Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) is the contract operator for bus transit services in Metro Vancouver and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, known locally as TransLink, the entity responsible for public transit in the region. The buses form part of the integrated transit network of the Lower Mainland.

History

The Coast Mountain Bus Company was created on April 1, 1999, concurrent with the implementation of TransLink. Bus service in Metro Vancouver was formerly provided by BC Transit, the provincial government crown corporation that operates transit outside of Metro Vancouver.

Services

Coast Mountain Bus Company operates the buses throughout Greater Vancouver, except for some routes in West Vancouver, which are run by its own municipal transit system. One contract operator provides select Community Shuttle service, and another contract operator provides HandyDART services: This includes: The regional transit network including bus routes, service levels and fares are set by TransLink.

B-Line

B-Lines are a type of express bus route with bus rapid transit elements using mostly 60 ft low-floor articulated buses. All B-Line routes currently in operation feature all-door boarding. One route is currently in operation: Four routes no longer operate:

RapidBus

On January 6, 2020, two of the existing B-Line routes (the 95 and the 96) were rebranded as RapidBus routes (routes R5 and R1 respectively), and the following routes began service: A fifth RapidBus was introduced on April 6, 2020: On January 2, 2024, a sixth RapidBus was added:

Fare Paid Zones

A Fare Paid Zone is a clearly marked territory on which passengers must have valid proof of payment and present it for inspection upon request of a transit employee. Initially, these were only in effect in SkyTrain and SeaBus stations and vehicles until June 25, 2007, when the law was changed. Now, all buses, including West Vancouver Blue Buses, are designated Fare Paid Zones. The reason for implementing Fare Paid Zones on buses was to remove the responsibility of fare enforcement from bus drivers, as too many of them were being assaulted in disputes over fare payment. Fare enforcement on all buses are now the responsibility of the Transit Police and Transit Security Department. Officers may board a bus at any time and conduct a fare inspection. Those who fail to pay the fare and retain proof of payment could be removed from the bus and/or fined $173.

Facilities

Current facilities

Former facilities

Management and personnel

Employees

CMBC's 5200+ employees are spread across Metro Vancouver.

Labour disputes

In 2001, over 3,400 workers rallied in a strike and disrupted transit service for 123 days, from April 1, 2001, to August 1, 2001. SkyTrain service was not affected. In January 2024, CUPE 4500, a union representing transit supervisors and other bus system staff, went on strike. All bus and SeaBus service operated by CMBC in Metro Vancouver was cancelled on January 22 and January 23 as a result. The union applied to the BC Labour Relations Board for permission to picket at SkyTrain facilities; if approved, this would mean any future job action by CUPE 4500 would shut down SkyTrain services on all three lines.

Fleet roster

Current fleet

The following fleet is owned by TransLink and operated and maintained by CMBC.

Community Shuttle

SeaBus

Prefixes

Letter prefixes are prepended to the bus numbers on most conventional Coast Mountain buses, except trolleys. Generally, the prefixes are used to identify which garage the bus is operating from.

Former prefixes

These are prefixes not in use that were formerly used.

Numbering

Since 2012, Coast Mountain buses are numbered by the order year, series number and unit number. For example, bus number 12001 would have been ordered in 2012, is part of that year's "000" series (denoting New Flyer XDE60 articulated buses), and the first bus received. The order year may not reflect a bus' production year; bus number 12024 is the 24th bus in the same order placed in 2012 but was not produced until 2013. Series numbers vary by year and are often not reused on the same models each year. Community Shuttles since 2016 are always numbered in the "500" series. Prior to 2012, buses followed a legacy numbering system adopted from the former BC Transit Vancouver Regional Transit System, where buses would be numbered by series. Bus number 3334, for example, would be bus number 134 of the New Flyer C40LF/C40LFR 3200/3300 series. Unlike the current numbering system, all bus numbers ending in −00 would be skipped due to BC Transit policy. This was abolished when the new system was implemented in 2012. Exceptions to this are trolley buses, which follow a numbering scheme dating back to the British Columbia Electric Railway era, and older Community Shuttles, which followed either a three-digit system or the four-digit system of West Vancouver. These Community Shuttles carried "S" prefixes to denote "Shuttle" and their numbering systems did not skip bus numbers ending in −00.

Additional fleet notes

The first prototype 40 ft New Flyer/Vossloh Kiepe low-floor trolley bus arrived at the Oakridge Transit Centre on July 2, 2005. The 187 additional vehicles of that type arrived in 2006–2007, and all had entered service by the end of 2007. The first 60 ft articulated trolley coach (#2501) arrived at the Oakridge Transit Centre in January 2007. The others started arriving in January 2008, and all 74 had entered service by the end of 2009. It was announced that the original bike racks on the 2006 New Flyer buses can only be used in daylight, as they blocked the headlights at night. All of them have been replaced with a modified "V2W" rack.

Retired fleet

The following fleet were owned by TransLink and operated and maintained by CMBC or demonstrated with CMBC.

Demonstrator units

Gallery of fleet examples