From south of the Fraser River TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond is acknowledging a growing “suburban demand in communities” and he’s looking at new innovative ways to make transit attractive and accessible. And he may have found a magic formula-using double-decker buses on the 351 and 601 bus routes in Delta ( hose routes are the Bridgeport Station/South Delta/Boundary Bay routes) and on trips in Langley, Surrey and White Rock.
As reported in the Delta Optimist these two buses were lent by British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis and can seat 80 to 86 passengers, doubling the capacity of older highway buses. The trial use of these two double-decker buses will allow evaluation from a service and customer perspective, as well as being pretty nifty.
As Desmond observes “Double-decker buses have worked well in other cities, including nearby Victoria, and I have personal experience with buses like these in Seattle where they worked very well. I’m confident they’ll work well here too.”
