TransLink to build new Vancouver bus depot for 300 electric-battery buses

Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

With an ambitious plan to grow to a fleet of over 400 electric-battery buses by the end of this decade, TransLink needs to create massive spaces and dedicated facilities to accommodate the unique charging, servicing, and parking needs of such vehicles.

After years of planning and delays, TransLink has signalled it is moving ahead with its plans to build the new Marpole Transit Centre (MTC) — an operations, maintenance, and parking hub for the future electric-battery bus fleet.

It will be located on a 20-acre vacant industrial site on Vancouver’s Fraser River waterfront at the southernmost foot of Cambie Street — immediately west of SkyTrain Canada Line’s North Arm Bridge.

This new facility is not to be confused for TransLink’s nearby 2006-built Vancouver Transit Centre, primarily dedicated to the trolley bus fleet, located at the north end of the Arthur Laing Bridge, which replaced Oakridge Transit Centre.

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According to a newly submitted development application to the City of Vancouver, there will be two main buildings on the site — the operations building on the eastern half of the site, and the maintenance building on the western half of the site. The property carries the addresses of 8902-9001 Heather Street and 502 West Kent Avenue.

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Site of the Marpole Transit Centre. (Google Maps)

Site of the Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

The operations building will have a total floor area of 638,000 sq ft over three levels, including bus staging and storage at ground level, bus charging and a substation on the second level, and administrative/dispatch facilities and employee/visitor parking on the third level. The combined parking capacity is 300 buses, plus 25 support/maintenance vehicles.

While this facility is intended to be dedicated to the electric-battery bus fleet, it will also have the necessary facilities to handle conventional fossil fuel-powered buses.

As the operations building faces the Canada Line bridge, special attention will be given to its architectural design as it “may very well be the first architectural built form that people notice” when travelling from the airport into Vancouver by SkyTrain. This building will “become the focal public face of the project that acknowledges its Musqueam First Nations heritage, while providing first impressions to visitors to Vancouver.” The design calls for the use of mass timber, pitched roofs, and landscaping, including tree plantings on the rooftop, which is used for parking.

Site plan of the Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre’s operations building. (TransLink)

Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre’s maintenance building. (TransLink)

As for the maintenance building, it will have two levels and a total floor area of 125,000 sq ft, containing bus maintenance and repair bays, tire shops, body shops, parts storage, and support areas for mechanics and maintenance staff.

An enclosed pedestrian bridge will provide a direct link between the operations and maintenance buildings.

Buses leaving MTC will exit the facility from a dedicated ramp on the north side of the site, which leads out onto Heather Street. During the morning peak period, about 90 northbound buses are expected to travel through the intersection of West Kent Avenue and Heather Street intersection per hour.

After completing their runs, buses returning to MTC will enter from the Laurel Street extension on the west side of the site, with the entrance into the complex located on the southwest corner of MTC.

MTC’s north perimeter is fronted by a freight railway operated by Canadian Pacific, but this segment of the railway is not expected to see more than two passing trains per day.

Site of the Marpole Transit Centre. (Google Maps)

Site and traffic movement plan for Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

As the site is on the bank of the river, the entire complex will be built on a platform — what has been termed as a “superdyke” — as the key measure to prevent any potential flood waters from entering the facility and damaging hundreds of millions of dollars worth of maintenance infrastructure and bus vehicles.

The 20-acre complex will be elevated to about 4.6 metres above sea level — higher than the existing ground elevation of between 2.5 metres and 3.3 metres. There will also be a flood protection wall along MTC’s south perimeter facing the river, and the complex will be elevated about two metres higher than Kent Avenue along the north perimeter.

TransLink is aiming to complete MTC by 2027 at a cost of about $300 million. The complex is jointly designed by WSP Global, Architecture 49, and TWD Technologies.

MTC is the single largest project to date for growing TransLink’s capacity to handle electric-battery buses. Over the coming years, the public transit authority is expected to spend a total of $560 million on installing on-route charging stations for electric-battery buses, upgrading existing bus depots elsewhere in Metro Vancouver to handle electric-battery buses, and the construction of MTC.

Existing condition of the site:

marpole transit centre translink electric battery bus vancouver

Site of the Marpole Transit Centre. (Google Maps)

Future condition of the site:

Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

TransLink currently has five electric-battery buses, including one recently arrived vehicle as part of an order of 15 vehicles. By late 2024, when all 15 buses are in use, Route 100 along Marine Drive/Marine Way between Marpole loop and SkyTrain 22nd Street Station — between Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster — will become TransLink’s first 100% electric-battery bus route.

The public transit authority is aiming to grow its electric-battery bus fleet to 155 vehicles by late 2025.

The future electric-battery buses are a combination of timely replacements of aging vehicles and service expansion. TransLink has already ended the practice of acquiring new conventional diesel buses, but it will continue to order some compressed renewable natural gas powered buses as a transition to electrification.

The acquisition cost of a standard 40-ft electric-battery bus is about $1 million per vehicle — significantly higher than conventional buses using fossil fuels. But the fuel cost savings of electric-battery buses are about $40,000 per year, and they are of course clean zero-emission and quiet.

TransLink is aiming to transition to a zero-emission bus fleet by 2030, and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all of its operations by 2050.

Currently, TransLink has a fleet size of nearly 1,500 conventional buses.

Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre. (TransLink)

TransLink’s first new Nova LFSEe+ electric-battery bus being charged at the bus loop at SkyTrain 22nd Street Station. (TransLink)

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