C-TRAN planted the second branch of The Vine in 2021, breaking ground on Clark County’s next bus rapid transit line. The Mill Plain BRT project officially broke ground with a September ceremony at the future site of Mill Plain Transit Center, which will be built as part of the project. The event happened days after an announcement by the Federal Transit Administration that the Mill Plain BRT project received a $24.9 million grant through the FTA’s Capital Investment Grants program. FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez also joined C-TRAN CEO Shawn Donaghy and others for the groundbreaking ceremony in Vancouver.
The Mill Plain project is the second segment of The Vine, which began operating on Vancouver’s Fourth Plain corridor in 2017. The new project will operate on the Mill Plain corridor—C-TRAN’s second busiest, after Fourth Plain—stretching about 10 miles between downtown and east Vancouver. The project includes 37 new station platforms, and the new Mill Plain Transit Center serving multiple routes near the Clark College Columbia Tech Center campus. The lead contractor on the project is Tapani Inc. of Battle Ground.
Construction will ramp up in 2022, moving in phases along the corridor during construction. The new BRT system will replace C-TRAN’s existing Route 37. It will bring a host of benefits, including larger vehicles providing faster, more efficient and more reliable service. The Vine is scheduled to begin service on Mill Plain in 2023.
FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez joins C-TRAN CEO Shawn M. Donaghy and others for the Mill Plain BRT groundbreaking ceremony.