A commuter student has three nightmares: missing the bus, falling down the stairs from the second level of the 351 and watching a driver shut the door on you — TransLink’s financial crisis may be worse than all three.
In August 2024, UBC reported that around 75 per cent of students commute to campus. This statistic came weeks after TransLink announced potential future transit service cuts would be necessary at the end of 2025 due to an annual funding gap of approximately $600 million from 2026–33. This is the result of a decrease in provincial and federal government funding for TransLink.
Three months into the year, the situation is still dire. On March 4, the provincial government unveiled its budget for 2025, and any funding allocation directly to TransLink to repair its shortfall was absent from the breakdown.
“The NDP just released their budget, and they got hammered from a lot of people saying that the deficit is too big,” said Denis Agar in an interview with The Ubyssey.
“I’m not too bothered whether [TransLink’s] funding comes from the province, the mayors or the federal government even .... But ultimately, we need to find a solution that keeps us from having to beg for funding every year.”
Agar is the executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders, a group of transit riders, professionals and enthusiasts advocating to make transit more efficient in Metro Vancouver. Agar started Movement back in 2023, following a decade of working for TransLink.
“I’m not too bothered whether [TransLink’s] funding comes from the province, the mayors or the federal government even,” he said. “But ultimately, we need to find a solution that keeps us from having to beg for funding every year.”
According to Dan Mountain, a TransLink spokesperson and senior media relations advisor, the service and municipal and provincial governments are currently working to secure a sustainable funding model for the service. But, until that happens, the future of TransLink remains uncertain.
Some transit routes are busier than others, and the population density of Vancouver’s Lower Mainland is only growing. Year after year, TransLink ridership data indicates routes to UBC carry the highest passenger volumes in the region — so how will TransLink ensure future funding models consider commuter student needs?
TransLink is going through a yellow light
According to the service, TransLink is scheduled to run out of funding in 2026.
In a video posted to TransLink’s YouTube account last year, CEO Kevin Quinn said the service is on the brink of a financial crisis “like we’ve never seen before.”
Since 2020, TransLink fares have either been frozen or held below inflation, resulting in TransLink operation costs rising faster than the increase of fare prices. The gap continues to widen and is projected to do so unless more funding is secured. This year, provincial government funding is down about 22 per cent, which may result in a cut of 50 per cent of Translink’s services at the end of 2025 if additional stable funding is not secured, according to a CBC article quoting Quinn.
“These cuts would be devastating to the region, and we’re doing everything we can to stop it from happening,” Quinn said in a statement.
More specifically, the budget indicates almost half of TransLink’s buses have less than 3 years before scheduling is compromised, which would result in cancelling 145 bus routes, including cuts to the 4, 7, 14, 68 and 84 lines.
“Public transit is critically important to students, faculty and staff at UBC Vancouver and to the university’s sustainability goals,” wrote UBC Director of University Affairs Matthew Ramsey in a statement to The Ubyssey, writing that next year’s potential TransLink service reduction is of “great concern” to UBC.
“Our hope is that the funding shortfall can be resolved. If not, the university will continue to advocate for the maintenance of service levels to and from campus,” Ramsey continued. “We are in regular discussions with TransLink to discuss their goals and UBC’s needs so we can continue to support our community.”
In January 2024, TransLink workers held a two-day strike of bus services.
“Students, newcomers, daycare workers and so many others were stranded without transit,” Quinn said.
“Our hope is that the funding shortfall can be resolved. If not, the university will continue to advocate for the maintenance of service levels to and from campus.”
The strike caused in-person learning activities to be shifted online at UBC, despite the shutdown only lasting 48 hours — so a decrease in TransLink service would likely be disastrous for on-campus learning.
Quinn said TransLink is responding to its financial crisis by raising fares, cutting costs, reducing spending and finding new revenue streams.
Cutting services is something TransLink seeks to avoid, according to Mountain. He told The Ubyssey “TransLink is currently working with all levels of government on a solution to our impending funding gap.”
In order to be cost-effective, TransLink will be eliminating various corporate roles, and reducing third-party contractors, leadership training courses, ridership development and community initiatives, and IT software and hardware expenses.
“We’re encouraged to see efforts are underway to resolve TransLink’s budget shortfall and maintain critical transit services,” wrote Ramsey. “Our community relies on efficient and frequent public transit.”
Can the R4 lineup even get any longer?
Fifth-year cognitive systems student Tina Vedi finds her commute to be smooth and has gotten quite used to it now, she wrote in a statement to The Ubyssey.
Vedi has been taking public transit to UBC since 2021 and currently has a 2 hour and 30 minute commute one way, taking the 363, 351 and then the 49 to UBC. Vedi spends her transit time “listening to music, catching up with loved ones on Facetime [or] revising notes for class or an exam.”
“[Transiting] also reduces the mental load that comes otherwise if I had to drive down to UBC,” she wrote.
Leila Sabeur, a fourth-year psychology student, has also been a commuter student since 2021 and lives in Langley, often taking the R4 and 99.
The 99 UBC B-Line to Commercial-Broadway Station and the R4 41st Avenue line between UBC and Joyce Station are the two busiest TransLink bus routes in the Lower Mainland, both boarding an average of 35,900 and 27,900 passengers respectively every weekday.
Similar to Vedi, Sabeur spends her hour and a half listening to music and podcasts “to slowly switch into school mode and that can’t be beat,” she wrote to The Ubyssey.
But what Vedi and Sabeur would change about their rides to and from campus is the scheduling, overcrowdedness and long lines for the bus, criticisms that have frequented UBC Reddit threads.
There has been a 19 per cent increase in ridership growth in 2023 compares to 2022 for buses alone.
We’re really deep in the hole when it comes to overcrowding, and we’re gonna need a really ambitious proposal to address it,” said Agar. “But it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can just be more buses ... Like, on a route that has a 15-minute frequency, let’s run it at 10.”
According to Agar, transit overcrowding became more widespread during the pandemic. To address this, TransLink cut services on certain routes and increased service hours on busier ones. But for commuter students who take more than one bus to get to and from campus, this can compromise how their bus schedules line up.
“I wish certain buses could come more often, and more reliably,” Sabeur wrote. “I’ve been left stranded for long periods of time due to buses that did not come when they were supposed to.”
With the existing pervasiveness of overcrowding on the Lower Mainland’s busiest transit routes, a funding model that prioritizes student commuters wouldn’t just have to maintain the current status quo in bus frequency — it would have to go beyond it, while considering complex cross-municipal commutes like the ones Vedi and Sabeur take.
For Agar, the solution to this is a sustainable long-term funding model.
“We need to find a way to stop this cycle, and provide transit funding for TransLink that’ll allow them to actually grow faster than the rate of population growth.”
When one bus door closes, does another open?
As a commuter student for the past three years, I’ve been on the bus to and from campus more times than I’ve waited in line at Blue Chip — so a lot of times.
I’ve experienced everything most commuter students do, from feeling more nausea on a bus ride than I ever could on a roller coaster at Playland, to being on a bus for hours when it snows. And, of course, I’ve had my bus arrive a little late, then decided to skip my first class altogether.
But, despite all this, there are parts of being a commuter student that I thoroughly enjoy. I ride with the R4, physically and metaphorically — I wouldn’t be able to get to campus without the bus.
As commuter students, our bus routes may feel innate and mundane. They’re a simple part of our routine. Unless something horrific has happened, like forgetting your Compass Card at home, we often don’t think about the bus in general.
As uncertainty with TransLink’s funding continues to linger, it’s important to make sure commuter students have their voices heard. As Agar said, for now, the conversation is about finding solutions to preserve the ability for thousands of people to move freely around the region.
“There’s lots more that I want and we deserve as a region, but I think it’s important to keep the message simple for now.”
“We’re asking people to reach out to their MLA. Their MLAs are scheduling meetings to sit down with them,” Agar said. “I think a lot of people get into elected office because they wanna make change, and they see what we’re doing correctly as trying to make room for them to make that change.”
“There’s lots more that I want and we deserve as a region, but I think it’s important to keep the message simple for now.”
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