 2 hours of work and more than 50 people involved just to run that one train. Would they charge $20 per ticket?