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On an average weekday, buses that travel the busy King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue corridor in Surrey have to contend with long waits for left turns, cars clogging the right lane and the usual traffic congestion. That’s why it’s the worst bus corridor in Metro Vancouver when it comes to delays, with buses on the 13 routes that use the two thoroughfares spending a combined 156 hours on a weekday stuck in traffic.

TransLink released a report Monday that looks at bus speed and reliability in the region, where bus ridership is quickly growing and almost two-thirds of transit journeys are by bus. The news isn’t good.

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Up to 85 per cent of bus riders in Metro — 250 million journeys — were affected by slower service last year, thanks to a “steady and consistent” decline in bus speeds due to congestion on the roads, and 80 per cent of bus routes are slower today than they were five years ago.

“For bus customers, delay on the roadways is something that everybody has first-hand experience of,” said Daniel Freeman, TransLink’s senior manager of bus-priority programs. “I think this is something that in our region, and frankly across North America, is becoming a growing problem and risk for bus ridership and transit performance, and we’re seeing it putting increasing pressure on our finances and our ability to deliver service where we need it the most.”