Federal Transit Acting Administrator Therese McMillan will be in Vancouver on Thursday to officially announce C-TRAN’s $38.5 million federal grant award for The Vine, the region’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line.
A ceremony will take place at noon at Clark Community College in room 161 of the Penguin Union Building. Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt and Clark College President Bob Knight are expected to speak.
According to Jeff Hamm, C-TRAN’s executive director & CEO, federal funding will cover 80 percent of The Vine’s construction cost.
“C-TRAN is very pleased that after more than four years in the making, all of the project funding is now in place and construction on The Vine is about to begin,” said Hamm.
Set to open in late 2016, The Vine will implement a modern, enhanced transit line along the Fourth Plain and Fort Vancouver Way corridors between downtown Vancouver and the Westfield Vancouver Mall – C-TRAN’s busiest corridor. Along the route, 34 stations designed specifically for BRT will offer passengers a safe, secure and reliable transit experience.
BRT buses will be new 60-foot low-floor hybrids with nearly double the passenger capacity of standard buses, all while providing level boarding for all passengers.
The Vine will operate on 10-minute frequencies much of the day (15 minutes in off-peak periods and on weekends), and include wheelchair self-parking areas, as well as on-board bike racks. Travel time is projected to be reduced by up to 10 minutes each way.