Baseline busway plan clears step to approval

The proposed Baseline Road busway took a step forward Wednesday as the city’s transportation committee approved a plan to build the $148-million cross-town line to carry 10,000 riders a day.

The 14-kilometre Richmond-Baseline-Heron corridor bypasses downtown, connecting OC Transpo riders to existing and planned Transitway and O -Train networks. There will be 24 new stations — about one every 575 metres (Transitway stations are 800 metres to one kilometre apart). The plan also includes kilometres of new sidewalks and cycle tracks.

Buses will use designated median lanes, which the city says will shave travel time and increase reliability because they won’t get stuck in congestion.

“That’s effectively what makes it rapid,” said Keith Egli, transportation committee chairman.

Some residents raised concerns about having to walk further to reach a bus stop, navigating ice-and snow-covered sidewalks and platforms in winter, and crossing several lanes of traffic to board the bus in the median, instead of catching it at the curb.

Egli says the city has listened to those concerns and will respond by enhancing snow removal on the sidewalks and road, adding benches along the corridor, and installing a new signalized intersection at St. Helen’s Place.

The city is still seeking commitments from the federal and provincial governments to pay for the first stretch, from Baseline to Heron stations, which will cost an estimated $140 million. Transit priority measures between Baseline and Bayshore will add another $8 million to the tab.

The actual rapid transit line between Baseline and Bayshore, to be built sometime after 2031, is estimated to cost a further $140 million.

Egli says he’s not worried efforts to secure funding for this project will get in the way of the city’s plans for building the second phase of LRT. “There hasn’t been any, ‘If you want this, you have to trade off that,’ ” he said.

Existing OC Transpo service along the corridor is primarily provided by Route 118. Route 111 also travels along the corridor east of Prince of Wales, while eight other routes use it for short stretches. Buses operate primarily in mixed traffic, where they are often delayed by congestion.

John Manconi, general manager of transportation services, says it’s too early to know what service will look like once the busway is finished. Integration into the current bus network will be part of the detailed design phase.

“The key point is you’re going to get through that corridor much quicker than in the past,” he said.

The city says 15 private properties will be expropriated, while more than 200 others could be affected. Strips of land are also required from 10 properties owned by the federal government, including the Central Experimental Farm.

If everything falls into place, construction could begin by 2020 and buses would start rolling down the new lanes in 2022.

Council will vote on the plan next week.

The transportation committee also agreed to find an alternate route for the Blackburn Hamlet Bypass and Cumberland Transitway after a report found the existing approved corridor would prove too costly because of unsuitable ground conditions.