C-Tran’s new ‘Red Vine’ service opens early and under budget

The Red Vine joins the green Vine on Fourth Plain Boulevard, which opened in 2017.

Wearing a red suit, C-Tran CEO Shawn Donaghy thanked C-Tran’s staff, partners and board of directors who helped bring the project to fruition through the pandemic.

“Our community, our promise,” he said. “We see it on the top of the glass sheet on our buses, you see it on our letterhead. It’s not just our motto, it requires that we act in every single sense for our communities to provide equitable outcomes, protect all of our people, the values and our future. Our employees embody that vision every single day when they come to work.”

The opening marks a high point in one of the biggest years in the transit agency’s history. In addition to its new transit center and bus rapid transit line, C-Tran’s first battery electric buses went into service in June and planning continues for two more bus rapid transit lines: one on Highway 99 and an extension of the Fourth Plain Boulevard line.

Projects like this are “making the lives and the trips of people better; and in so doing, it’s building the corridor up and giving us the opportunity to see that extra development that can happen and that can best serve the community,” C-Tran chief external affairs officer Scott Patterson said.

“We’re excited for this, but we’re also excited to do a couple more of these,” Patterson added.

For those keeping track at home, Fernandez’s visit to Clark County marks the fourth Biden official to the county this year.

The administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Isabel Guzman, toured Vancouver in February, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg touted the $40 million federal investment in the Washougal 32nd Street Underpass Project in July and White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu visited Tidewater Barge Lines at the Port of Vancouver last week.

Critical transportation corridor

The Red Vine will cover about 10 miles and include 37 new stations, all with raised platforms and ticket vending machines, eight new 60-foot buses and a new transit center at the east end of Mill Plain Boulevard.

Mill Plain is a critical transportation corridor for Vancouver, serving downtown, PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, The Vancouver Clinic and the Heights District development in Central Vancouver and the Columbia Tech Center in East Vancouver.

To differentiate the Vine segments operating on Fourth Plain and Mill Plain boulevards, C-Tran will use color designations. The Vine on Fourth Plain Boulevard is known as the green line, and Mill Plain will be served by the red line.

The Vine is set to expand in the coming years with the proposed route on Highway 99, from the Vancouver Waterfront to Washington State University Vancouver and the Fourth Plain extension, from the Vancouver Mall to either the Mill Plain Transit Center or the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center — respectively colored blue and lime green. Service on both lines is projected to start in 2027.