TransLink Board of Directors, Metro Vancouver’s Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation approves 2025 Investment Plan
The TransLink Board of Directors and Metro Vancouver’s Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation has approved a short-term plan to address overcrowding. Work is now underway on a 2025 Investment Plan that seeks a long-term solution to help TransLink keep up with unprecedented population growth.
“This Investment Plan is a solid and necessary first step in improving how people get around this region, but we also need to be thinking long-term,” says Mayors’ Council Chair Brad West. “Work is underway on a 2025 Investment Plan and I look forward to working with both the federal and provincial governments on a new transit funding model that supports long-term growth as Metro Vancouver’s population rapidly expands.”
The following improvements will begin rolling out later this year:
- Increasing service on 60 bus routes to address overcrowding
- Extending evening hours on 11 bus routes
- Expanding the bus fleet to prepare for Bus Rapid Transit
- Increasing Canada Line frequencies
- Earlier SeaBus sailings by 15 minutes on weekdays
- Enhancing late-evening HandyDART service
- Investing in road safety and new cycling and walking infrastructure
- Adding new bus priority infrastructure
“The 2024 Investment Plan provides critical transit expansion on our most overcrowded routes for the first time since 2019,” says TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn. “As we implement this short-term solution, it is critical that we simultaneously look to the future and work with all levels of government to develop a funding model that is capable of supporting transit investments that keep up with our rapid population growth.”
The plan includes up to C$300 million (US$219.27 million) in capital funding from the government of British Columbia to support the purchase of new buses for future service increases. TransLink will work with senior government partners on a 2025 Investment Plan to help identify a new long-term funding model for transit.
“The province is proud of our historic investments in TransLink to keep buses moving during the pandemic and to support the strongest transit recovery in all of North America,” says Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming. “This funding builds on our 2023 Investment Plan of C$479 million (US$350.1 million) and ensures that transit service can expand for people who count on it.”
