The Freeway 99 challenge will embrace 32 new bus stations alongside the corridors. The C-Tran Salmon Creek Park & Journey may even bear an enlargement — quickly to be generally known as Salmon Creek Transit Heart.
In downtown Vancouver, the Purple Line will cease at a couple of of the present Vine stations. The brand new service may even substitute the present Routes 71 and 19 when accomplished.
Audio system echoed Wednesday that the brand new bus speedy transit line will convey quicker, extra accessible and dependable service to considered one of C-Tran’s busiest corridors.
“For many students and potential students, access to higher education starts with something simple but essential: the ability to get to campus,” Haynes mentioned.
At present, WSU Vancouver’s solely mounted bus route connection runs about each half-hour on weekdays and as soon as an hour on weekends.
“Although this might not sound too bad for a bus route, it can make commuting very difficult for students who work, have families and rely solely on public transit,” Haynes mentioned.
With the brand new line, buses will run each quarter-hour.
The Vine service at present operates alongside Fourth Plain and Mill Plain boulevards. The Vine on Fourth Plain Boulevard (Inexperienced Line) opened in 2017, and The Vine on Mill Plain Boulevard (Pink Line) opened in 2023.
C-Tran Government Director Leann Caver mentioned the outcomes from these bus traces have been not solely instant however unmistakable. She cited increased transit ridership, improved journey occasions and reliability on bus schedules, and elevated financial improvement in areas across the traces.
She mentioned on Fourth Plain, greater than 2,000 new housing items have popped up alongside the hall — including roughly $250 million in improvement worth. Related traits are taking place on Mill Plain.
“This project will provide direct access up and down a 9-mile stretch that’s incredibly diverse — both economically and demographically,” Caver mentioned.
She mentioned roughly 1,000 households and employment alternatives are forecasted to maneuver in alongside Freeway 99 within the subsequent twenty years.
“About 10 percent of residents on this corridor already don’t have a vehicle — which is twice the countywide rate,” Caver mentioned. “This is more than just a C-Tran project. … This project will deliver meaningful infrastructure and real improvements, including new sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and signals. It will make Highway 99 safer and more accessible.”
Building for the brand new line will start later this summer time. The work will occur in phases with totally different components of the hall seeing building exercise at varied occasions.
“We celebrate this milestone for Highway 99, and we also look forward to milestones yet to come for transportation in Clark County,” C-Tran board Chair Molly Coston mentioned.
