Pitt Meadows council members told TransLink they are disappointed that the B-Line bus from Maple Ridge to the SkyTrain station in Coquitlam will initially have just one stop in their city.
Geoff Cross, TransLink vice-president of transportation planning, offered “sneak peak” into a public consultation process that is taking place over the coming weeks.
It will deal with both the Lougheed B-Line that is scheduled to open in September 2019, and the overall Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows area transportation plan, which deals with all modes of transportation, including major roads, pedestrian and cycling routes.
The Lougheed B-Line will connect Haney Place with Coquitlam and its Millennium Line SkyTrain service.
Cross said TransLink staff have already been consulting with municipalities, and know transit connections with new development areas in Maple Ridge are critical, whether by community shuttles or on-demand transit.
Earlier in March, Pitt Meadows Mayor John Becker expressed surprise that the B-Line will not turn off the Lougheed Highway to collect passengers at the West Coast Express station and at other stops through Pitt Meadows.
Cross clarified for council that having an express service is the goal, with an estimated 40-minute trip time.
To accomplish that, the stops will be about a kilometre apart. The service will have high-capacity buses with all-door boarding, and streets may be re-designed to allow them to move faster.
They will also have increased frequency, running every 10 minutes at peak times and every 15 minutes during non-peak hours, and will run from 5 a.m. to midnight.
Proposed stops will be Haney Place, Laity Street, 203rd Street, and Harris Road on the east side of the Pitt River, with future stops at 222nd Street and Meadowtown mall proposed, but not available by opening Sept. 2019.
There will be four stops on the Tri-Cities side of the Pitt River, at Ottawa, Shaughnessy and Westwood streets before the final stop at Coquitlam Central.
“You can see, though, by streamlining the service and increasing the frequency, the trip time is dramatically reduced, by 35 per cent or better,” said Cross.
His presentation said taking the B-Line down Hammond and Harris roads would add 10 minutes to each trip, but sometimes more due to congestion at signal lights and railways crossings. These “create significant variation in travel time, and it is not consistent with the region-wide B-line concept.”
Having overpasses and underpasses at railway crossings could mitigate these issues in the future, said Cross.
He said a Meadowtown stop would require sidewalks and planning involving the municipality and Ministry of Transportation, and could be added after the service begins.
Coun. Bruce Bell said it is disappointing that there will be only one stop in Pitt Meadows and asked if there could be unscheduled bus stops along the Lougheed Highway, where the bus could pull over if a passenger was waiting there.
Cross said these unscheduled stops would not be safe because of the highway traffic speed.
“It’s not that easy, even if we wanted to do so, because of the safety considerations,” he said, and added that the goal is to bring the time down from 40 minutes if possible, so it’s an express route.
“It’s a real challenge for us to do a sort of flag stop.”
He noted the 701 bus will continue its route, and will do more stops.
His presentation showed that 27,000 residents live near the Lougheed B-Line stops, and this is predicted to double by 2045. In Surrey, the 96 B-Line has seen ridership growth of 85 per cent over five years, and will now be converted to light rail.
Public consultation about the B-Line and area transit plan is starting, and there will be public interaction at Earth Day events on April 21 and in the future at West Coast Express stations, as well as an online survey.
Cross said the transit agency will be consulting the public in April and May 2018. It wants to adopt the area transit plan in 2019, then implement changes over the longer term, looking out to 2030.
• See a web poll on the B-Line.