Dear Editor Re: Bus cutbacks hurt seniors in the Heights, Letters to the editor, Burnaby NOW, Dec. 16.
I want to assure Karen Dean and others in her neighbourhood that there will continue to be good bus service on the local stops for people who live and shop in the Heights along Hastings Street.
What we’ve done this week is launch the new 95 B-Line – a service that will provide more reliable trips along Hastings Street between Burrard station and Burnaby Mountain. Creating this new service involved discontinuing the 135 and reducing the number of stops to improve the reliability of that connection.
That said, we know it’s important that we keep strong local service on Hastings with bus stops close together for those who either can’t or don’t want to walk too far. For local stops, we’re providing good options. Notably, as of this week the 160 Kootenay Loop/Port Coquitlam station serves all local stops on Hastings Street between Cliff Avenue and Kootenay Loop with 15-minute frequency at peak periods. It will operate between 5:30 a.m. and 1 a.m.
For travel between Willingdon Avenue and Kootenay Loop, the 130 bus provides 15-minute frequency all day. It operates between 6:15 a.m. and 2 a.m. And for travel between Holdom and Gilmore avenues, the 129 also offers 15-minute frequency at peak periods and will operate between 6:15 a.m. and 1 a.m.
The discontinuation of the 135 and the creation of the 95 B-Line was an important change to a high-demand service. The 135 had among the worst on-time performance in our system due to high congestion on Hastings. It was also the sixth most-crowded bus route in the system in 2015, and was subject to some of the worst bus bunching in the system, also due to congestion. It meant that you couldn’t rely on the bus to come on time, and when it did it was often either already full or there’d be two or three of them in a row.
Creating a limited-stop B-Line will make that downtown-SFU service more reliable. We think it is a great addition to the corridor providing more choice – the 95 B-Line for longer trips and good local services to ensure convenient access to the neighbourhoods and businesses.
We are always monitoring our service and making adjustments where we can. The good news is, with the approval of Phase 1 of the mayors’ plan last month, we will begin delivering a boost to bus service on some of our most crowded routes beginning in April 2017.
Geoff Cross, vice-president, planning and policy, TransLink
