Vancouver Barwatch urges TransLink to extend service

With New Year’s Eve celebrations around the corner, the Vancouver Barwatch program is joining the call for longer public transit service times.

Curtis Robinson, the chair of the program, says his organization is advocating for extended service until 5 a.m.

“They need to provide late-night transportation. Stop making excuses,” he told 1130 NewsRadio.

Robinson says the issue becomes especially relevant as Vancouver prepares to host international visitors for the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

“The people who work in the entertainment industry are servers, predominantly female, and they cannot live in Vancouver. They have got to come downtown,” he explained.

“So, if there is one thing that we need to work on, it’s late-night transportation, SkyTrain and Canada Line.”

Currently, the last SkyTrain leaving downtown on the Expo Line runs at 1:16 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

The last Millennium Line and Canada Line trains leave downtown at 1:22 a.m. and 1:15 a.m., respectively.

For the New Year celebrations, SkyTrain passengers can party about an hour longer since TransLink extends its hours.

Buses will operate on an extended schedule as well, with 52 additional buses throughout the system and extra service on select routes.

Additionally, the transit provider announced that it will offer free services on New Year’s Eve starting at 5 p.m. through 5 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

Barwatch makes party experience safer

Vancouver Barwatch aims to make bars and other hospitality venues safer by using ID scanning to keep people with serious criminal records out.

The program works together with the Vancouver Police Department and owners of bars and other entertainment venues across the city. 

Robinson says their venues have a code of conduct covering six different behavioural standards, and violating them can result in ejection from venues for up to two years.

“Unwanted attention, unwanted touching, bringing alcohol into the venue, unsafe behaviour, abusive behaviour towards staff or servers, and this kind of thing that would otherwise kind of ruin the party,” he said.

“If that’s the case in the venue, they can eject you for a period of up to two years.”

45 venues across Metro Vancouver use the program.

“If you do decide that you are going to come in anyway or ignore this or perhaps decide that you are going to take some aggressive action, then we have a partnership with the VPD, and you will be removed by police.”

With files from Raynaldo Suarez.