Full-sized buses are set to start running the entire length of Davie Street and through Yaletown on December 19, TransLink confirmed to Business in Vancouver November 7.
The change means that four smaller shuttle buses will be freed up for use on other TransLink routes, according to spokeswoman Cheryl Ziola.
“Because the community shuttles were crowded with continual pass-ups along Davie Street, we made some adjustments to those No. 5 and No. 6 routes, extending the larger trolley buses to Yaletown to help with capacity,” she said.
“With this extension, the No. 6 [route] can continue down Davie Street through Yaletown to Vancouver instead of using Granville, widening the coverage area, and replacing a portion of the C23 [route] with a larger, conventional sized trolley bus.”
The C21 route that connects to Yaletown Station but goes on Beach Avenue will continue to have shuttle buses and not full-sized buses.
A driver had told Business in Vancouver that she had heard from TransLink that there would be seven layoffs but Ziola said no layoffs are scheduled.
New wiring to extend the trolley network is expected to cost $1,845,000, Ziola said.
“The change will be introduced with our December service changes and will provide better service to our customers and more capacity to a dense area of downtown, where it’s needed.” she said.
The most significant change to TransLink’s system in December will be the long awaited December 2 launch of the Evergreen Line in Port Moody and Coquitlam.
That $1.43 billion, 11-kilometre SkyTrain extension is expected to carry about 70,000 passengers daily between Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby and the terminus station, Lafarge Lake-Douglas in Coquitlam.
TransLink implemented other changes to SkyTrain routing in October.
