Metro Vancouver’s transit system is poised for a slew of bus service improvements and expansions following the approval of a new multi-year budget package.
The TransLink Mayor’s Council and TransLink Board of Directors approved the 2025 Investment Plan on Wednesday, a suite of new funding measures that will stave off looming service cuts while funding new routes and buses to address overcrowding in numerous areas.
TransLink says the plan will pay for service boosts on more than 50 overcrowded routes, improving or implementing 40 new routes, including to 14 with poor or no transit service and an extension of the North Shore’s R2 Rapidbus to Metrotown by 2027.
It will also pay for the design phase for three Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors, planned for North Shore-Metrotown, Surrey Centre-White Rock and Langley Centre-Haney Place.
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TransLink is pitching BRT as a near-term rapid transit option that can be rolled out more quickly and affordably than SkyTrain or light rail, using higher-capacity buses with traffic signal priority, rail-like stations and off-board fare collection.
The 2025 Investment Plan includes a one-time provincial cash infusion of $312 million.
That funding was contingent on board approvals of a five per cent fare increase in July 2026, followed by two per cent annual increases, a $1.50 increase in the Vancouver airport surcharge, a 0.5 per cent 2025 property tax hike (estimated at about $20 per household) and a five per cent increase in off-street parking taxes.
The deal will carry the transportation and transit agency through to 2028 and cut its $600 million annual operating deficit in half after that. The province has also committed to the creation of a new revenue source for TransLink by 2027.
“This investment plan is the first time that the provincial government has really publicly committed to a new revenue source, and we are really excited about that,” TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn said.
“What that revenue source is has yet to be determined, and that is going to be developed in work with the mayors’ council, with the board, with the province.”
TransLink has blamed its structural deficit on stagnant fares, inflation and declining gas tax revenues that it says are a result of growing electric vehicle adoption.
Transit advocates hailed the approval, saying it would prevent massive cuts, while helping to put a dent in serious overcrowding on the region’s buses.
“It’s quite important we get this relief,” said Chris Ing, a volunteer organizer for transit advocacy group Movement YVR.
But Ing said the region’s population is surging, and even the proposed service increases won’t keep up with demand.
“What we’ve really averted is the death spiral where we have service cuts leading to ridership cuts, leading to service cuts leading to ridership cuts and so on,” he said.
“We’re very happy to see that the catastrophe was averted, and we want to make sure that in the future we continue this push, we continue this momentum to push the city forward.”
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