TransLink announces independent review into SkyTrain disruptions
Posted July 28, 2014 5:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – TransLink has announced an independent review into SkyTrain disruptions.
The review will begin tomorrow and will be led by Gary McNeil, who served as CEO of GO Transit in Ontario for more than 10 years.
TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis says McNeil will be paid roughly $1,200 a day. “We’ve agreed to rates consistent with what we would pay someone with his level of expertise.”
The review will include TransLink’s response plan for major disruptions, how to prevent major disruptions, improvements that can be made to the system, procedural and equipment changes that could help the SkyTrain system resume more quickly.
Jarvis agrees two system shutdowns within days is too much. “It’s a wake up call, so we need to learn what transpired, how we can prevent it, and how we can get better at planning and responding in the future.”
He says some changes have already been made. “With respect to how we allocate our staffing in incidents like this, better ways to communicate during the outages and in terms of maintenance, when maintenance work is undertaken.”
Last Monday a system-wide shutdown lasted five hours, leaving thousands of people stranded. Even though the technical causes have been identified, Jarvis says the review is still necessary. “We know the cause, so really the decision is, do we bring in and benefit from another industry expert to come in and help.”
TransLink has said an electrician installing a new circuit breaker for the Evergreen Line accidentally tripped the main breaker feeding SkyTrain’s critical systems.
A final report is expected in October.
