With the hiring of Kevin Desmond as the new CEO of TransLink, the question was whether he could provide an identifiable – and hence more accountable – face to TransLink, with the ability to respond and, ideally, set the debate for the future of the organization.
This is a good sign: recognition of the issues while defending the organization.
.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The CEO of TransLink is hoping the federal government keeps its promise to contribute some of the money needed to fix transit issues.
Kevin Desmond says customer experience will only improve if we invest in the system, otherwise, there just isn’t any way to address issues like under serviced routes and overcrowding.
“That is going to require as well some new funding going forward, so I am focused on how to improve the customer experience both within the resources that TransLink has and hopefully if we can obtain new funding to grow the system; that is where the real customer relief is going to be.”
“That would include a 50 per cent contribution to the TransLink regional transit needs and that is a big boost from the prior 33 per cent assumption of federal revenue,” he explains.
Desmond believes people will always be critical of a company that serves so many but is quick to point out TransLink runs a system that is envied by many cities in the world.
It’s a good message. Hopefully it will be just as critical as promoting the benefits of Translink to everyone; including those who don’t regularly – or ever – use transit. This is where the much of the intentional and incidental misinformation derives from.