Public transit infrastructure connects people to their communities and allows them to be active participants, both socially and economically. Current gridlock costs Canada’s economy billions of dollars in lost productivity each year and is damaging to the environment. Smart investments in public transit are vitally important to building the Canada of the 21st century.
Joe Peschisolido, member of Parliament for Steveston–Richmond East, the Hon. Peter Fassbender, minister of community, sport and cultural development and minister responsible for TransLink, Al Richmond, UBCM president, TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond, and Councillor Harold Steves, acting mayor of Richmond celebrated the opening of TransLink’s new Hamilton Transit Center in Richmond.
Transit centers are the hubs of transit systems, keeping buses on the roads to get Canadians where they need to go. The new facility will perform three functions: dispatch, fuel and wash service, and maintenance for buses servicing the Richmond, New Westminster, Burnaby and Vancouver areas. Operations begin at the new facility on Sept. 5, 2016.
The Hamilton Transit Center is certified to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver ratings, making it Coast Mountain Bus Company’s most energy efficient facility. Energy conservation measures include radiant floor heating to accommodate Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses, the use of recycled pine beetle wood, LED lighting and a heat reflective roof. These features reduce the environmental footprint of the facility and the overall impact to the surrounding community.
The construction of the project also provided a number of benefits to the Hamilton community and the City of Richmond including: a park area, dike improvements, neighborhood trail development, and contributions to a daycare in the area.
The Hamilton Transit Center cost approximately $136 million to build, of which $85 million was provided by the Government of Canada through the federal Gas Tax Fund. TransLink provided the remaining $51 million.
