Service Discontinued
I have been writing that transit service is being cut. This is an example of what people will be finding when they try to get around on Monday morning. The #480 service between Richmond and UBC will still run, but there will no longer be direct service from the operating centre at Shell Road and Steveston – nor Richmond Centre. All service starts at Brighouse Station. That means that buses will “deadhead” from the garage to Brighouse along the freeway. That will be a bit quicker so there will be some operating cost saving, but passengers will have to transfer – twice. Once at Richmond Centre (Brighouse) and then on to the Canada Line to board the 480 at Bridgeport. Two transfers means more delay and inconvenience. Of course a lot of the passengers will be students with UPasses, so they are reckoned as a captive market. But I wonder how many people will go back to driving, to avoid the inconvenience and uncertainty of two transfers. Overall trip time from my home to UBC was uncompetitive with direct bus service – and now has got much worse.
Stephen Rees's blog 
We’re getting the same thing in New West. As part of this service “rationalization,” a fancy way to say further diluting already overtaxed service.
It seems ludicrous in a region growing by thousands of residents per month that service hours can remain constant. Yet in in New Westminster’s case, Translink wants to spend $100 million they don’t have to build more road capacity. Something’s wrong with priorities here.
The piece I wrote over on Tenth to the Fraser about our service cuts:
http://www.tenthtothefraser.ca/2011/04/04/transit-cuts-coming-to-new-west/
Matt
April 17, 2011 at 10:56 pm
I am not sure too much about the new 480 route,
according to the buzzer, the #480 continue like the #403 south of Bridgeport…but I didn’t see any evidence of it in the new #480 schedule.
I think that whether historically the #480 was starting from Brighouse with some run to/from the Stevenson Depot…The introduction of the Canada line has significantly changed the outlook…
The line could be quite busy from Bridgeport to UBC, but south of Bridgeport, the 60 foot buses are roaming nearly empty (this from my observation)
given the Translink Financial constraint, it makes good sense to “rationalize” it.
One of the reason for this situation is that from brighouse it takes usually less time to take the Canada line up to 41st than to wait for a #480 (where frequency is half the one at Bridgeport and Bridgeport is a frustrating timepoint for people coming from south, that Brighouse-Bridgeport depart will take usually 12mn if not more, when the Train takes 6mn)
trimming the #480 route at Bridgeport is not like leaving people with no other option…Canada line, while involving an additional transfer will be usually faster and more frequent.
We can just regret that some other local Richmond routes are not extended to Bridegport (the problem of Richmond is that local bus route all meet at Brighouse while that more “regional one” meet at Bridgeport, making the bus system very Vancouver centric).
We have also to remember that the previous “rationalization” round has benefited to Richmond, noticeably with the increase of the frequency on the heavily used #410 route between Richmond and New West.
So I am not sure we are in the case of New Westminster proper, where people really looks to be punished for their stand against the UBE
Voony
April 18, 2011 at 9:06 pm
UBE is one of the worst possible uses of money and I’m glad New West residents are opposing it. Why does there have to be another 4 lane road right next to an 8 lane freeway that itself is right next to a 4 lane highway? Aren’t 12 lanes between Brunette and Cape Horn enough?
And if that route is so gosh darned important that 16 lanes of highway is needed then why wasn’t it chosen for the Evergreen line?
Yet another $100M for asphalt when transit service is being cut is proof that the head in the sand, business as usual crowd remains in charge of regional planning.
David
April 18, 2011 at 11:26 pm
My prediction is that this will cannibalize ridership on the 480 and will result in frequency reductions or the possibly the eventual elimination of the 480.
Why? If you’re going between UBC and Richmond, busses run more frequently on 41st Ave and 49th Ave, plus there isn’t the uncertainty of traffic delays caused by an accident on one of the bridges over the Fraser River.
So, effectively, the remaining people who might be interested in taking the 480 will be those along the route in Marpole, and bus routes serving Bridgeport station (i.e. commuters from South Delta and South Surrey/White Rock).
Re the post about fact that 60 foot buses are currently empty for part of the route. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. With this change, it’s only a matter of time before Translink figures out that their articulated buses will be better served on other routes.
Drew
April 27, 2011 at 1:22 am
I found last year, by experiment, that taking the 480 from Cambie and Garden City to UBC took just about the same time as taking the 410, then the Canada Line, then the 41st Avenue express service. So there’s little point in the truncated service, except that you might get a seat instead of having to stand all the way along 41st.
Of course it didn’t help that they diverted the 480 to go to Bridgeport Station and sit around doing nothing for 5 or 10 minutes. That made the Richmond part of the route quite a bit less useful.
Paul Clapham
May 4, 2011 at 12:07 pm