How do you like the sound of an express bus plugging Phibbs Exchange into the SkyTrain system at Brentwood and Metrotown? TransLink would like to know.
The transit authority has begun consultations on the new 222 bus route, which it hopes to have running some time in 2020.
The 222 bus would have stops at Metrotown, BCIT, Brentwood, Hastings Street at Willingdon Avenue, the Kootenay Loop and Phibbs. A bus making that trip today would have 29 stops and take 35 to 45 minutes, according to TransLink. The new 222 would shave at least five to six minutes off of that time.
When the service does begin, TransLink will no longer run the 130 bus all the way to CapU during peak hours. Instead, those passengers will have to hop off at Phibbs and transfer to the 222.
A new RapidBus (formerly B-Line) connecting Capilano University to Metrotown was part of the Mayors Council 10-year vision, although not until the final phase of the project. Expediting that service was one of the recommendations of the Integrated North Shore Transportation Planning Project in 2018. In June, the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation gave support to a plan that would reallocate funding from the 231 Harbouside route to the 222. When the final phase of the 10-year vision gets funding, the 222 will become a RapidBus route.
TransLink is seeking public feedback on the plan via its website at translink.ca/networkreview. Sometime after the Nov. 11 deadline, the responses will be compiled into one report.
In a release, TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond said: “We are always looking at our system and finding ways to improve. In a region experiencing unprecedented ridership growth and expecting to grow by more than a million people in the next 30 years, the needs of our customers are changing rapidly.”
