The morning and evening rush changed for many commuters this week, with the termination of bus service to downtown Vancouver from Delta, White Rock and Surrey.

It’s a change that some commuters aren’t too happy about – particularly those who got off the bus along Granville or Oak Streets. Now they must go by bus to Richmond to board the Canada Line, which travels up the Cambie Street corridor. This means those who aren’t travelling to downtown Vancouver must make two transfers to get to their destination. Transfers are the slowdown factor in using the transit system, and it is likely some faithful bus commuters will switch to cars.

The Canada Line offers the capacity equivalent of 10 lanes of traffic. It is, from all reports, a great service which will speed up trips from Richmond and the airport to the west side of Vancouver and the downtown area.

For those commuters from south of the Fraser who are travelling to the downtown core, it will be a faster trip. The express bus service to the downtown area, which started when transit service began south of the Fraser in the early 1970s, was a very good service. However, buses did get stuck in traffic on many occasions, and that will no longer be a problem on the Vancouver portion of the trip.

Transit times will also improve on Highway 99, where there are improved bus lanes which will speed travellers to and from the Bridgeport and Brighouse stations on the Canada Line.

In the 1970s, I regularly used the express service from North Delta to downtown Vancouver, and it was extremely popular with commuters. Buses were often packed full of riders during the morning and evening rush hours, and even at midday the buses had good ridership levels.

TransLink says one of the other benefits of the new system is there will be more frequent service on many South Fraser routes that link to the Canada Line. That means less waiting time if you happen to miss the bus – and that too is an important factor in convincing people to use transit.

There is another factor at work here. Much of downtown Vancouver is now home to highrise condos – including parts of downtown that used to host many businesses. The actual number of jobs downtown is probably holding steady or declining – as there are fewer businesses there, although there are more service-oriented jobs due to facilities like the trade and convention centre.

In the long run, this is a good thing. The best commute is a short one from home to work. If there are more jobs dispersed throughout the region, fewer people will have to endure long commutes each day.

One other big change affecting South Fraser commuters is the opening of the Golden Ears Bridge. It offers a great alternative to the Port Mann for those travelling from south of the Fraser to Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and Port Coquitlam. If enough people start to use the bridge, it will take pressure off the Port Mann Bridge.

There is one transit route using the bridge linking Langley to Maple Ridge and the West Coast Express. It would be nice to see a route between North Surrey and Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam Centre that uses this new bridge as well.

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