TransLink to add back West Coast Express train servicing Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows

TransLink is adding additional service on West Coast Express starting September this year.

Starting Sept. 6, TransLink is adding back Train 4 to the West Coast Express. The first route would be Mission to Waterfront Station at 6:55 a.m. and the second from Waterfront Station to Mission at 5:30 p.m.

The commuter train that stops twice in Maple Ridge and in Pitt Meadows to Vancouver’s Waterfront station, had reduced service cutting down five daily trains to just three due to the pandemic. With the restrictions being slowly lifted and workers resuming work from their officers, TransLink has now decided to add back the train in the mornings and afternoons.

RELATED: West Coast Express ridership mostly lost to pandemic

TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn felt that it’s important that customers feel comfortable on the transit at this stage of the pandemic.

“We are listening to our customers,” he said.

TransLink will be adding more service to other routes and public transits such as buses and SeaBus.

Among the other changes, they will be bringing back 10-minute SeaBus service during rush hours, and 15-minute service in the early morning hours, they will be adding service on routes serving post-secondary instituitions. Route 143 SFU/Burquitlam Station serving SFU and route 44 UBC/Downtown serving UBC will be reinstated.

Service will also be increased on routes 9 Boundary/Commercial–Broadway/Granville/Alma/UBC, 116 Edmonds Station/Metrotown, 130 Metrotown/Pender/Kootenay, 145SFU/Production Way, 222 Metrotown/Phibbs Exchange, 245 Phibbs/Capilano, and 255 Dundarave/Capilano University.

In addition to more service hours, TransLink is adding another 25 double decker buses to the fleet. These buses will be introduced on route 340 between Scottsdale and 22 St. SkyTrain Station later in the fall.

”TransLink has been monitoring how travel patterns have changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We are using these findings to reallocate service to our busiest bus routes to reduce crowding and provide more frequent service,” said the media representative for TransLink.

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