Why SkyTrain to UBC
Thousands of people commute to UBC each day
The daytime population of the Vancouver campus is over 80,000—about the same size as most of BC’s mid-size cities. There are 55,000 students, faculty and staff who commute to UBC each day, which results in 150,000 daily trips to and from UBC. Over 80,000 are on transit. Half of the 55,000 people travelling to UBC each day come from outside the City of Vancouver.
TransLink data consistently shows five of the top ten busiest bus routes in Metro Vancouver serve UBC. This massive volume of UBC-bound traffic is clogging things up, causing long, slow commutes for people who use the Broadway and adjacent corridors and lower productivity for businesses in the area.
80,000 people on campus each day
150,000 daily trips to/from
52% (80,000) of all trips are on transit
Busiest bus exchange in Metro Vancouver
9-million annual transit boardings
1000 buses a day
Congestion and overcrowding is slowing the B-Line
Increasing congestion and overcrowding
is leading to slower 99 B-Line speeds every year
(now averaging 20km/hr and slower during peak periods)
500,000 people passed by
Every year, 99 B-Line buses pass by 500,000 people
waiting for a ride because the buses are too full
A seamless, rapid connection to UBC meets the need
The Broadway Subway project will extend the Millennium Line SkyTrain to Arbutus Street, ending in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. Travellers headed to UBC will have to transfer to B-Line buses, which will follow the current route of the 99 B-Line through Point Grey to campus.
Technical analyses reveal that these buses will be over capacity on opening day. Extending SkyTrain service to UBC would eliminate this inefficient and inconvenient transfer to the B-Line buses at Arbutus. Passengers will benefit from faster, more convenient transit times, and the businesses and residents along the Broadway corridor will benefit from less noise and congestion.
It is anticipated that by 2035 there will be over 125,000 daily riders using SkyTrain between Arbutus and UBC alone; higher ridership than the entire Canada Line sees today. By 2050, the daily number of Arbutus to UBC riders increases to 160,000. With almost 50,000 daily boardings in 2050, the central UBC station would have higher daily boardings than any current station today.
SkyTrain is the only technology with room to meet future demand along the corridor beyond about 2045, especially if the region is successful in achieving the TransLink target of 50% of all trips by sustainable modes by that same time. Learn more about the selection of SkyTrain technology for the extension of rapid transit to UBC.