TransLink named one of its new Mark II SkyTrain cars yesterday in honour of VANOC CEO John Furlong and his efforts to bring the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver.
It is the first time that a SkyTrain car — whose full name is: In the Olympic Spirit of John Furlong — has been dedicated to an individual. The Mark I cars are named after B.C. towns, like Spirit of Merritt.
Furlong, the guest speaker at TransLink’s AGM yesterday, praised the public transit system that moved more than 26 million riders during the Games, an increase of 31 per cent.
“The public didn’t just embrace (transit),” he said. “They wholeheartedly embraced it and made the city the most livable, I think, than it has ever been.”
Getting people out of their vehicles and onto transit, Furlong said, was one of the “best achievements of the Games” and would top the list of successes conveyed to the organizers of Sochi 2014.
Doug Kelsey, president of B.C. Rapid Transit (SkyTrain), said the region experienced a 36 per cent reduction in vehicle traffic during the Games, in part due to disincentives like 24-hour no-parking zones.
