We need more buses in the Lower Mainland

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I have used public transit for most of my life. From going to the mall with my friends to my first job interview, I have depended on public transit to get where I need to go. 

When I first moved to the Lower Mainland in 2019, I was genuinely surprised by how efficient public transit was compared to my experience in other cities like Toronto and St. Catharines. However, after a couple of years traveling throughout Metro Vancouver by transit, there are still areas that need improvement, like having reliable buses in cities like Surrey and Langley. 

Surrey is continuously growing, with roughly 1,000 people moving into the city each month and is home to post-secondary institutions Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Simon Fraser University. With the growing population and students commuting to campus across the Lower Mainland, people need reliable buses to get where they need to go. 

When traveling through Surrey and Langley, oftentimes the bus is delayed, is full and can’t take anymore passengers, or doesn’t arrive and I’m left to wait another 15-minutes or longer and hope to get on the next bus. The 319 to Scott Road Station/Newton Exchange, 323 to Surrey Central Station/Newton Exchange, or the 502 to Langley Centre/Surrey Central Station are examples of this issue. 

Using articulated buses for popular routes can help solve these problems. Also known as the accordion bus, it would offer extra room to fit more passengers, which reduces the chance that someone wouldn’t be able to get on the bus especially during peak hours. The R1 King George Rapidbus and the 99 B-Line to the University of British Columbia are two popular routes that have this type of bus and even with long lineups, almost always everyone can get on due to the extra room. 

The Effects of Articulated Buses on Dwell and Running Times study by McGill University found that articulated buses decrease the amount of time a passenger is on a bus. However, the study stated that these types of buses cause a delay in the trip due to “the loss in acceleration, declaration and time consumed to merge back in the regular traffic.” The pros outweigh the cons, as the delay they found was only an extra two minutes. 

Increasing bus service throughout the day and later at night can also help. On the 323 specifically, peak times scatter throughout the day from early morning to late evening. This bus route is one of the busiest at the Surrey Central Station bus loop with a long line up interfering with other bus lines. The evening is when it’s needed most, as people are coming home from work or students are leaving campus. After 10:00 pm, the 323 leaves every half an hour, which can be difficult for people trying to get on due to long lines that form quickly. An increase in bus service during peak hours, especially at night, would help reduce long line ups and would keep up with the amount of expected service from TransLink. 

In addition to increasing service at night, is to have service all night. Although TransLink does offer the Nightbus, it only follows a certain route, ending as far as the Surrey Central SkyTrain Station. This can create barriers for those trying to get home late at night in Surrey and Langley by calling a taxi, asking a friend to pick them up, or even walking home depending on the distance. 

In Toronto, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) offers the Blue Night Network, where many major bus and streetcar routes will continue service from 1:30 am to 5:30 am every 30-minutes or less when the subway is closed for the night. The map shows that a lot of area is covered in the city to get home at night. If TransLink added more routes to the Nightbus in Surrey and Langley, it would reduce barriers for people trying to get home from that side of the Lower Mainland. 

Although the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension will help make transit throughout the cities easier and save time, investment in more reliable and faster buses will make an overall effective transit system.