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Saturday, 20 June 2015

Yet, More Reasons, Why Canadians Must Demand That Illegally PRIVATISED, Crown Corporations be Abolished and the said corporations returned to FULL PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, AND ACCOUNTABILITY


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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