TransLink announces annual winterization plan for Metro Vancouver fleet

Metro Vancouver’s public transit provider showed off its winter preparations Monday, ahead of what’s expected to be a more severe season than in previous years.

TransLink announced plans to increase the use of winter tires, deploy more buses with improved performance in slippery conditions, and implement new anti-icing solutions for overhead trolley wires —  among other initiatives.

President and General Manager of Coast Mountain Bus Company, Michael McDaniel, says it will be all “hands on deck” to keep Metro Vancouver moving. 

Coast Mountain will equip 600 TransLink buses with Michelin ‘Grip D’ tires —  approximately 40 per cent of the fleet, and 100 more than last year.

“We would expand more if the supplier had more supplies. This is a well-sought-after tread pattern right now across our country and in North America, so we are getting as many as we can,” said McDaniel.

He says articulated buses —  the extra-long vehicles with accordion-folding centres — can be difficult to control on slippery winter roads and often get pulled from deployment and replaced by lower-capacity buses. But this year, the company is launching 16 new articulated buses with “centre drive axles.”

The company also uses an anti-icing solution on the overhead wires used by trolley buses. If that fails, the buses are equipped with brass cutters that slice ice as they go.

Even with the new technology, McDaniel says the buses are only as good as the roads where they drive. 

“That’s why, just like every year, we have direct communication with each municipality. So that they can understand what our priority areas are, and they can help clear those.”

TransLink says snow and ice are a problem for SkyTrains too, but it runs trains overnight and specialty trains throughout the day to help keep the tracks clear. The director of operations for SkyTrain and the West Coast Express, Will Steep, says employees monitor the front of trains and are ready to de-ice doors that get frozen shut.

“As I’m sure many of you have seen, many of our staff use hockey sticks to do this because they are the perfect shape for removing snow from between the door and the body of the train. Having staff ready at station platforms to clear snow from the train doors has proven really effective and also allows us to have more employees on the ground ready to give customers directions as they need,” said Steep.

During days of inclement weather, TransLink is urging riders to build in extra travel time and plan commutes using their Trip Planner app.

—With files from Raynaldo Suarez