West Vancouver’s Blue Bus system is going through some growing pains that have left some riders frustrated.
“Basically the experience of trying to catch a West Vancouver bus to Vancouver during rush hour can be very irritating,” said West Vancouver resident Daniel Oong.
Large numbers of riders waiting at Park Royal for express buses to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal is common. And frequently those buses are full before they even arrive in West Vancouver.
“It’s always a bit of a mad crowd of people trying to get on,” he says.
Reema Faris takes the bus only on occasion. But she’s also been left waiting by the side of the road while Blue Buses zoom by with Not In Service notices.
Ray Fung, director of engineering and transportation for West Vancouver, agrees that recently there have been more glitches than usual on West Van’s Blue Bus system. Those range from cancellations to chronic overcrowding on some routes.
Some of the problems have ironically been brought about by increases in service to West Vancouver, part of the mayors’ plan to increase bus service throughout the region.
Frequency of service was increased this spring and summer on a number of North Shore bus routes.
But demand for service has risen even faster, said Fung. “We’re a bit of a victim of our own success,” he said. “The demand is beyond the capacity to keep up. We don’t have enough service hours to satisfy the demand.”
Adding to the bus system’s blues is an aging fleet of vehicles, which require more maintenance, and a shortage of mechanics to keep the buses rolling.
There are currently eight Blue Buses that date back to 1999 and one that’s 20 years old. “We’ve been scrambling to get access to additional vehicles,” said Fung, noting the Blue Bus system has a back order for 10 new buses with TransLink that he hopes will be delivered in November 2018. As a result “we’ve had to keep older vehicles on the road for longer.”
Meanwhile, the high costs of living on the North Shore have meant difficulty attracting qualified mechanics.
Mechanics are in high demand by both TransLink and the private sector, said Fung. “Most of these type of employees do not live on the North Shore and they prefer not to commute,” he said.
The shortage of mechanics means when buses break down, sometimes they have to be taken out of service and run must be cancelled, he said.
“It’s frustrating,” he said, although he added no more than one to two per cent of runs are cancelled on average. “It doesn’t happen on a daily basis,” he said. “Some days can be worse than others.”
Both Oong and Faris say they get that, and they appreciate the ease of being able to take the bus most times. Says Faris, “The service works more often than it doesn’t.”
Jane Seyd
