Vancouver’s Olympic Line streetcar drivers may have had years of experience driving heritage streetcars and city buses, but a modern streetcar is a different piece of equipment. TransitFan talks with Bombardier’s Russ Hoas, chief instructor of the Olympic Line, about getting the drivers trained and ready.
By John Calimente re:place Magazine
In total, 23 drivers were recruited to run the Olympic Line streetcars. Candidates were chosen by Cameron Marr, the project leader, and Eero Kuitunen, the operations and maintenance manager. Those with a railway background were given priority, as they had a working knowledge of how a railway is run. Maturity, good spatial abilities, and the ability to work independently were also key character traits that drivers needed to have.
Many of the trainees had experience driving local buses for TransLink as well as intercity buses. All were members of the Transit Museum Society, which runs the heritage trams along the line in the summer. However, even with all that experience, there was still a lot to learn. Neither the trainees nor the five supervisors working on the Olympic Line had ever driven this particular model of train before.
The first step was to translate the operating manual from Belgian French to English. Then once the cars had arrived in Vancouver in December, a trainer from Belgium came to train the staff on the cars for three weeks. After that it was a matter of test driving them, finding out all the nuances and quirks, and completing brake tests. “We had a hoot” laughs Russ Hoas, chief instructor of the Olympic Line.
Hoas is almost over-qualified for his position. A second generation railroader, he has been working on the railways for almost 40 years. He started out early – at age 16 he was already working midnight shifts in customer service for a railway in Sherbrooke, Québec. By the late 1970s he had joined the engineer training course with the CPR and never looked back. Says Hoas, “From that point on I saw myself in the right-hand cab, the engineer’s seat. There was no doubt in my mind.” He worked as a locomotive engineer through the 1980s, eventually becoming the road foreman of engineers when he was just 27.
In 2001, after 27 years on the main track, he decided to start his own consulting company. “I loved what I was doing, but they worked me to death. It was 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week.” In his new role he worked on Bombardier projects in Pretoria, South Africa and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, becoming a full-time employee with operations and maintenance three years ago.
Interestingly, Bombardier Transportation focuses mainly on selling trains to existing operators, rather than on developing new systems. “Bombardier Systems is a small component of the transport department” says Hoas. But his work sounds like a lot of fun. “Systems works with municipalities and cities to build a rail system from the ground up. They come to us with a bid, we then qualify for the bid, and after that we put the rail in, complete the tunneling with a civil joint partner, and build the viaducts and overpasses. We work with a civil joint partner on designing all of this with the customer. We also buy cars from our own division.” Hoas’ group also operates and maintains trains such as the AirTrain in New York, which runs to JFK Airport.
While Hoas had not driven the Bombardier Flexity streetcar before, he had driven a similar car, the Flexity Swift, on the Hiawatha Line in Minneapolis. The Swift is a light-rail vehicle rather than a streetcar, and is 70% low floor as opposed to the 100% low-floor Flexity streetcars. Hoas loved the Flexity streetcars as soon as he started driving them. “They’re fun little trains to drive – such a beautiful piece of equipment and so easy to handle. They’re award-winning cars in Europe.”
The Flexity was like no train he’d driven before. Notes Hoas, “The regenerative braking is the best I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely smooth between braking and power. There’s no transition time, so you can go from one to the other seamlessly without waiting in between. This is the first train I’ve seen that can do that.” And the Flexity has other advanced features that Vancouver’s original streetcars never had. “It’s set up to run like a car. It has brake lights and turn signals like a car. There’s even a joystick that can turn switches up ahead automatically. And they can go up to 70 kph, though we’re limited to 50 kph on this line.”
After testing on the two Flexity cars was completed, it was time to start training the drivers. “I exposed the drivers to the main cab in the classroom first, then I brought them down to the train so they could see it, feel it, and work with it.” The cab layout was discussed first, followed by how the controls work, how to turn on the train, and the use of the throttle. Hoas always began with a classroom explanation in the morning, followed by a hands-on session in the afternoon. Doors were left for last, because they are surprisingly tricky to learn. One can not only choose which side the doors will open on, but also who opens the doors. The operator can decide whether to open the doors from the cab or let the passengers themselves open them by pushing the door button. “The doors are a whole other animal” grins Hoas. “They look simple until you find out they’re not so simple.”
After learning about the train, it was time to go over the operating rules, which are almost identical to those of most Class 1 railways. “Those are fairly standard rules, and we incorporated them into the Olympic Line” says Hoas. Finally, the drivers had the chance to get experience driving the cars. The important thing was “Training, training, training, then follow-up training. I rode with the drivers, always making sure that they knew that it was okay to ask questions.”
Hoas explains that even after operations began, safety is constantly a theme that is reinforced with drivers. “I want all drivers to be in that zone. That’s why we have drivers ride along with another driver for their first couple of runs of the day. You’re driving a train with 150 people on board, and they have absolute trust in the drivers to not make a mistake. And I want the drivers to trust themselves – to have all the tools to do their job.”
The Olympic Line has been a great success during its two-month run, with over 500,000 passengers riding the line so far. And for Russ Hoas, it’s even better having been a part of getting it running. “As a trainer, I’ve really enjoyed imparting my 35 years of railway knowledge to the drivers. And as a driver, I just like getting out there and getting my hand on the throttle. I was absolutely thrilled to be offered the opportunity to drive the train carrying the Olympic torch. That was a unique opportunity.”
As for the future, seeing the Flexity cars return to Vancouver at some point would be a win-win situation for Hoas. “It would be nice to see these cars in Vancouver. From Bombardier’s perspective, it’s always nice to sell cars. From the City’s point of view, it’s probably a good fit. People in Vancouver seem to love them. And from the driver’s point of view it’s a great piece of equipment to drive. It has a fun factor.”
The Olympic Line runs until this Sunday, March 21st. Vancouverites have just a few more days to experience the fun for themselves.
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John Calimente is the president of Rail Integrated Developments. He supports great public transit, cycling, walking, transit integrated developments, and non-automobile urban life. Click here to follow TheTransitFan on Twitter.
