The interim CEO of TransLink has apologized for a SkyTrain service outage that affected thousands of Metro Vancouver commuters during rush hour Tuesday.

Cathy McLay said crews are still working to determine what caused the shutdown, which halted all trains between Waterfront and Main Street-Science World stations around 3:15 p.m. and left crowds of people waiting in the cold.

“I can only imagine how frustrating it has been tonight for our customers,” McLay said. “I apologize.”

TransLink blamed the problem on power issues at both Stadium and Main Street stations. Full service on the Expo and Millenium Lines was restored around 11 p.m. Tuesday night -- nearly eight hours after it went down.

TransLink says the cause of the disruption is under investigation but preliminary findings show the power-collector equipment on a train was damaged, causing a power outage on that portion of the system.

The shutdown briefly left a number of passengers trapped on a stopped train near Science World. Within an hour of the shutdown, TransLink managed to get them out by parking an operable train beside it and transferring passengers from one train to the other.

The transit provider also sent 69 buses to transfer riders between Waterfront and Broadway stations as work was getting out, but witnesses said the buses were quickly filled to capacity by the huge crowds of people waiting at stops.

Additional security and Transit Police were dispatched to stations to ensure safety and perform crowd control duties.

TransLink says it has no plans to compensate people who were affected by the massive outage.

Senior Communications Advisor Jennifer Morland called the shutdown “unprecedented.”

 “We appreciate that this was really frustrating as they were experiencing the delays,” she told CTV Morning Live.

Follow @CTVVancouver for the latest on this developing story…

 

 
SkyTrain passengers hop trains during outage

SkyTrain passengers are transferred from one car to another after an unidentified power issue halted service Tuesday afternoon.Read more here: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/power-issues-halt-skytrain-service-in-downtown-vancouver-1.2672949

Posted by CTV Vancouver on Tuesday, November 24, 2015