TransLink gives downtown Vancouver bus route a 50% capacity upgrade | Daily Hive

The use of a regular 40-ft bus on the No. 23 Main Street Station/English Bay bus route, as of April 21, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

As of today, in an effort to meet growing passenger demand and improve service reliability, TransLink has increased the size of the vehicles used on a bus route that traverses east-west across the downtown Vancouver peninsula.

The No. 23 bus route — running between SkyTrain’s Main Street-Science World Station and the intersection of Denman Street and Davie Street in the West End — has now permanently abandoned its use of small community shuttle buses and switched to the use of conventional 40-foot, two-door buses for a far higher capacity.

According to the public transit authority, previous efforts to improve reliability by increasing the frequency of community shuttles fell short, leading to persistent issues with bus bunching and continued pass-ups.

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The No. 23 had the highest number of pass-ups of any bus route in Metro Vancouver in 2024, with nearly 20 per cent of its trips bypassing passengers at stops due to the community shuttle buses quickly reaching capacity.

It also saw the highest ridership for any bus route that regularly uses the community shuttle buses, and it is the highest frequency for a bus route that uses such smaller vehicles. Each community shuttle bus has a capacity for between 20 and 24 seated passengers, with zero standing capacity.

In contrast, the conventional 40-ft, two-door buses offer more than double the capacity — up to over 50 passengers, including roughly 35 seated passengers, plus standing room.

Previous long lineups and pass-ups for the No. 23 Main Street Station/English Bay community shuttle bus route at Stadium-Chinatown Station. (Kenneth Chan)

translink 23 main street english bay bus route upgrade

The use of a regular 40-ft bus on the No. 23 Main Street Station/English Bay bus route, as of April 21, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

The route of the No. 23 generally follows downtown Vancouver’s southern waterfront, running through the North False Creek areas and the beachside areas of the West End.

According to the latest publicly available statistics, the No. 23 had 1.384 million boardings in 2023, making it the 55th busiest bus route out of 191 bus routes across the TransLink network. It averaged 4,060 boardings per weekday, 3,600 per Saturday, and 2,850 per Sunday/holiday.

With the use of a larger bus, the No. 23’s frequencies have seen slight decreases of between one minute to up to three minutes, depending on the time of the day. But even with the reduced frequencies, there will still be an overall 50 per cent increase in capacity due to the use of a regular bus.

This bus size conversion was a years-long planning process, as it also required the completion of some road upgrades in the West End to handle a larger bus.

Additionally, to accommodate the changes, a small number of bus stops on the No. 23 have been eliminated, and a slight change to the route was made for the westbound direction near Main Street-Science World Station, with the route travelling along Expo Boulevard westbound. However, the eastbound route along Keefer Street has been retained.

The conversion comes just ahead of the busy peak season, when this bus route sees more passengers heading to/from English Bay. It also coincides with today’s seasonal bus service adjustments.

translink no. 23 bus route changes april 2025

Bus stop and route changes for the No. 23 Main Street-Science World Station/English Bay, starting on April 21, 2025, when it begins the use of a regular-sized bus. (TransLink)

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