British Columbia

Port Mann Bridge to have high-speed bus service

A new rapid transit lane planned for the Port Mann Bridge will make bus service faster than driving your car, Premier Gordon Campbell said Friday.

New service will make bus travel faster than cars, premier promises

A new rapid transit lane planned for the Port Mann Bridge in the Fraser Valley will make bus service faster than driving your car, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said Friday.

Under a $180 million deal signed Friday with Translink, the province will fund 20 new buses torun in a dedicated high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane on the bridge, which is being twinned to make it eight lanes wide.

A futuristic view of the Port Mann Bridge, which the B.C. government thinks will make bus service faster than driving cars. ((B.C. Government))

When it is implemented, the premier said the new bus service will cut travel times for 21,000 commuters while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The buses will run every 10 minutes at rush hour from Burnaby and Coquitlam to Surrey and Langley. There will also beconnecting buses to Abbotsford and communities north of the Fraser River via the new Golden Ears Bridge.

"Providing rapid bus service across the Port Mann Bridge for the first time means that commuters can travel all the way from Langley to Coquitlam or Burnaby in less than 25 minutes," said Campbell.

There has been no bus service over the Port Mann Bridge in recent years because of the long traffic delays.

A minimum of 1,000 park-and-ride spaces will also be built south of the Fraser River to promote bus use.

The planned expansion of the Port Mann Bridge, which is part of the controversial Gateway Program, has drawnwidespread criticism from environmentalists and public transit advocates because they say it will not do enough to reduce individual car use.