As C-Tran prepares to revamp its service along Vancouver’s Fourth Plain corridor with a bus rapid transit line, the agency is also getting ready for a major makeover at its headquarters.
A planned expansion of C-Tran’s maintenance facilities will change the way crews service the entire fleet as they add larger BRT vehicles to the mix. Almost $10 million in upgrades will offer more space to a cramped maintenance operation, some parts of which haven’t changed in more than 30 years, according to C-Tran.
“It will certainly be a significant benefit to have the bigger space,” said C-Tran Director of Maintenance Celia Sherbeck. “You’ll also have bigger vehicles.”
The BRT system will deploy several 60-foot articulated vehicles along Fourth Plain, which is C-Tran’s busiest corridor. But C-Tran’s existing work bays are barely big enough for its regular 40-foot buses. The expansion will allow C-Tran to maintain the larger buses, and the agency is using the opportunity to address other needs in its cramped facilities, Sherbeck said.
About $5.6 million in upgrades will be included in the overall $53 million BRT project. C-Tran will also use a separate federal grant for other projects including a new paint booth, yard lighting and a new lot.
C-Tran now uses eight maintenance bays. When the upgrades are complete, it will have 12 bays after some existing space is repurposed. A lot of crucial supplies — including tires — are stored in upstairs spaces that aren’t ideal from an efficiency standpoint, Sherbeck said. That will change.
“There’s a lot of walking up and down stairs,” she said of the current setup.
Earlier this year, C-Tran staff showed a video to the agency’s board of directors demonstrating the “painful process” used to receive tires at its outdated facilities. The intent was to highlight shortcomings that could be addressed as part of the BRT project. But board members largely panned the demo, wondering why the problem wasn’t addressed sooner.
Sherbeck said C-Tran will save money by lumping multiple upgrades into one large overhaul. BRT provided that opportunity, according to the agency.
New manufacturer
C-Tran will need more than just larger work bays to perform upkeep on BRT vehicles. That’s because the manufacturer that built most of C-Tran’s existing fleet, Gillig, doesn’t make 60-foot articulated buses. That means many of the supplies and parts C-Tran now uses won’t translate to the new vehicles, said Gabe Stark, C-Tran’s maintenance process improvement and information manager. Those parts — and the buses themselves — will come from a different company, Stark said.
C-Tran hasn’t yet selected its BRT manufacturer.
The BRT line, which also uses raised boarding platforms and other features, will stretch between the Westfield Vancouver mall and downtown. The new system will replace C-Tran’s existing No. 4 and No. 44 routes along that stretch. The C-Tran board approved local funding for the project in July, clearing the way for construction to begin as soon as next year.
Construction on the new maintenance facilities is expected to begin next spring, Sherbeck said. It will be complete before the BRT line opens in 2016, she said.
With or without BRT, the maintenance upgrades are overdue, said C-Tran spokesman Jim Quintana. When the facility opened in the early 1980s, it was built for a fleet of about 100 vehicles, he said. That number is now approaching 200, he said.
“We’re near double what this was intended to be,” Quintana said.
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