BC Transit is taking steps to maintain its fleet of buses, officially opening its new Provincial Distribution Centre in Colwood.
As BC Transit continues to expand its fleet to meet increasing ridership demands, the new warehouse is a cornerstone of its plan to keep new and existing buses reliable and on the road.
“Our ridership continues to grow with more people choosing BC Transit since the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Aaron Lamb, BC Transit’s VP of asset management and chief sustainability officer.
“To support this growth and manage our current needs, we need more space to support the increased demand and longer lead times for parts.”
The new 30,000-square-foot warehouse is five times larger than BC Transit's previous parts warehouse and will be able to better accommodate storing nearly 500,000 total parts that keep the BC Transit's fleet operational.
Lamb says the new warehouse will support transit growth for the next 25 years, meanwhile the previous distribution centre in Langford will be repurposed.
“We know that public transit strengthens neighbourhoods,” said George Anderson, parliamentary secretary for transit, when speaking on the impact of the new facility.
“Every minute saved in getting a bus back on the road is a minute gained for someone trying to reach their destination. This new distribution centre will ensure that our transit system is reliable and dependable, so that everyone can access the services they need on time.”
The new distribution centre will also feature a new management system designed to get parts out faster and easier, to all 58 BC transit systems across the province.
“This project is going to be a real difference for us in our ability to deliver reliable transit service,” said Erinn Pinkerton, president and CEO for BC Transit, who explained a warehouse of such size was not common for transit agencies but is essential to facilitate the breadth of BC Transit’s operations.
“We need this space. This is the space we use to keep the buses running, we need the right parts at the right time in the right place.”
The distribution centre was funded through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, with the federal government providing $2,209,483 to the program, the provincial government investing $8,445,960 and local government contributing $10,194,951, for a total investment of $20.6 million.
The new centre will operate out of the new Wildcat Industrial Complex recently constructed in Colwood. Lamb called it a “stroke of luck” that the space became available to end BC Transit's 13-year search for a new distribution centre space.
For such a large project, operating mostly behind the scenes, a mark of success for the project will remain its impact on riders.
“Our riders want reliability. So, if a bus doesn’t show up on the road because they don’t have the parts, that’s never what we want to see,” said Lamb, who outlined two main indicators of success as ensuring the parts are available to meet the schedule on the road, and ensuring when parts are needed they are available.
