The 99 B-Line was created to connect UBC to
Lougheed Mall in
Burnaby via 10th Avenue,
Broadway and
Lougheed Highway. Then under the jurisdiction of
BC Transit, it was launched on September 3, 1996 and started out using a few high-floor
articulated buses and regular-sized buses. It became apparent that the regular buses could not handle the demand as this route soon became the most popular route in the system. By September 1998, 60-foot
low-floor articulated buses were used for all trips, adorned with a distinctive B-Line livery. During rush hours, the B-Line uses curb lanes designated as bus lanes on Broadway from
Commercial–Broadway station to Arbutus Street. An estimated 12,000 passengers per day used the route daily during its first two years of operation, 30% more than had been estimated. Of that number, 20% of the passengers used to drive to their destination rather than take public transit. Service had to be extended to late-nights, Sundays and holidays. Service began with a 10-minute
headway between UBC and Broadway station, 10–20 minute headway between UBC and
Brentwood Mall, and 30 minute headway between UBC and Lougheed Mall. Frequency was increased as demand increased, but only in the UBC to Broadway station section, with 7.5 minute headway. Soon the Lougheed Mall section was improved to 15-minute headway. Today the 99 B-Line operates on a 2-minute headway in the morning peak direction, with a 4.5 minute day base headway. In the late 1990s, the British Columbia government approved the construction of a new SkyTrain line called the
Millennium Line. This new line replaced the eastern portion of the 99 B-Line, from Broadway station to its old terminus at Lougheed Mall. It opened in 2002, with the 99 B-Line terminating at then-Broadway station (now Commercial–Broadway station as a result of the 2009 combining of the
Expo Line's Broadway station and the Millennium Line's Commercial station). As the fair bulk of the route's riders are students at UBC, the introduction of the
U-Pass in 2003, a discounted bus pass for university students, put even more strain on the route's resources. A
peak-hour B-Line route called the
#99 Special was introduced in 2004, featuring non-stop service to UBC during the morning rush hours and to Broadway station during evening rush hours. This route's "non-stop" moniker was revoked in 2005 when the service began serving more stops along the corridor and was discontinued completely in January 2006 to make way for a new route that was expected to be about as fast as the #99, the #84, which operates from UBC to the new
VCC–Clark station. This new route was designed to take pressure off the 99 B-Line. Additionally, curb lanes on Broadway were converted into bus lanes for rush-hour periods. On June 25, 2007, the 99 B-Line route became the first route in the TransLink system to allow passengers with valid proof of payment to board using any of the three doors at any stop. To facilitate this, the bus driver controls the operation of all three doors at each of the stops. Passengers who are paying cash must board through the front door. Fare Enforcement is carried out by Transit Security Officers. Transit Security Officers may board the bus at any time to conduct a Fare Inspection. Passengers without valid fare could be removed from the bus or fined. With the rest of the B-Line routes having been rebranded as
RapidBus in January 2020, it was decided to keep the 99 B-Line unchanged instead of including it in the rebranding as the
Millennium Line Broadway extension will be replacing the eastern section of the 99 B-Line. The extension will include six stations running from VCC–Clark station to Arbutus Street, where the truncated service will continue from a new bus loop. These changes left the 99 B-Line as the only B-Line still in service. The 99 B-Line was the busiest bus route in Translink's network in 2024, with over 10 million total boardings. ==Stops and transfer points==