REALITY CHECK: Why is SkyTrain breaking down so frequently?
Obviously, as full confirmed below, Translink has been much more
concerned with embezzling exorbitant CEO perks and salaries from the taxpayer
than they have with proper scheduled maintenance and/or public safety.
June 10, 2015-As part of the system wide upgrading of the
Expo Line, Skytrain will be upgrading the power rail system on the gateway. This
work involves replacing the power rail system at night from 9:00 pm to 7:00am,
Sunday night to Friday morning inclusive. Unfortunately, this work cannot be
undertaken during normal daily SkyTrain operation due to SkyTrain traffic and
safety reasons. Work will occur along from guideway switches west of Nanaimo
Station towards Stadium-Chinatown Station from APPROXIMATELY (expect it to take
much longer, this is Translink we are talking about)June 15, 2015 to August 14,
2015 (ONE MONTH).
A motor issue on one SkyTrain knocked out power to 19 trains
on Tuesday, leaving commuters frustrated with having to find another way home. The
outage affected trains running between Waterfront and Royal Oak and lasted
about three hours. Speaking on Wednesday, Translink’s interim CEO Doug Allen
said “yesterday’s events are quite significant. “Attendants were
able to get to 15 of the 19 trains within the recommended 20 minute time frame,
but Allen said that is not good enough. The trains had to be manually driven to
the stations so that passengers could disembark. However, it took until 7 p.m.
to resolve the issue and get the system up and running again.
“Simply we need to do
better to meet [customer] service needs,” said Allen. He outlined some changes
that need to happen to make sure this kind of outage does not happen again.
Staff will be checking the more than 500 induction motors, they will receive
more training, will strengthen their control room and look at best practices
worldwide. More staff will also be added at stations – 16 people by Aug. 1 and
64 people by Oct. 4. “Our issue yesterday, in my mind, is that we still don’t
have the proper allocation among staff at the stations to be able to respond
within 20 minutes,” said Allen.
“Safety is number one with Translink, as it should be, and
things were handled within a safe fashion.”
This latest shutdown came on the heels of another Expo Line
issue on May 20 and a freak accident that closed the line on May 22. The
back-to-back breakdowns prompted TransLink to reimburse riders for their fares
on those days.
TransLink’s SkyTrain and West Coast Express subsidiary ran
over its $232.4 million budget by $2.1 million last year. The B.C. Rapid
Transit Company’s 2015 business plan said it cost $234.5 million in 2014 to
operate and maintain the Expo and Millennium lines and commuter railway and pay
for service on the SNC-Lavalin-operated Canada Line. “The overrun was mainly
attributed to increased front line staffing levels after the two anomalous
major service disruptions in July 2014 and the need to respond to possible such
events, as well as increased escalator maintenance,” said the business plan, obtained
by the Courier. The automated Expo and Millennium lines shut down for more than
five hours last July 17 because of a circuit board failure and again July 21
after a power outage caused by human error. The business plan said SkyTrain
infrastructure “began to show its age” in 2013, leading to more frequent
service disruptions. More breakdowns and service disruptions were identified as
a risk to 2015 operations.
January 12, 2015-Normal service has resumed on the SkyTrain
after an electrical problem led to a frustrating commute in Vancouver early
Monday morning. The issue at Waterfront station began at 5:35 a.m. and resulted
in the suspension of regular service in both directions between Waterfront and
Stadium stations. Technicians corrected the issue by 8 a.m., when trains
returned to normal service. TransLink warned travellers to expect heavier than
normal passenger loads. - See more at:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/vancouver-skytrain-service-restored-following-downtown-breakdown-1.1728015#sthash.gI39E90J.dpuf
07/21/2014-SkyTrain Shut Down Again, Angering Commuters: For
the second time in a week, Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain system completely shut
down trains on the Expo and Millennium lines, again angering frustrated
commuters. The failure prevented TransLink from even making public announcements
on the system. The technical issues began around lunchtime on Monday and were
not resolved for another five hours. It turned out that a problem with an
electrical panel led to a complete power outage,
TransLink executives keep using the same word to describe
Monday's system-wide shut down — unprecedented. That may be, but in the world
of crisis communications, worst-case scenarios are exactly the situations for
which corporations should be prepared.
Alyn Edwards — who specializes in crisis communications for
Vancouver firm Peak Communicators — says it's unacceptable for people in charge
of transportation to be unprepared.
"Anybody with that responsibility would OR DEFINETLY SHOULD know that the
dark day is coming. The day when the system crashes. It's inevitable that this
type of thing is going to happen,"
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