Update: As of March 30, TransLink has confirmed the new route will go ahead in September, although a formal announcement won’t come until all of the logistical plans have been finalized.
Original story published March 27.
West Vancouver’s UBC students and staff may be headed back to the bus.
At the outset of Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Mark Sager announced “successful” discussions with TransLink to reintroduce a West Van-UBC express bus service with three runs per rush hour on weekdays.
“It’s very good news for people commuting to UBC this fall,” Sager said.
TransLink cancelled the 258 route in 2020 when the pandemic forced university classes to go online only. When classes resumed in 2021, an online petition to bring the bus back racked up almost 1,000 signatures but the transit authority opted against it, citing lower ridership. With only about 100 riders per day, it was one of the least-used bus routes in the region and the resources were needed elsewhere in the system, TransLink stated at the time.
According to TransLink, the reintroduced UBC express bus route and schedule for 2023 are still only a proposal being studied.
If approved, it would see the existing 44 UBC/Downtown bus route extended to West Vancouver with stops along Marine Drive before turning into a (mostly) express bus from downtown.
“We are proposing to implement this extension in September and will be communicating with stakeholders and customers in advance of the regular service change in September,” a statement from the transit authority read on Tuesday.
Although Sager was optimistic about the return of a UBC express bus, he did have one public lamentation.
“The only thing, I’ll be dead honest, I’m not thrilled about is it will be run by Coast Mountain Buses, not our Blue Buses and unfortunately, that is due to the capacity problem we have with our own buses, at this time. We need a bigger bus shelter. Our current bus shelter doesn’t even allow us to service our shuttle buses. They have to go off the North Shore to be managed,” he said.
