Recently, the Mayors’ Council and the Province of British Columbia announced a funding proposal for the regional share for Phase Two of the 10-Year Vision – a major step forward in securing the largest investment in transit and transportation in Metro Vancouver history!

TransLink and the Mayors’ Council can now move forward with consulting on the 2018 Investment Plan and securing sustainable funding of our regional share. Public consultation on the Phase Two Plan, and how the region proposes to fund its share, is happening later this spring. Stay tuned for more information!

The Phase Two Plan includes construction of the Surrey–Newton–Guildford light rail project and the Millennium Line Broadway Extension. The Expo and Millennium lines will see significant upgrades to expand capacity and there will be an eight per cent increase in bus service. There will also be improvements to sidewalks, bikeways, multi-use pathways and roadways throughout the region.

Phase Two, set to rollout as early as later this year, builds upon Phase One’s momentum and the tremendous progress already made delivering expanded and new transit services, and improvements for roads, cycling, and walking paths across Metro Vancouver.

Have a look at the highlights of what’s been delivered so far in Phase One!

Bus

Through 2017, a four per cent increase in bus service has been delivered, spanning 23 different routes plus new routes such as the B-Line service along the Hastings Street corridor in Vancouver and Burnaby.

In development are four additional B-Line routes that will bring faster, more frequent bus service to 12 communities. This means by the end of next year, a B-Line service will be within walking distance for 1 in 5 Metro Vancouver residents and 1 in 3 jobs!

HandyDART

In 2017, there were 22,600 more HandyDART trips available—or an eight per cent increase—and we’re on track to increase available HandyDART trips by 15 per cent by the end of 2019.

SkyTrain and West Coast Express

A 2.5 per cent increase in weekday passenger capacity and an 11 per cent increase in peak period passenger capacity on SkyTrain were delivered in January 2017.

Once the new SkyTrain cars arrive, even more service improvements are planned! Fifty-six new SkyTrain cars for the Expo and Millennium lines are slated to arrive next year, and 24 SkyTrain cars for the Canada Line in 2020.

On the West Coast Express, work is underway to begin procuring two new and six refurbished locomotives, which will enable more service to and from downtown Vancouver.

SeaBus

The SeaBus now operates every 15 minutes throughout the day, every day of the week. Once our new SeaBus is delivered early next year, even more frequent service will be coming with sailings every 10 minutes during rush hour!

Major Road Network

By the end of this year, the Major Road Network (MRN) will be expanded by 237 lane kilometres! This will be the first significant expansion of the MRN since its creation in 1999.

In 2017, $7.6 million was awarded to municipalities to improve safety and fix traffic bottlenecks (cycling projects included). As well, a program for MRN overpasses, retaining walls, and making bridges safer and more earthquake-proof was established.

Walking and cycling

Last year, $2.5 million was awarded to municipalities to improve pathways around transit such as sidewalks, crosswalks and pedestrian traffic signals. An additional $6.9 million was awarded to encourage and improve cycling through projects such as building bike lanes and multi-use paths.

And work is underway to prioritize capital projects to improve regionally-owned cycling facilities!

These are just some of the improvements that have been delivered in Phase One. You’ll want to have a look at what’s to come in Phase Two!