Getting from downtown to UBC, by bus, with ultra-convenient hockey metaphors

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!

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 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

12 thoughts on “Getting from downtown to UBC, by bus, with ultra-convenient hockey metaphors

  1. Then there’s the 25, from Brentwood to UBC. But which player should this bus get? Joe Nieuwendyk? Keith Primeau? Yvan Cournoyer? Dave Andreychuk? None of those players had 25 during their entire NHL careers according to http://www.azhockey.com/shirts/shirts25.html

    But yes, like Brian says, get thee either to Broadway Station (served by two SkyTrain routes), Granville and Broadway, or Seymour and Hastings, and hop on the bus that says “UBC” on the front.

  2. Speaking as a new rider of the 44 (and I like the idea of the Bertuzzi), let me say that the timetable is a complete fiction. Allow at least an extra twenty minutes in case a bus simply doesn’t arrive in its predicted slot, arrives five minutes early, or ten minutes late…

    This by contrast to my former route, the 25, which you could set your watch by.

  3. Awesome post! Helpful and funny. I may have to walk all the way from the Hampton Inn to Brentwood just to catch the 25 so I can take the “Yvan Cournoyer” (c’mon, it’s gotta be Cournoyer, but then I grew up in Montreal watching the RoadRunner skate.) Ugg, the Bertuzzi!

    So what happened to the mystical bus from the Hampton Inn direct to UBC. With a 49% approval rate (http://2007.northernvoice.ca/poll/ubc-shuttle-bus) it’s almost twice as popular as George Bush and would even leave the dreaded Conservatives in the dirt (zing!)

  4. Yeah, strictly on qualifications I lean toward Cournoyer, though I grew up a Bruins fan. Though I always liked Nieuwendyk.

    We researched a few options for a Hampton shuttle, just couldn’t make it work… largely due to budget reasons, partly the surprisingly complex logistics.

  5. D’Arcy, your typically-Calgarian cheap shot leaves me choice but to play this devastating trump card against your valiant but undeniably goofy icebound heroes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9eF6DVI0tk

    And Jim, just because we tolerated the Canada-baiting in your bursary application doesn’t give you license to go after Gretzky. Back the hell off.

  6. Brian, digging that video up was just plain evil. The Flames in their ’80s heyday, jumping the shark for a cheezy music video. It was so believable, too! I mean, most trumpets and trombones actually spew low quality MIDI tracks rather than analog brass…

    It’s too bad they got so involved in the glam moustache-band scene. This is essentially the same team that cleared the benches in a full-on brawl…

  7. Alan, remember the Scottsdale bus we saw when you were here last year? Hop on.

    OK, D’Arcy, that clip-link was a low blow, and now that my temper has cooled I apologise. I must admit, I find it hard to hate the Flames as a team — lots of cool players, and they always seem to work hard.

    That clip you posted was something, Tim Hunter was such a badass. I’m glad the league saw fit to issue $7600 in fines! Now we now why fighting left the game.

    One question I cannot begin to answer… What the hell is the “glam mustache-band scene”? Except for Boston, I can’t think of any other groups that belong…

    The Guess Who? — They ain’t glam. Maybe The Eagles? No way. Trooper? They gotta be Leaf fans.

    Really, anyone, please help. Though I’m afraid where this pursuit might lead…

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