Bryan Larrabee
President, Transit Museum Society
If you went on one of our Christmas Lights Tours, you will have met our hosts and driver at Coquitlam Station. The hosts are there to keep track of our passenger roster, collect fares if people haven’t pre-paid and answer the phone if any of our passengers is delayed and wants us to hold the bus. One host goes along with the tour and acts as the tour guide and makes sure we don’t leave anyone behind at one of our stops. What you don’t realize is that there are a few other Transit Museum volunteers involved before and after the tour.
Before the tour becomes a reality, much research is involved to design a route. It starts with the memory of past tours, and the great lights displays from last year. We only have a couple of weeks as most people only start building their displays in early December. Some of the past displays are gone so we must adjust the tour and see if there are new displays to discover. After some mapping and test driving, a route is determined. We try to be flexible and in fact we added a couple of houses at the last minute this year. Every year 3 or 4 people are involved in the final design of the route.
Meanwhile, members of the shop crew decorate the interior of the bus under the supervision of our electrician, not to mention, giving a good clean and fueling it up.
We realized a few years ago that we needed a reservation system and a way for our riders to contact us with questions or concerns. A simple but free software system developed for a small airline was adapted by our webmaster. People can reserve and prepay for a seat or have the option of making a reservation and paying in person at Coquitlam Station. Our hosts are emailed a passenger roster before the tour so they know who to collect fares from. It also provides a passenger count which informs them of any seats available for walk-on customers. A virtual phone system is activated for any last minute problems.
On the night of the tour, the first step is for our team to meet at the Langley Shop an hour before the bus is due to leave. Someone gets the bus started, aired up and out of the shop. The driver arrives and does the pre-trip inspection which consists of an air brake check, fluids and lights are also checked, and they make sure that a fire extinguisher, first aid kit and emergency reflective road kit are on board. They walk around the bus and do a visual inspection of the wheels and tires. The driver fills out and signs the pre-trip form and completes a driver log to track the hours that they have driven in the past week. The driver texts our automated phone service. This records the time of departure. The Google Maps app is automatically contacted by the reservation system to estimate the arrival at Coquitlam Station. This is passed to our phone service to provide recorded updates to our passengers.
For the past three years tours have departed from Coquitlam Central Station, roughly a half hour drive from our Langley warehouse. The bus departs at 5:40pm and the shop is locked up. At around 10:00pm the shop crew returns to meet the bus as it arrives after the tour. The driver hands in the paperwork; lets us know how the tour went and if there were any problems with the bus. The fuel level is checked, and the bus floor is swept and washed. Wheels and tires are inspected. Bus batteries are turned off, and the bus is ready for the next trip.
Everyone involved is a volunteer and just as you support the Transit Museum by purchasing a ticket, our planners, hosts, drivers and shop crew are contributing their time to help with this valuable fundraiser. Thank you everyone for keeping the Museum alive and active.
