TransLink is inching forward with plans to give Phibbs Exchange a badly needed makeover.

The transit authority posted a request for proposals on its website this month asking for bids from firms interested in taking some high-level concepts for a resdesign and creating detailed plans and a budget for the project.

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If it goes ahead, Phibbs Exchange will include shelters, landscaping, new lighting and bigger bus bays as well as improved access for pedestrians on foot, bicycle, in a bus or behind the wheel of a car.

"We really want our transit facilities to feel like they're natural extensions of their neighbourhood and certainly the existing facility doesn't do that," said Jeff Busby, TransLink's senior manager of project development.

The existing bus bays are designed to only accommodate standard buses but TransLink is planning to eventually run "b-line" articulated buses along Third Street, Busby said.

The transit hub currently serves 16 bus routes and 15,700 passengers per day.

Though there isn't a budget set aside for the plan and there's no guarantee TransLink will follow through on the RFP, a Phibbs redesign has been on TransLink's to-do list since 2012 when it was identified as a high priority in the North Shore area transit plan.

Unlike the TransLink mayors' council vision released earlier this year, the Phibbs update won't require voter approval by way of a referendum to go ahead, Busby said.

District of North Vancouver Coun. Roger Bassam said he welcomes the project to improve what is today a "horrible facility."

"It's really dated. It provides no weather protection. It's not well lit. I know people who always have some concern about feeling a little bit unsafe in there at night. It's hard to get to from a pedestrian aspect," he said. "It's obviously a huge opportunity for us to make public transportation a little bit more enjoyable in North Vancouver."

Bassam is optimistic the project will get the go-ahead, but only because the district has promised to chip in for some of the cost. "It becomes much more realistic this will happen if the district is putting money into the project, which is what they're asking of us," he said.

Those costs could be offset by revenue the district will generate from redevelopment projects in the area, he added.

"I think it will happen. Between our willingness to pony up some more money and TransLink's desire to actually do something for the North Shore prior to a referendum question... I think there is some incentive for TransLink to actually send some love our way," he said, noting he is disappointed in how little TransLink spends on infrastructure on the North Shore compared to how much local taxpayers pay in to the organization.

Redesigning Phibbs is just one piece of a larger puzzle that will also see all of the highway interchanges between the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing and Lynn Valley changed to improve traffic flow and make travel easier for cyclists and pedestrians, Bassam said.