LOWER MAINLAND (NEWS1130) – TransLink is defending its planned RapidBus service for the new Port Mann Bridge and a park and ride facility in Langley.

The bus drivers’ union fears the six flex-buses allocated for the route to link Langley with SkyTrain in Burnaby will not be enough to move people every ten minutes during peak hours. But TransLink’s Drew Snider says that won’t be the case.

“We’re making as much use of the resources that we have. Factoring everything else into it, having those six [flex buses] out there, we believe is sufficient and it’s also what we can do at this time,” he tells us.

Snider believes the buses will get 1,000 people where they need to go and the 800 stalls at the park and ride will suffice, assuming some of those drivers carpool.

“We’re always going to monitor the situation to see what happens with demand,” he adds.

The service was supposed to run every ten minutes all day, but because of belt tightening, that’s been reduced to every 30 minutes during off-peak hours.