More buses will be hitting the road on Burke Mountain later this year and the service will be even better than initially anticipated.
With the opening of the Evergreen Extension expected in the next two months, a new standalone bus route — the 191 — will begin operating from Coquitlam Station to Coast Meridian Road and Princeton Avenue every 30 minutes on weekdays. The route will follow Johnson Street to Glen Drive before turning on to Pinetree Way and connecting with David Avenue up to Coast Meridian Road.
TransLink also announced that in addition to the new 191 route, the 188, which already goes to David Avenue and Coast Meridian Road, would begin 15-minute service during peak hours.
“We are getting very close to the [Evergreen] Extension opening,” said Geoff Cross, TransLink’s acting vice-president of transportation planning and policy, during a meeting with Coquitlam councillors on Monday. “We are just making sure the bus integration — and it is an extensive change — that it comes off smoothly… and everyone benefits from that.”
According to Cross, the increase in service hours comes from bus routes made obsolete by the Evergreen Extension.
For example, the 97 B-Line, which currently travels from Coquitlam Station to Lougheed Town Centre, will be discontinued, freeing up buses for expanded service to some of the Tri-Cities’ outer neighbourhoods. Cross assured councillors that all of the service hours would be re-allocated in the northeast sector.
The route changes announced Monday are a departure from a draft plan put forward by TransLink over the summer. That document proposed increasing buses on Burke Mountain by extending the C30 up Pipeline Road and onto David Avenue before heading east to Burke Mountain. It was expected to run every 30 minutes only during peak-traffic periods.
But the route was not sufficiently direct and a number of residents complained that the turnaround point at Gabriola Drive was not large enough to handle the increased number of coaches.
Other changes to service expected after Evergreen opens include a truncated 143 route, which currently connects Coquitlam Station with Simon Fraser University via Como Lake Avenue. And while the West Coast Express train will continue to run with stops in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, West Coast Express bus service will be discontinued in the area.
Beyond 2018, TransLink said it is looking at improving bus connections east of the Tri-Cities, with a new B-Line service from Coquitlam Station to Maple Ridge with stops in Port Coquitlam. It is also considering extending the 701 route, which currently runs from Coquitlam Station to Maple Ridge, all the way to Mission.
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