The Granville Escalator Replacement Program

Target Audience: As part of the Expo Line Escalator Replacement Project, 37 escalators, in service since 1986-1990, will be replaced at 13 SkyTrain and West Coast Express stations. TransLink launched the first of these two projects at Granville Station where six escalators are being replaced, including the three longest escalators on the system. This critical investment into the system will keep escalators operating safely and reliably for customers well into the future. The project has significant impacts that needed to be clearly communicated to customers who use the station, to businesses in the station, and to the public.

Strategy Objective:Our corporate priorities are maintaining a state-of-good repair and improving the customer experience. We make significant investments to ensure the system is safe and reliable for customers now and in the future and we needed to find an engaging way of communicating this to our customers. By using the Granville Escalator Replacement Project, we demonstrate how the work is planned, how it benefits customers and how it is part of our everyday business. To do this in a comprehensive way we created the TransLink Maintenance and Repair Program to brand major capital upgrades and maintenance work. This program highlights TransLink's commitment to improving customer experience, and reminds the customers of the funding that's put into keeping our system safe and functioning.

Situation Challenge: To minimize project costs, to schedule, and to ensure the safety of customers and construction crews, both the Seymour Street and Granville Street entrances to Granville Station were closed. The work would take up to two years to complete. It was vital for us to engage customers well in advance of changes and clearly explain how customers would access the station, use the elevators/escalators and support the businesses in corridor being closed for platform access. We used a variety of video, media and advertising tools to better explain the complexity of the project and provide both a history of the escalator and the replacement process.

Results Impact: 2-weeks in advance of the entrance closure we began sharing information with signage and an educational campaign to raise greater public awareness. Tactics included: - Media event: 7 media tours,13 media stories in print, radio and TV- 3 local newspaper ads & NextBus SMS ad-Video has 13,000+ views-Clear wayfinding signage- More staff on-site to assist customers-Passenger Information screen messages in stations-Targeted train announcements-Materials shared at community events activities-Unpaid digital promotions: Buzzer Blog, Facebook & Twitter with 5,000+ views-Letters hand delivered to business where passenger traffic was re-directed-Street-teams handed out educational postcards for multiple days-New webpage created to house program and project information-Low number of complaints

Why Submit: Building our reputation as a customer first service provider is our top priority. This results in us providing customers and stakeholders with information early and often, especially when it comes to work that impacts their daily travel. We did that in this project and the proof is in recent research statistics. In our recent reputation survey, results showed that the Granville Escalator project was in the top five projects that made customers feel more positive about TransLink when they heard about the initiative. According to an Ipsos Reid poll reported in BC Business Magazine in June, we've increased our ranking as one of BC's most loved brands by 16 spots or 24% in the last year. Projects like this contribute to that increase.