The Fraser Valley’s most popular bus route doesn’t have enough room to give UFV students a discount, BC Transit says. 📷 BC Transit/Facebook

This story first appeared in the Sept. 6 edition of the Fraser Valley Current newsletter. Subscribe for free to get Fraser Valley news in your email every weekday morning.

University students are returning to the Fraser Valley’s post-secondary campuses. But they still won’t be getting a discount on the valley’s most-popular transit route, because the buses don’t have room for more riders.

Students at the University of the Fraser Valley pay $40 each semester for a U-Pass for transit in Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Mission. But, years after UFV’s student union first began the program, they still don’t have an agreement to use the Fraser Valley Express. And that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

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chandy d2 years ago

Sucks that it's been fought for by UFV SUS for years and still hasn't happened. As a former UFV student who relied on the shuttle service for ~5 years, it's inadequate. Like the FVX, at its busiest times, it turns students away because it's full. You'd regularly have to wait 1 hour if you missed one. It also stopped running after ~5:30pm so you couldn't take it home for evening classes. If you live outside of the community you're studying at, you're facing a big problem that can't be solved with the shuttle OR the FVX. It's get a car/ride or bust.

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Sheila Humphrey2 years ago

I would like to see this issue made a campaign promise. If we cannot get the freeway upgrade to Abbotsford for a few more years, the LEAST the province can do is provide for more express buses. I depend on this bus line to bring my daughter out from Burnaby for a visit. While glad that the fare has not increased since the route was extended to Lougheed mall, it is maddening that there is not room for everyone wanting to take the bus, with a seat.

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Elisa Woo2 years ago

It is totally unacceptable to let riders stand at the curb for 30+ minutes for the bus, hoping that they can get on the bus. I have on many numerous occasions that I was required to stand all the way to Lougheed Skytrain station from Abbotsford. That’s an hour standing in a moving vehicle on the freeway. If vehicle passengers required to wear seat belts, why are passengers on a bus allowed to stand up, holding onto the post. Buses arriving to Abbotsford are often full already. Riders who get left behind are afraid to lose their spot in the lineup and therefore need to stand for another 90 minutes for the next bus. Imagine the elderlies and the physically challenged and the sick who need to go to specialist appointments in the city. In a few months, thousands of people are going to occupy the new development around the HIgh Street area. Build. Build. Build. Ditch the cars, the politicians say. We are stuck in the valley with nowhere to go.

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Nathan Davidowicz2 years ago

Need Double Decker or articulated buses. Need to implement Connecting BC plan by the BC Federation of Labour

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