The 99 B-Line began service 23 years ago, on September 3, 1996.  It was Vancouver's first "express"…read morebus, meaning that it stops at only select stops, so in theory it's "much faster" than a regular bus (in reality, it's only a little bit faster, depending on traffic, and in the evening, it's better to just catch the #9 if it's going to be a ten minute wait for the 99). The B-Line runs along Broadway between Commercial-Broadway Station and UBC, stopping at Clark, Fraser, Main, Cambie (where you can transfer to the Canada Line), Heather (the stop for the hospital), Granville, Arbutus, Macdonald, Alma, Sasamat, and Allison Road, although the Fraser and Arbutus stops weren't added until December 2009, despite those streets being major connections to busy bus routes.  (And before the Millennium Line branch of the skytrain was built in 2002, the B-Line went past Broadway Station, as it was then called, stopping at Boundary Road and various stops in Burnaby.) Compared to the other bus routes in Vancouver, the B-Line is great; it runs on weekends and evenings, and the service is now fairly frequent, although in spring 2011, they didn't have early morning service going to UBC on weekends -- I know this because I had my microbiology final exam at 8am on a Saturday morning (a double "fuck you" from the school), and there were NO bus routes, the B-Line included, that could get me to school more than 10 mins before my exam -- if it wasn't late -- which is not enough time to run from the bus loop to the exam, let alone take a much needed piss after a long bus ride. However, because the Broadway corridor is such a busy route, and the B-Line connects with the skytrain, the crowding on the bus is horrible. Back in the mid-2000s, I had to take the B-Line to work,  and I regularly had to wait over half an hour and five buses just to be able to get on a bus at Commercial-Broadway Station, because there were so many people waiting to get on.   I fortunately no longer take the B-Line on a regular basis, and I never have to take it during the morning rush hour.  But on the occasions I do take it, it's still quite crowded most of the time (like today when I was going to class), and people are often rude assholes.  It's still an unpleasant bus to take because of the crowding, but due to a lack of other alternatives (such as an express bus running on weekends down 41st Avenue, another extremely congested traffic corridor), it's a necessary evil. I can't wait until the new skytrain line is built along Broadway, even if it only runs to Arbutus and not all the way to UBC (something that should have been done 15 years ago).  The 99 B-Line is a great concept, but it doesn't work well because of the high volume of users and the traffic congestion along Broadway.  But it's better than the #25! [Yelp collections: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles]

99 B-Line or basically anything that has to do with Translink is no more than 3 stars. Yes it is…read morethat bad. Delayed service is common. But that is not the issue. The bus is dirty. The bus driver doesn't care what is going on behind him. Sometimes, the driver can be pretty reckless in driving. I have seen passengers falling. People don't usually give up their seats to seniors or disabled people. This happens quite often. It is sad. Again, most of the bus drivers are heartless and don't want to deal with situations on the bus.

I don't recommend taking this bus all the way downtown unless you want to scenic and people…read morewatching route as taking the skytrain from Main and walking is easier, however, going the other way up Main is a breeze. I find this easier than walking 20 blocks to the record store when I am really lazy on the weekends and just want to chill. The downfall to this station is that they closed the two star bucks while you're waiting. Most of the stops on main have an LED board which tell you when the bus is coming. Drivers for the most part are friendly. Never really had a driver look too hard at my pass. I take this bus twice a week.

Coming from a city that has few mass transit options, I truly appreciate the Sky Train. Visiting…read moreVancouver for the first time, and we quickly learned how to get around the city using the Sky Train. The kiosks were easy to use to purchase our tickets. The day pass is an excellent value and we definitely got our money's worth as we traveled all over the city. The maps on the trains helped us plan our stops. The trains and stations are clean! One of the members of our group uses a walker, and each station featured a gate and elevator that made it very easy for a disabled person to use this public transportation.

Good connection getting from A to B connecting you with DT and Expo line…read more Very slow, lots of stops. Speed throttled on off peak hours. Very limited cellular service between Gateway and Waterfront No WiFi unlike new trains on Expo line Air Condition weak and does not work at all in summer. It is a sweat box. Price triples for airport departures

Reviews for transit companies are kind of like writing in diaries. Only terrible, sad and…read moreunfortunate experiences are noted and reviewed. I love taking the skytrain. Affordable, timely, spacious and clean. Damn efficient I may add. Let's just put it this way, if I were to drive from Coquitlam to Vancouver during rush hour, it would give me a numbing irritable experience as likely I would to have deal with impatient drivers, stuck in grid lock and deal with bumper to bumper traffic. Hop on the skytrain then take the connecting bus, no headache and no stress. And it is even FASTER and CHEAPER!!! So what is there not to like. Sure, the impatient teenager me once thought riding transit was terrible, cuz I haven't yet been stuck on Highway One due to some jackass thought he was clever and can be quick weaving in and out finally causing a multiple pile-up blocking all lanes. I'll take the skytrain over driving any day especially during rush hour.

Finally, a decent way to get from downtown Vancouver. Sure we're all paying through the nose for…read morethis line, but I'm sure most people would agree that this line is WAY overdue. With that said, I still can't believe they had to tear up those brand new bus lanes running (they were there for less than 2 years) down No.3 Road. The stations are nice and clean, though their size leaves much to be desired. There is barely enough room to stand around on the platforms. The trains are wider than those of the Expo line, but they're also much shorter (2 cars instead of 4). Also you can tell they cheaped out when the stations on the Richmond side literally jut out onto the freaking street. Would it really have cost that much more to slide the entire station 3m to one side? One thing I always like to do is sit at the front of the trains and look out the front window. If you haven't done this before, it's actually pretty cool. The biggest complaint I have about the Canada Line is the fact that the trains only run every 10 minutes or so. Compare that to the Expo Line (1 every 2 minutes) during rush hour. Having the signs that show the ETA of the next train is nice, but it really sucks when you look up and see that you still have to wait 7 minutes. And this is assuming you're not going to Richmond, because now there's a chance you're going to wait (literally) twice as long. With that said, the YVR leg is awesome. Vancouver is now the only Canadian city to have a direct rapid transit link to the downtown core. I'm sure many of the cabbies out there aren't too happy about this. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Waterfront station is a major intermodal public transportation facility and the main transit…read moreterminus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Very nice and clean. Easy to move around. Trains always on time.

The station was clean, quiet, and punctual. I really enjoyed using it and felt safe throughout my…read morevisit. I saw attendants present throughout the day, which was reassuring. People were respectful and well-behaved, which I'm not accustomed to coming from the States. I was also quite impressed with the safety measures in place and how seriously any safety concerns were taken. Overall, I had a very positive experience using the station.

This was a fun experience - I can't really speak to how it is as a source of reliable…read moretransportation, but I took this as a fun excursion from Granville Island to ride around a little. While this isn't billed as a tour, the ship's captain was kind enough to narrate the landmarks (including each owner of the the vast row of yachts docked nearby!) that we were passing as well as each of the stops and what adventures could be had there. She was really entertaining and kind, as she also helped with several lost travelers standing at one of the stations. It was a smooth ride on a sunny day and the views were absolutely gorgeous. FYI, there are no amenities on board, so no concession stand or washrooms, although the ride roundtrip is only around 40 minutes -you don't really need it to begin with.

I love these little boat rides! The rainbow colours of the boats make them so much more fun and…read morehonestly very Vancouver. Very convenient AquaBus ride from Granville Island straight over to Yaletown, spending some time walking around and hanging out there, and then coming back to Granville Island for the rest of the day. It's such a short and sweet ride, but you still get to enjoy beautiful views of False Creek along the way. Another favourite is taking it over toward Science World and making a whole afternoon out of it. You can visit Science World, walk around False Creek and then head back to Granville Island. It's also really pretty at night when all the lights and signs are reflecting on the water. After spending a long day at Granville Island, hopping on the boat and just enjoying the ride is such an easy way to end the day. And the best part is that it's cheap! For the price, it's such a fun little Vancouver experience and something I keep coming back to and always making sure to have my out of town guests join in as well!

The most useless of bus loops. I am sure that it could be merged with another loop. Was annoyed…read morethat I was idled for a short period in an area that really didn't need a loop or a stop.

Expo line station in the heart of downtown Vancouver. This station is one of the original ones from…read morethe 1980s, and it basically hasn't been renovated other than the signage. The neatest feature of this station is the really long triple escalator tunnel. Always trippy to look at when riding the escalators. Just try not to fall over backwards. There are several exits available, but the main exit branches (specifically Granville/Seymore vs. Dunsmuir) are only connected at the platform level. In other words, make sure you know which exit you are aiming for before taking any escalators. Not the end of the world if you end up going out the wrong one, but something to keep in mind. The strange part of this station is that they never bothered linking it underground to the Vancouver Centre (Canada line) station which is a few blocks away. Guessing it was a budget/cost issue during construction.

Granville Station is one of the most centrally located SkyTrain stations in downtown Vancouver. If…read moreyou are taking the Expo or Millennium Lines and don't want to change at Waterfront Station to get to the Vancouver City Centre Station on the Canada Line, get off at this station. The station exit has an entrance to The Bay and Pacific Centre. If you need to change to the Canada Line, there are signs guiding you to Vancouver City Centre Station. If you exit into the street, it puts you on Granville Street. I found it easier to exit from this station, but a bit confusing to find the entrance to it since you are going through many underground passageways. If you need to change between SkyTrain lines, it is probably easier to just change at Waterfront Station. But if you have a good sense of direction than changing stations here is fine.

Yesterday, Monday February 11th, it snowed it Vancouver. Not much, compared to other places in the…read moreworld that get snow, but it brought our entire transit system to a halt. All day there was one problem or another with one of the skytrain lines, including the Canada Line, and most, if not all, of the buses were completely fucked, including the #25, but that's hardly a surprise. On a normal day, the #25 is unreliable, late, doesn't show up, over crowded, and passes people up, even when not full. Well, according to the Translink alerts (which are always put up well after Translink is aware of the problem, so even if you check before you leave, there could have been a major problem for the past half hour that Translink hasn't bothered updating on their website, so you get caught up in the problem -- yeah, I speak from personal experience), yesterday many of the morning buses had been cancelled and the rest delayed, which is really no different than a typical day, although this time Translink could blame it on the snow. Luckily I didn't have to work yesterday, so I stayed in, missing all the transit chaos. However, today I had to go into work, and I was worried about how fucked up transit would be, so I left super early, hoping to get to work BEFORE any major problems occurred, and to allow extra time in case there were major problems. I got to the #25 bus stop, not even expecting any buses to be running that morning, but to my surprise, just as I was approaching the bus stop, where two other people were waiting for who knows how long, I saw a bus coming. Perfect timing! But of course it was too good to be true, and as usual, the bus, which was NOT full, passed us up! Not only was I enraged because the bus passed me up (it had nothing to do with the snow and was just typical #25 bullshit), but I was worried because that could have been the only bus running that morning, and the next bus (if there were one), could have been an hour away, if it was anything like yesterday. Luckily another bus DID come, 7.5 minutes later, BUT, I should not have had to wait, as the first bus was NOT full. The driver of the second bus that came made an effort to let everyone on, even though the bus was getting pretty full (because the first driver was passing everyone up). If the bus is legitimately full, I understand that a bus may have to pass people up, although passing people up in the first place is a Translink fail, as it indicates that they don't have enough capacity on the route in the first place, and that something needs to be done (increased service, longer buses, modify the route or times, etc). So yeah, this morning's commute was not good, but it had nothing to do with the snow - it was 100% Translink's fault. (Luckily the Canada Line was running, so I didn't have trouble on that end, except for a woman who blocked the door after she got on the train, which was not crowded, causing me to nearly miss the train as I was trying to get past her.) In summary: the snow was no problem on my commute today, and the #25 bus did its usual pass up, even though it wasn't full. [Yelp collections: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles]

Good route and convenient but is never on time, which is ok other than the fact that in summer it's…read moreunbearably hot with glass bus stops providing no shade and the next bus is 15 (+- 5) mins away.

We have been using Excel for transport within Vancouver and to/from Whistler for about a decade…read more We've used it for our individual family and a group as large as 24 in a private minibus. The booking process is easy, the manager Howie is responsive and easy to work with. The drivers are always on time and courteous. On our most recent trip, there was a terrible accident on highway 99 which delayed us 7 hrs! We had multiple families traveling on together in a large van, half children under the age of 8. The kids were going stir crazy and so were the parents. The person that was not frazzled at all was our driver Johan. He was with us the whole way, taking us to dinner in Squamish, driving us around town looking for a place to entertain the kids and wait for the roads to reopen. We ended up having to hang out at a Walmart for several hours. By the time we got to Whistler was about midnight, on a 5p planned arrival. Johan never stopped being courteous, kind, and friendly. I can't imagine how tired and frustrating the ordeal must have been for him, yet he never let it showed and it made the journey so much more pleasant despite the circumstances. We've never had a bad experience with Excel.

Excel provided exceptional service--they were punctual. The vehicle was clean and comfortable, they…read moreprovided everyone with bottled water. Andy our driver was very professional, friendly, and incredibly helpful. I highly recommend Excel and will definitely use them again in the future.