New 24/7 bus lanes planned for East Hastings Street segment in Vancouver | Daily Hive

East Hastings Street looking west into Vancouver from the intersection with Boundary Road. (Google Maps)

There are plans to implement around-the-clock bus lanes for the easternmost segment of East Hastings Street within Vancouver.

The City of Vancouver has initiated public consultation to extend the hours of the current TransLink bus lanes near Hastings Park and the PNE.

Starting in Spring 2026, bus lanes on East Hastings Street will be extended 24 hours per day, seven days per week for the eastbound direction from Kaslo Street to Boundary Road (a distance of 1.7 km) and westbound from Boundary Road to Renfrew Street (a distance of 1.5 km). There will be zero curbside vehicle parking on this major arterial route.

You might also like:

This will be a major upgrade from the existing bus lanes hours for these particular segments, which are currently limited to peak hours in the peak traffic direction during weekdays only — 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. for the eastbound direction from Kaslo Street to Boundary, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. for the westbound direction from Boundary Road to the Cassiar Connector/Highway 1, and 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. for the westbound direction from the Cassiar Connector/Highway 1 to Renfrew Street.

Moreover, under the new regulations, high-occupancy vehicles will not be permitted to use the bus lanes on these curbside lanes.

east hastings street kaslo boundary vancouver bus lanes map

24/7 bus lane segments on East Hastings Street, starting Spring 2026. (City of Vancouver)

According to the City, the segment of East Hastings Street between the Cassiar Connector/Highway 1 and Boundary Road sees over 1,000 buses per day, including many buses reaching Kootenay Bus Loop and the nearby Burnaby Transit Centre bus depot. These support over 68,000 trips per day, including routes that reach the North Shore.

The changes will improve speed, travel times, and reliability for this busy segment of East Hastings Street — benefiting bus routes such as the R5 Hastings Street RapidBus between Burrard Station and Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby Mountain campus, No. 14 Hastings/UBC, No. 16 29th Avenue Station/Arbutus, No. 27 Joyce Station/Kingsway, No. 28 Joyce Station/Kootenay Loop, No. 130 Kootenay Loop/Phibbs Exchange, No. 131 Hastings at Gilmore/Kootenay Loop, No. 160 Port Coquitlam Station/Kootenay Loop, No. 222 Metrotown Station/Phibbs Exchange, and the N35 NightBus.

The new full-time bus lanes for both directions will also serve a short segment of TransLink’s upcoming route extension of the North Shore’s R2 Marine Drive RapidBus, which currently has its eastern terminus situated at Phibbs Exchange near the north end of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

Starting in 2027, the R2 RapidBus will see its route significantly extended southward to reach SkyTrain’s Metrotown Station — via the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and Willingdon Avenue, and providing a transfer opportunity at SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre Station. TransLink and the City of Burnaby have yet to decide how exactly the R2 RapidBus will reach Willingdon Avenue; last year, the public transit authority’s public consultation presented two separate route options that took the R2 RapidBus route further east past Boundary Road along East Hastings Street through the Burnaby Heights area to reach Willingdon Avenue or south along Boundary Road and then Gilmore Avenue before reaching Willingdon Avenue in the Brentwood area.

Generally, there is a greater preference for the East Hastings Street/Burnaby Heights route option for the greater ridership and connectivity potential it holds, but there is some opposition from local businesses due to the impacts it would have on curbside street parking in the retail district. The alternative of Boundary Road and Gilmore Avenue would run through low-density residential and industrial areas. At some point in the future, the R2 RapidBus between Park Royal and Metrotown could be further upgraded into TransLink’s new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) standard, with the possibility of a future long-term upgrade to street-level Light Rail Transit (LRT) or SkyTrain.

Option 1 and Option 2; proposed routes for Metrotown-North Shore BRT, August 2025. (TransLink)

An online survey for the City of Vancouver’s public consultation for East Hastings Street’s extended bus lanes between Kaslo Street and Boundary Road is open now until Feb. 9, 2026.

In Spring 2026, TransLink will conduct its own separate public consultation on performing “bus stop balancing” along the entire Hastings Street corridor within Vancouver between downtown Vancouver and Boundary Road. This will improve the speed and reliability of buses.

Similar to previous balancing efforts elsewhere, the effort will remove select bus stops that are spaced too close together, with the possibility that some stops could also be relocated. The bus stop changes will be implemented in late 2026.

The City of Vancouver deems the 2026-implemented bus lane extensions and bus stop balancing effort to be the first phase of improving bus transit services along the Hastings Street corridor. This suggests future phases at a later date could consider improved bus lanes for other segments of the corridor between Renfrew Street and downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver’s municipal government is also currently working with TransLink on planning bus stop balancing for the No. 19 Stanley Park/Metrotown trolley bus route, along with bus lane hour extensions and intersection changes at select areas along the Main Street and Kingsway corridor.

You might also like: