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The Millennium line was heavily criticized as a line from nowhere to nowhere during construction, and to boost public opinion of the line it needed as many riders as possible. If the SFU bus terminated at Lougheed, then all the people transferring from other bus routes at Lougheed could just take the bus to SFU and not ride the Skytrain. So the different terminus for the bus made everyone from Coquitlam and east have to ride the Skytrain.
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There's something that irks me about this idea... Like, I can see why this would make sense, but I feel like we can't be sure about the legitimacy of this.
If coming from Coquitlam/east and going to SFU, then why even go through Lougheed... People coming from east on local bus routes on weekdays could take the direct 143 or transfer to it.
I understand that public opinion on the Millennium Line was pretty tough and that if there was a transfer at Lougheed, there'd be a transfer advantage. But when you think about it, practically, there's something that does make sense about having the terminus at Production Way: It's literally at the foot of Gaglardi. Meaning terminating the 145 there is shorter, more efficient, and cuts back on service hours. In a region with a limited fleet of articulated buses needed for ever-growing routes like the 99 and (at the time) 98, I think this was actually really important at the time. It would've been only a few buses but those would've made a difference somewhere else.
At the same time, with the introduction of the 97 B-Line to Lougheed Exch, it's totally understandable that they'd want to keep the 145 terminus out of there, because in the long term it could be a serious constrain on the capacity of the Lougheed bus exchange. I mean, just consider how popular the 145 is today. Where are you going to store for lay-over all of the numerous 60-ft articulated buses that today run at frequencies in excess of 3 minutes during peak hours? You'd have needed to expand the bus exchange there and raise costs. You'd also need to expand the surrounding roadways to account for all of the extra buses and effect on traffic (consider the impact of 60-ft buses turning every 3 minutes or less from Lougheed EB to Austin).
The SkyTrain may be a slight inconvenience and an excuse to boost boarding numbers assuming there are indeed many people going just the one stop (and I really don't think so), but I honestly do find the design to be very practical. And, now that we know the Expo Line can extend that one station over, therefore solving these concerns on the transfer, I think it's safe to say we can close this debate for good.
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