How to improve transit in Richmond? Here’s what we heard in Steveston.

At Steveston’s Canada Day Salmon Festival, we set up a board with a simple question: “How would you improve transit in Richmond?” The response was overwhelming. Dozens of residents stopped to share frustrations, ideas, and hopes for better transit. Their passion made one thing clear: Residents care deeply about fixing transportation gaps.

With 68 contributions and countless conversations, here’s what we learned, and why it matters as Richmond grows.

Visualizing the Voices: What Matters Most to Transit Riders

To better understand community priorities, we analyzed every comment to create a very revealing word map.

The Salmon Festival draws visitors from across Metro Vancouver, creating a unique opportunity to discuss transit challenges beyond just Richmond. Many attendees eagerly shared transit pain points from their own neighbourhoods. 

Key Transit Challenges, According to You

The message from residents is clear: accessible, reliable transit remains out of reach for too many in Richmond.

Frustrations center on three critical pain points:

1. Unreliable Wait Times: Buses that are chronically late or too infrequent force residents to build excessive buffer time into their schedules. “Missing one bus can mean being 30 minutes late to work”, noted one commuter.
2. Inconvenient Access: Long walks to stops (especially for seniors and those with mobility challenges) effectively make transit impractical. “If you don’t live near a major road, you’re invisible to the system”, observed a Steveston resident.
3. Overcrowding & Missed Connections: Packed buses that bypass stops strand riders, compounding delays. This disproportionately impacts students and shift workers.

Community-Driven Solutions

Residents didn’t just identify problems, they proposed solutions!

• More Service: Increased frequency on high-demand routes (like the 402) to reduce crowding and wait times.
• More Routes: Strategic east-west bus routes along Blundell, Francis, or Granville would directly serve underserved neighborhoods, finally giving residents the ability to travel across Richmond without requiring multiple transfers.
• SkyTrain Expansion: Extending the Canada Line southward to address growing density.

Richmond Is Growing, But Is Transit Keeping Up?

Since 2021, Richmond’s population has grown by 6%, with rapid development in key areas:

• Capstan Village, a new urban hub with high-rises near the new Capstan SkyTrain Station.
• City Centre, where dense condos and commercial spaces continue to expand.
• Lansdowne, Bridgeport, and Steveston, where housing and amenities are on the rise.

Yet many residents feel left behind. One attendee put it plainly: “We’re building homes faster than bus routes.”

Transit isn’t just about buses. It’s about access to life. Let’s make sure Richmond doesn’t get left behind.