Burnaby wants TransLink's new BRT from North Shore to Metrotown prioritized

City of Burnaby wants TransLink's new Bus Rapid Transit route between North Shore and Metrotown prioritized

City of Burnaby's proposed route for Metrotown-Park Royal BRT. (City of Burnaby)

Out of the nine Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes proposed by TransLink, there are four routes that directly run through the City of Burnaby’s jurisdiction.

And it is the recommendation of City of Burnaby staff to Burnaby City Council that the municipal government should put all of its eggs into one basket — the proposed BRT route between the North Shore and Metrotown Station via the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

City staff are asking City Council to support the municipality’s formal request to TransLink to prioritize the North Shore-Metrotown BRT route for implementation as one of the initial BRT routes within the 10-year priorities for service expansion between 2025 and 2035.

You might also like:

TransLink has envisioned a BRT route that links Park Royal in West Vancouver, Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver City, Phibbs Exchange in North Vancouver District, Brentwood Town Centre, BC Institute of Technology (BCIT), and Metrotown.

Within Burnaby, the BRT would run on a short segment of Hastings Street, before travelling along Boundary Road, Halifax Street, and then Willingdon Avenue.

The new BRT typology as envisioned by TransLink will come with a high degree of bus priority measures, including fully physically traffic separated and dedicated bus-only lanes (not to be confused for HOV lanes) along the entire length of the BRT routes.

But according to a City staff report, achieving such bus-only lanes is particularly challenging for the Hastings Street segment between Boundary Road and Willingdon Street.

For this reason, City staff recommend the BRT should run along Boundary Road between Hastings Street and Halifax Street, and then Halifax Street between Boundary Road and Willingdon Avenue — instead of the previously assumed route segments of Hastings Street between Boundary Road and Willingdon Avenue, and Willingdon Avenue between Hastings Street and Halifax Street.

This alternative route would effectively skip the Hastings Street retail district within the Burnaby Heights and Capitol Hill neighbourhoods, but still preserve the SkyTrain Millennium Line connection at Brentwood Town Centre Station.

Previously assumed route:

Previously assumed route for Park Royal-Metrotown rapid transit within Burnaby via Hastings Street and Willingdon Avenue. (North Shore Connects)

City of Burnaby recommended alternative route:

City of Burnaby’s proposed Metrotown-Park Royal BRT route with an alternative path along Boundary Road and Halifax Street to reach SkyTrain Brentwood Town Centre Station, instead of Hastings Street and Willingdon Avenue. (City of Burnaby)

Moreover, according to City staff, TransLink’s “quick and easy implementation” assessment of BRT routes shows only 20% of the corridor between Park Royal and Metrotown can accommodate BRT without the loss of vehicle traffic lanes and curbside on-street parking.

“This constraint is particularly acute for the Hastings Street segment between Boundary Road and Willingdon Street,” state City staff.

Currently, TransLink envisions a BRT corridor on Hastings Street that is overlapped by two separate routes within Burnaby, effectively sharing the investments in street infrastructure. This includes the proposed upgrade of the existing R5 Hastings Street RapidBus between downtown Vancouver and Simon Fraser University (SFU) into a BRT service standard.

Early this month, Vancouver City Council indicated its formal support to TransLink for the “urgent implementation” of bus speed and reliability improvements along Hastings Street, but came short of directly referring to and supporting BRT. With that said, the City of Vancouver is still endorsing bus priority measures such as the reallocation of vehicle lanes and curbside parking spaces, changes to property access, bus stop balancing, turn restrictions, and traffic signal priority.

Other than the North Shore-Metrotown and downtown Vancouver-SFU Burnaby (R5) routes, Burnaby would also benefit from TransLink’s two other proposed BRT routes of Metrotown to Richmond-Brighouse Station via Knight Street Bridge, and 22nd Street Station in New Westminster to Marine Drive Station in South Vancouver via Marine Way/Marine Drive. According to City staff, based on TransLink’s preliminary analysis, the North Shore-Metrotown route has the strongest potential.

“Technical reviews conducted by TransLink of the BRT corridors indicated the Metrotown – Park Royal corridor will generate the best regional outcome in terms of daily boardings and second in the region for access to employment,” reads the City staff report.

“On the bases of the preliminary evaluation outcomes and on the strength of the ridership and economic benefits, the Metrotown-Park Royal is considered to be Burnaby’s leading BRT candidate with further design refinement to overcome road space constraints and to expedite implementation.”

According to City staff, TransLink estimates ridership on the Metrotown-Park Royal BRT route will reach 55,000 daily boardings by 2035. This would be equivalent to the 99 B-Line’s pre-pandemic 2019 ridership.

City staff is also asking City Council to specifically endorse Metrotown-Park Royal BRT with “dedicated bus lanes, prioritized transit signals, enhanced customer amenities at stations and customized vehicles to deliver fast, reliable, high quality rapid transit between Burnaby and the North Shore.”

As well, the City will urge TransLink to immediately proceed with the business case development of eventually upgrading the Metrotown-Park Royal BRT route into rail rapid transit.

SkyTrain Metrotown Station (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Both components of BRT and the detailed rail rapid transit study were also previously broadly endorsed by the city councils of Burnaby, North Vancouver District, North Vancouver City, and West Vancouver District as part of the Transport 2050 planning process and the North Shore Connects initiative.

As for the level of support expressed by other municipal governments for the proposed BRT routes that partially enter Burnaby’s jurisdiction, the City of Vancouver has endorsed RapidBus instead of BRT for the route running between Marine Drive Station and 22nd Street Station in New Westminster via Marine Drive/Marine Way. The City of New Westminster has indicated its support for BRT.

The City of Richmond has indicated its strong preference for RapidBus instead of BRT for the proposed route between Richmond-Brighouse Station and Metrotown Station via Knight Street Bridge, Marine Drive, Victoria Drive, 49th Avenue, Imperial Avenue, and Willingdon Avenue. Richmond is concerned with the traffic congestion impacts within its jurisdiction from designating bus-only lanes, and is instead recommending HOV lanes.

Next week, Burnaby City Council is expected to approve the recommendations outlined by City of Burnaby staff. Municipal governments across the region are being asked to formalize their support for the various projects ahead of the Mayors’ Council meeting in late October, when TransLink’s first batch of public transit expansion projects under the 10-year prioritizes starting in 2025 is finalized.

This is the full list of TransLink’s proposed 11 new RapidBus routes under the 10-year priorities:

New RapidBus routes in the first five years:
1. Langley to Haney Place via 200th Street
2. Downtown Vancouver to Lonsdale via Lions Gate Bridge
3. Marine Drive Station to 22nd Street Station via Marine Drive/Marine Way
4. R1 King George Boulevard route extension from Newton to White Rock
5. Richmond Centre to Metrotown via Knight Street Bridge, Victoria Drive, and 49th Avenue
New RapidBus routes for the second five years:
1. Downtown Vancouver to Ambleside via Lions Gate Bridge
2. Carvolth exchange to Scott Road Station via 96 Avenue
3. Commercial Drive/Victoria Drive
4. Langley to White Rock via 24th Avenue
5. New Westminster Station to Brentwood Town Centre Station via Canada Way
6. Newton to Guildford via 152nd Street

This is the full list of TransLink’s proposed nine BRT routes under the 10-year priorities:

RapidBus to BRT upgrade: R3 Lougheed Highway (Coquitlam Central Station to Haney Place in Maple Ridge)
RapidBus to BRT upgrade: R5 Hastings Street (Burrard Station to SFU Burnaby)
RapidBus to BRT upgrade: R6 Scott Road (Scott Road Station to Newton exchange). R6 will be launched in early 2024 before its potential eventual upgrade to BRT.
New BRT: Surrey to White Rock via King George Boulevard
New BRT: Langley to Haney Place in Maple Ridge via 200th Street, Golden Ears Bridge, and Lougheed Highway
New BRT: Marine Drive Station to 22nd Street Station via Marine Drive/Marine Way
New BRT: Richmond Centre to Metrotown via Knight Street Bridge, Victoria Drive, and 49th Avenue
New BRT: Downtown Vancouver to Lonsdale via Lions Gate Bridge
New BRT: Metrotown to Park Royal via Ironworkers Memorial Bridge

You might also like: