Thousands of travellers were left stranded once again by TransLink when the Millennium and Expo lines were shut down Monday afternoon (July 21). It was the second such incident in less than a week.
On July 17, a computer glitch left thousands of people stranded, when SkyTrain between Surrey and Burnaby ground to a halt for about three hours.
TransLink tried to cope with the backlog by directing travellers to overloaded buses.
Fred Cummings, president of the B.C. Rapid Transit Co. Ltd., apologized for what he described as an “unusual incident.”
But it turned out not to be that unusual, as it happened again around 1 p.m. July 21, when the Expo and Millennium lines were shut down.
TransLink’s website was temporarily unavailable and Twitter was filled with angry and sarcastic tweets, as well as photos of stranded travellers walking along elevated SkyTrain tracks.
TransLink officials were slow to respond to media calls, including from the CBC, which tweeted: “Want answers as to what's happening at Skytrain? So do we.Translink says prez Fred Cummings is out of town and no other execs around.”
Business in Vancouver could not reach a TransLink spokesperson for an explanation for the July 21 paralysis of the Millennium and Expo lines.
The Canada Line between Vancouver and Richmond was unaffected by the problems affecting the Millennium and Expo lines.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie – who chaired TransLink before its governance model was changed and elected officials removed from the board – said the two recent system failures could erode public confidence in the system.
When Richmond was lobbying for the Canada Line, it sold it as being part of a system that would offer “safe, reliable, efficient transportation.”
“If you can’t provide that, if you undermine the system, people go back to their cars, and you unwind a lot of the good that you’ve done,” Brodie said.
“If TransLink doesn’t provide a reliable system, then the advances that they’ve made will quickly be reversed.”
