Bus Rapid Transit could reshape transit in Metro Vancouver — if politicians get behind it

The year was 2018. Local elections were taking place across Metro Vancouver. And over several months, three different TransLink plans were reversed due to political and public backlash.

In Surrey, a proposed light rail system across the city was cancelled after Doug McCallum won a mayoral election criticizing the plan and instead proposing a SkyTrain to Langley City. In West Vancouver, a B-Line passing through the centre of the municipality was stopped at Park Royal due to public protests over the loss of parking spaces.

And after months of studies and consultations, mayors across Metro Vancouver opted to not go forward with exploring mobility pricing to fund transit due to a perceived lack of political support.

This month, TransLink has begun a new round of consultations for its next big initiative: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), with open houses, surveys and concept boards being available for the proposed routes between Maple Ridge to Langley Centre, and Surrey Centre to White Rock.

"More dedicated lanes, it's a faster service, it’s a more reliable service. It's coming every five minutes. That's what we really want to put in place for this region," said CEO Kevin Quinn last week, at an event in Surrey where he lobbied business leaders on the need for the service.

LISTEN | Justin McElroy and Stephen Quinn talk about why it can be difficult to build new transit lines in Metro Vancouver:

This is Vancouver20:34How rapid bus routes could reshape transit in Metro Vancouver

TransLink is planning its next big transit project. It wants to create dedicated bus-only lanes for corridors around the region. But can this plan succeed where other transit ideas have failed? Stephen Quinn looks into that question and more with Justin McElroy. 

While the project still needs funding from higher levels of government, TransLink and Metro Vancouver mayors have endorsed BRT and have spent years getting to this point of consultation and designs.

But can the project weather the public and political feedback, the stage where other projects have stalled?

Mayors hope to add bus lanes without reducing car lanes

Mayors who are on the front line of the first group of proposed BRT routes are cautiously optimistic.

"We are going to have to work through some of the challenges," said District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little.

The third of the three initial routes being planned, from Park Royal to Metrotown, had consultations last year. And while the main public debate was over a potential loss of parking in the Burnaby Heights neighbourhood, Little says they will have to figure out how to add two lanes for buses along Marine Drive without reducing lanes for other vehicles.

"There is a regional prerogative that's been supported by the council that we're going to deliver it somewhere through that corridor. And so really the question we're looking for from the local community is very specific, block by block, how is this going to be delivered?"

In Langley Township, Mayor Eric Woodward says the BRT route along 200th Avenue is the best way his community can grow.

But the current proposal says that "in some areas, a reduction in lanes may be required," and Woodward said he wasn't sure how that conversation would go.

"I think it'd be a conversation you’d have to have with the public," he said, who pointed out it was also an important route for trucks.

"We’ve got to find a way for a lot of people to get around more affordably, not necessarily having to use their car, and that's going to require some trade-offs."

WATCH | The foundation of a future Skytrain:

TransLink unveils plans for 2 new express bus routes for Fraser Valley commuters

January 18|

Duration 2:06

TransLink is asking for public feedback on two new express bus routes in the Fraser Valley for hundreds of thousands of commuters. With the introduction of Rapid Bus Transit, the company is hoping to re-shape the transportation network in the region. As Sohrab Sandhu reports, some say the project can serve as the foundation for future Skytrain expansion.

But first, it needs money

The founder of Metro Vancouver's newest transit advocacy group thinks people are more open to those tradeoffs than they might have been a decade ago.

"I really do think the culture in this region has shifted," said Denis Agar, executive director of Movement.

"The trains are full. We have overcrowding … there's a lot less, kind of, mistrust of TransLink's motivations and a lot more 'Let's get on with it.'"

It will be some time until TransLink can "get on" with BRT, even if local politicians continue to support it. Even after consultations, TransLink says it needs capital funding from higher levels of government to move forward with the project, after which the three routes would take three years to be completed.

And if there's one thing all local politicians can agree on, it's asking higher levels of government to do more.

"If the province is going to continue with these housing mandates, the province has to be an equal partner in investing in their requirements: hospitals, schools, and transportation and transit," Woodward said.

"There's lots of return for senior levels of government to properly fund it, [and] just as they have SkyTrain, we also have to make sure that people have a way of getting to the SkyTrain to maximize that investment."