Construction starts next month along the Lougheed Highway to make room for the new B-Line rapid transit buses.
But the new commuter service — from the Coquitlam Central station to Haney Place mall in Maple Ridge — won’t be rolling out this year.
Daniel Freeman, senior manager of bus priority programs at TransLink, told Port Coquitlam’s committee of council Tuesday the project will not be ready this fall as planned.
Rather, the transportation agency will launch the Lougheed B-Line — as well as the 41st Avenue (Vancouver to UBC) and Marine-Main (West and North Vancouver) B-lines — sometime in early 2020.
Once up, the Lougheed B-Line, which is seen as a precursor for a future rapid-transit rail line to Maple Ridge, will have seven stops between Coquitlam Central and Haney Place mall:
• Westwood Street
• Shaughnessy Street
• Ottawa Street
• Harris Road
• 203 Street
• Laity Street
• and 222 Street
image courtesy of translink
Freeman said TransLink awarded the construction contract this month to better traffic flow around Coquitlam Central; Port Coquitlam will also get a new welcome sign at its border and “improvements will be made at major stops” including new bus shelters with real-time information and audio features.
The three-door B-Line buses will have a distinct branding (with a green and blue wrap), be air conditioned, accessible and have the same fare as a regular bus, he said. They will run seven days a week until midnight — every 15 minutes, and 10 minutes during rush hour.
Freeman said three-quarters of public transit users in PoCo are already using the Lougheed Highway and he expects many will move over to the faster B-Line service, which he said “will be the same as if riding in a car” in terms of travel time.
“Transit demand is very strong in the region,” Freeman told the committee. “We are struggling to keep up.”
The biggest pinch point along the entire corridor is between Ottawa Street in PoCo and Coquitlam Central, Freeman said, and often it can take up to an hour to drive from Haney Place mall to the Coquitlam hub during peak hours.
But while TransLink is bearing all the start-up construction costs for the route, municipalities like Coquitlam and PoCo wanting to do extra work to make the highway more efficient will have to shell out.
TransLink has set aside $6 million a year to share infrastructure costs with cities with B-Line buses. And that funding will be allocated on a priority basis, Freeman said while noting PoCo’s upcoming widening of the Coquitlam River Bridge and Lougheed lanes to and from Westwood Street.
“Six million dollars doesn’t sound like a lot of money to me,” said Coun. Dean Washington, acting committee chairperson.
Coun. Nancy McCurrach also pressed Freeman to extend the late-night service, saying PoCo residents often can’t get taxis to take them home from Vancouver past midnight.
She and Coun. Laura Dupont also urged TransLink to adopt #AllOnBoard — a campaign sanctioned by PoCo and Port Moody city councils — to allow free transit for kids and youth up to 18, and for a sliding scale monthly pass system based on income.
