A direct bus from Bridgeport to UBC that was cancelled during the pandemic doesn’t look like it’s ever coming back.
The resources used to run the 480 bus have been reallocated to areas in the region that need it more, a TransLink representative told Richmond city council on Monday.
Besides, explained TransLink vice-president for planning Sarah Ross, there is a “most excellent alternative in place” that offers the “highest level of bus service,” that is, the Canada Line and rapid buses in Vancouver to UBC.
Ross explained there is “significant pressure across the region” for transit services with 50,000 coming to the Lower Mainland every year.
Because TransLink doesn’t have money to expand its services, they are instead reallocating services where they are most needed.
“Due to on-going financial challenges, while we’re funded to deliver our current service, we’re not in a position to expand service at all, so we really have to work with what we’ve got,” Ross said.
Some of the resources used for the 480 were reallocated to south of the Fraser, whose ridership is 15 per cent higher than it was before the pandemic, she added.
After hearing this spring about a petition with almost 800 signatures asking for the reinstatement of the bus, city council asked TransLink to attend a meeting to explain why the route hasn’t come back.
Ross explained new trains on the Canada Line that arrived during COVID-19 and the introduction of the R4 rapid bus on 4st Avenue in Vancouver to UBC added “enough capacity” to make up for the cancelled route.
“We can now accommodate the former 480 customers on those routes with comparable travel times,” she said.
Ross compared travel times from Richmond to UBC on the 480 to travel times without the 480 in place and claimed they were about the same.
She said the 480 took 37 to 47 minutes to travel from Bridgeport to UBC, while taking the Canada Line and then transferring to the R4 rapid bus along 41st Avenue to UBC takes 33 to 47 minutes. Furthermore, she added, taking the Canada Line and transferring to the 49 bus to UBC takes 24 to 46 minutes.
She did, however, say travel times were estimates, and acknowledged riders usually do prefer a “one-seat ride,” that is, not having to transfer during a trip.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 4,000 daily boardings on the 480 with 70 per cent going to UBC. There were 12 buses on the route with 25 drivers.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie asked Ross, given TransLink’s extensive services across the region, whether it wouldn’t just be a “stroke of a pen” or “rounding error” to restore the 480 bus, at least during peak times.
“Those hours would have to come from somewhere – we’d have to cut something else,” Ross replied.
In the end, city council voted unanimously to write to TransLink’s CEO and the board chair, asking for the reinstatement of the 480 bus.
