Mayors and councillors from Metro Vancouver’s fringes pushed for more night time bus service after an all-night SkyTrain proposal was shot down.
At the Thursday, June 27 meeting of the TransLink Mayors’ Council, the collected mayors were told that a request for 24-hour SkyTrain service in the evenings wasn’t feasible. SkyTrain requires frequent track maintenance and can’t be run 24 hours for long, staff said.
A proposal for alternatives then led to calls for Langley, Maple Ridge, and other outlying communities to get better evening transit.
“The outlying areas certainly made their case that it’s important,” said Langley Township Councillor Blair Whitmarsh, who was filling in for Mayor Jack Froese while the mayor is at a conference.
After hearing that overnight SkyTrain service wasn’t a solution, Whitmarsh said a plan was floated for a night bus service that would “shadow” SkyTrain routes, serving the same areas or using SkyTrain stations as stops.
Once the mayors and representatives of areas not served by SkyTrain heard that, they began asking what sort of night service their communities could expect.
“What about the outlying communities like Langley, Maple Ridge, parts of Surrey?” Whitmarsh related.
This led to the mayors asking TransLink staff to look into two ideas.
First, staff will report back on the “shadow bus” idea to mimic SkyTrain, which is estimated to cost about $4 million.
Second, they will address how to enhance night service to outlying areas.
“I absolutely think we need to add more bus service, especially during night hours, into Langley,” said Whitmarsh.
It would benefit people including shift workers and others who need to get around later into the night and early morning hours.
Cost may be an issue, Whitmarsh said.
While TransLink could likely afford the $4 million estimated for the “shadow bus” idea, expanding night service to more regions might prove much more expensive.
No funding for either the shadow bus plan or the wider plan has been approved, Whitmarsh noted, and it would have to be part of next year’s Phase 3 investment plan. The mayors may decide to start with the “shadow bus” service and expand outward from there, Whitmarsh said.
TransLink expanded late night service in 2017. There are now 10 routes that run all night on major corridors.
The routes start in Vancouver and connect to Coquitlam, Surrey, to UBC and to other areas around Metro Vancouver.
In 2018, the 10 routes saw a total ridership of 820,000, people, an increase from 693,000 in 2017.
Marketing campaigns were cited for the increase in ridership.
READ MORE: Late night transit pitched for Metro Vancouver but SkyTrain not recommended