Northern Voice 2007

Important UPDATE: thanks to Kathryn for this vital news - "The 44 does not run on weekends!"

To get to UBC on Saturday, your best bet is the 99 along Broadway. If you're coming from downtown, you can catch the 98 south to Broadway and Granville and get the 99 west from from there. Go to www.translink.bc.ca to check out the route maps.

Again: Don't plan on the 44 on Saturday!

The original post below...

For those of you attending Northern Voice and wondering how to get out to UBC campus, I offer you this primer. I make this commute every working day. Every fracking day. My recommended route [for Friday only] follows:


44 - The Bertuzzi is, like its namesake, unpredictable, mercurial, and often surly. It can drive Vancouverites into a frustrated frenzy. But, again like its namesake, just when you are ready to disavow it forever it turns in a truly spectacular, even unbelievable performance. Normally, I would hesitate to recommend this underachiever, but Northern Voice is being held during UBC's reading week (when I was an undergrad we called it "suicide week", but then again when I was an undergrad you could smoke in class) so I expect ridership will be lighter.

The 44 Bertuzzi Express begins its journey to UBC from the corner of Seymour and Hastings (near Waterfront Skytrain Station), does a lazy figure 8 for a few blocks (just like Todd pretending to play defense), and then cruises down Burrard Street, making fairly frequent stops. (Those of you staying at the Hampton Inn can catch it at Burrard and Robson.) Once it leaves downtown, stops become much less common, and it makes pretty good time out to campus. Depending on traffic, the full run is 25-40 minutes. At peak times it leaves every fifteen minutes or so (like Big Bert, it kind of goes by its own, unfathomable schedule), during the rest of the day it runs every half hour.

* PDF Map of the 44 Route

* And, for what's worth, the PDF Copy of the Timetable

Note: Along this route is a 4-UBC bus (the "Bobby Orr"). If you want to go to UBC, DO NOT take this bus. Not only does it make many more stops, it does not actually enter the campus, dumping its hapless victims in a desolate locale outside the gates to live as refugees.

If you are looking to get to UBC from elsewhere in the city, TransLink has a pretty good trip planner application. Not exactly Google Maps, but it will do.



The bread and butter route for those arriving from elsewhere is the 99-Gretzky Bus, which connects UBC to the Broadway Avenue corridor, including Broadway Skytrain Station. Lots of buses connect along the way. Like The Great One, the 99 is a silky smooth playmaker, if a little slow at times, and always delivers in the clutch.

* PDF of the Gretzky Bus Route

Feel free to contact me in the likely event you would like clarification to this information. Northern Voice visitors may think of me as their verbose TransLink guide, if they are so reckless.

UPDATE: Thanks to Richard and Jon for recommending the 25 -- Yvan Cournoyer. The fast and precise-passing "Roadrunner" is especially good for those coming from the east or south of Broadway, beginning at Brentwood.

* PDF of the Brentwood-UBC Roadrunner Express