King to step down at TransLink as SkyTrain's leader

TransLink has announced British Columbia Rapid Transit Co. (BCRTC) President and General Manager Vivienne King will step down May 16 to return to her native Australia.

BCRTC operates and maintains two of the three SkyTrain lines in Vancouver: the Expo Line and the Millennium Line. The company also operates the West Coast Express commuter-rail system.

As leader of SkyTrain, King helped shift BCRTC to a customer-oriented organization and improve SkyTrain's performance through better business planning, benchmarking and a commitment to "doing the job right," said TransLink Chief Executive Officer Kevin Desmond in a prepared statement.

"In the two years that Vivienne has been here with TransLink, we have seen record ridership on SkyTrain as well as significant progress in advancing its reliability and customer service, and BCRTC has embarked on a program of improving its safety record," he said. "Under her leadership, the team at SkyTrain began operation of the Evergreen extension and integrated new Mark III cars into the fleet."

Prior to joining TransLink, King was the executive bid director for Keolis North America and worked on major project bids in Canada and the United States. She previously held senior leadership roles with Australian transportation agencies, including KDR Gold Coast and RailCorp.

Following King's departure, Coast Mountain Bus Co. President Haydn Acheson will serve as interim SkyTrain president while the agency searches for a permanent successor.