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Massive Transit Expansion Announced

By Garth McLennan, News Editor

i BC Liberal government has
unveiled a colossal, $14 billion public
transportation expansion, set for
completion in 2020.

The far-reaching announcement
will improve public transport throughout
Coquitlam, Surrey, ‘ Victoria, Kelowna,
and all over Vancouver, adding a large
number of buses and vastly expanding the
Skytrain system.

The long overdue “Evergreen
Line” Skytrain will be built at a cost of
$1.4 billion, while a direct line to the
University of British Columbia will be
constructed for $2.8 billion. The SkyTrain
will now go six kilometers deeper
into Surrey along the along the Expo
Line while all existing stations will be
upgraded to better accommodate longer
trains. The currently under-construction
Canada Line to Richmond is likewise set
to be completed at a cost of $2 billion.

The line out to UBC will be a 12
km extension and is set to be completed
by 2020, while the Evergreen Line
will run through Coquitlam and add an
additional 11 km connecting Lougheed
Mall to Coquitlam Center. Its completion
date is estimated at sometime in 2014.

The bus services will also be
enhanced, with a brand new system
known as the RapidBus BC Service being
instituted along nine bus routes throughout
Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna.
The ambitious plan will see over 1,000
new buses hit the road throughout British
Columbia. The current amount of buses
in Vancouver will be doubled, with 600
more being added in other places in BC.

Seven bus routes in the Lower
Mainland will be expanded. The new
Lougheed station along the Evergreen
Line that will run around Highway | will
get two new exchanges in Langley and
Surrey. Hastings Street will get routes
running to SFU in Burnaby. 41“ Avenue
in Vancouver by the Canada Line will run
out to UBC. Highway 99 out in White
Rock will receive a route to the Canada
Line in Richmond, while the King
George Highway in Surrey will go White
Rock. The Fraser Highway will connect
to Langley by the Expo Line station.
Finally, Highway 7 in Coquitlam by the
new Evergreen Line is planned to go

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across the new Golden Ears Bridge.

The plan is also environmentally
friendly, and is expected to scale back
greenhouse gas emissions from cars by
4.7 million tones, according to Premier
Gordon Campbell. The expansions are
expected to double public transportation
ridership from 200 million to 400 million
across the province.

“It means our great, great, great
grandchildren will continue to live in
a sustainable region,” said Coquitlam
Mayor Maxine Wilson.

“It does cost a lot of money,”
said Hayley Penk, a dance student in
Burnaby, “but it will help a lot of people
and the environment.”

The plan is not without critics,
however, and the tremendous cost of the
project has been the source of the greatest
controversy. Of the $11.1 billion needed in
new funding for the project, the province
is promising $4.75 billion in financial
support, and is expecting the federal
government to chip in an additional $3.1
billion. TransLink will supply another
$2.75 billion, and the municipalities will
pay for the rest of the tab.

“We recognize this is a plan that
will require partnerships,’ Campbell said.
“Tt’s the biggest announcement in terms
of investment in transit we’ve seen in this
country.”

Campbell is hoping for the
funding to come by February, but so far
the federal government has yet to set
a date for the money to begin coming
in. The province remains optimistic,
however. “The federal government has
stepped up to the plate every time we’ve
talked to them,” said Kevin Falcon, the
province’s transportation minister.

Others are not so sure.

“Where is the money coming
from?” asked NDP transportation critic
Maurine Karagianis. “The formula for
them to get more money is to raise fares
and property tax before they get more gas
tax.”

Joe Trasolini, the mayor of Port
Moody, is enthusiastic about the plan, but
is wary of what could happen should the
federal government back out of the deal.

“The Provincial government
has come up with $400 million as part
of the partnership to build the Evergreen

Line, there is another partner here — the
federal government. I’m _ encouraging
them to step up, so that the evergreen
Line can be completely funded and under
construction.”

Others critical of the plan
have denounced it merely as a ploy by
Campbell to accumulate more votes with
the provincial elections coming up next
year.

“We simply cannot afford
everything they plan to do. It’s not
realistic,’ said Burnaby Mayor Derek
Corrigan, the outgoing chair of the
Translink Board. “Telling everybody
we'll give you what you want is a pre-
election kind of promise, but it doesn’t
realistically deal with what the tax-payers
can afford to pay.”

One group particularly
disappointed with the announcement are
citizens of the Fraser Valley, particularly
Chilliwak and Abbotsford. They were
hoping to receive a Skytrain, or at the
very least much improved bus routes, but
so far such hopes will go unfulfilled.

Another community extremely
apprehensive of the large-scale plan
are small-time merchants that operate
along the proposed track lines. There
businesses would be severely impacted
by the inevitable construction. This has
already proved true for small business
owners located near the Cambie Line
construction. Several have launched
lawsuits against the government and
Translink for the severe limitations public
transit construction puts on them.

Yet other groups are poised to
make great financial gains from the transit
expansion, especially home and apartment
owners around the proposed stations and
stops. Studies have revealed that property
values jump 20 per cent for places within
1,000 meters of a public transit stop, while
if the property is located in a high-density
residential area, the value increases by a
whopping 100 per cent. However, homes
within two blocks of transit areas will see
their property value decline, as noise and
crime increase.

 

 

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