Willoughby residents could see some improvement to their bus service, Sany Zein, the TransLink director of infrastructure and network management, said Wednesday.
Zein was taking questions at the Oct. 22 fourth annual 91原创 Economic Forum (which had the theme of 鈥渢he Future of Transportation in 91原创鈥�) when he was asked about a bus service to connect commuters in the densely-developed Willoughby neighbourhood to the Carvolth park and ride.
鈥淚f all the pieces fall into place, we could have really good news in a couple of months,鈥� Zein said, adding TransLink is looking at freeing up the needed buses by 鈥渙ptimizing鈥� existing transit service, which involves shuffling vehicles away from less busy routes.
Zein said TransLink has enough money to operate existing services at current levels, but expanding transit in the future will require additional funds.
Zein said public transit isn鈥檛 keeping up with the growth in communities south of the Fraser River like 91原创 and Surrey, as well as Maple Ridge.
Rapid transit, in particular, is 鈥渧ery under-provided [in those communities]鈥� Zein said.
鈥淪outh of the Fraser is where the growth has been happening and we haven鈥檛 been able to keep up because of lack of funding,鈥� Zein said, adding 鈥渨e need to do a lot more.鈥�
Whether the money is available, he said, will be decided some time next year when a referendum is expected on a multi-billion proposal to beef up transit by a Lower Mainland mayor鈥檚 task force.
That plan calls for an expansion of light rail transit from Surrey to 91原创 within the next 10 years.
In response to another question, Zein said TransLink planners were reviewing the increasing amount of vehicle traffic along 16 Avenue, 鈥渁ctively looking into the short term, medium term and long-term future of that corridor鈥� and he expected a report would be ready some time next year.
Asked if TransLink would provide washrooms for older riders, Zein said the transit agency is developing a 鈥渨ashroom policy鈥� that would call for public washrooms at key locations.
Another speaker at the forum was Andrew Hind, a senior planner with the B.C. ministry of transportation and infrastructure, who said the province eventually plans to widen Highway one to five lanes all the way to Abbotsford.
Hind also said the new bridge that will replace the George Massey tunnel will be 鈥渆ight to 10鈥� lanes wide and will charge tolls.
