SkyTrain lines up and running Wednesday morning

Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain system is back up and running this morning after an electrical failure shut down the Expo and Millennium lines during yesterday afternoon's rush hour.

But it will be a slow start with fewer trains due to yesterday's issue, according to TransLink.

Trains will be added throughout the morning as they become available to bring the system up to full service.

Yesterday's problems started around 3 p.m. when service was shut down between Broadway and Waterfront stations. Passengers reported seeing a thick plume of smoke along the tracks.

TransLink spokesperson AnneDrennan said the shutdown was caused by some sort of problem with the power collector equipment that allows the trains to get power from the electrical lines along the track.

At the height of the outage TransLink put69 buses and shuttles in placeto move passengers along.

Drennan said that was the largest number of buses ever added during a shutdown, and drivers were called in and kepton overtime to meet the demand.

Frustrated by breakdowns

Nevertheless, the SkyTrain shutdown had a ripple effect on other transit services, and many riders were frustrated by long delays getting home.

While the exact cause of yesterday's shutdown remains unclear, it was just the latest in a series of breakdowns on the 30-year-old Expo Line.

After service was finally restored on Wednesday night around 11 p.m. PT, TransLink's acting CEO Cathy McLay offered an apology to riders.

TransLink's acting CEO Cathy McLay on the shutdown

9 years ago

Duration 1:30

Acting CEO Cathy McLay says TransLink is learning from it's past mistakes

"I appreciate how disruptive it is, trying to get home to family and loved ones. Unfortunately it is a very complicated system. Things are going to happen. We strive to get better each and every day."

McLay said TransLink has learned from previous shutdowns, and acted to get people moving again as quickly as possible.

"Every time we have an outage like this we do a complete debrief and we look at how we can get better, mostly around the protocols."

"I can tell you that it was within a couple minutes we had SkyTrain attendants on our system moving people off as quickly as possible."