Jennifer Saltman, Vancouver Sun – May 4, 2018
The 42-year-old Waterfront SeaBus station will be seismically upgraded and expanded as part of TransLink’s maintenance and repair program.
The improvements to the station were announced this morning.
“Our customers tell us they want reliable service, and to deliver we need to invest in our facilities, our fleet and our infrastructure,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond. “These are the investments that keep our system running.”
Upgrades will include one replacement elevator and one new elevator, four replacement escalators and a new staircase, that will help improve the flow of foot traffic. The building will also be extended into the adjacent parking lot and have a new entrance and Compass vending machine for people who are entering the station from Helijet and the waterfront area.
“If you take SeaBus on a regular basis, you are going to know this is something to celebrate,” said Bowinn Ma, parliamentary secretary responsible for TransLink and NDP MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale. “I cannot wait to see the renovated facility.”
More than 17,000 people ride the SeaBus on an average weekday and last year 5.84 million people passed through the terminal while travelling between Vancouver and the North Shore, which was a 7.3-per-cent increase over 2016.
It’s expected the upgrades will cost $17 million, $4 million of which will come from federal and provincial governments through the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund.
Work will begin at the end of this month and is expected to be complete in 15 months.
The SeaBus station upgrade kicks off this year’s TransLink maintenance and repair program for 2018.
On SkyTrain, the rail-pad replacement program that began in October 2017 will continue, along with running rail replacement on the Expo Line. Work on Metrotown, Commercial-Broadway, Joyce-Collingwood and Surrey Central will also continue.
New buses will arrive this year, upgrades will be made to 29th Avenue, Guildford, Lonsdale, Nanaimo and Phibbs exchanges, and trolley-overhead hangers, clamps and poles will be replaced.
“We must keep our system in good repair and not defer maintenance on our system,” Desmond said.