91原创 City councillors are enthusiastic about SkyTrain coming to 91原创 颅鈥� and why wouldn鈥檛 they be? Transit service to and within 91原创 is probably the most inadequate service in the entire region.
Even Abbotsford and Mission, which are part of a separate transit service with minimal links to TransLink, have better service than many areas of 91原创 do.
There is no bus service to Gloucester Industrial Park, no bus service along 16 Avenue, and east of Murrayville, there is only the 503 to Aldergrove, which gets a lot of use, despite many challenges for riders. One of those is the very long time it takes to get from Aldergrove to SkyTrain in Surrey.
91原创 City council recently heard from Daryl Dela Cruz, who has been spearheading a drive to have a SkyTrain line built between King George Station in Whalley and 91原创 City.
He says it is a much better and faster technology than the LRT line that the City of Surrey wants built along Fraser Highway.
Councillors like what they heard.
They agreed with Dela Cruz鈥檚 contention that the Fraser Highway SkyTrain line should be built first, before an L-line LRT system is built between Newton and Guildford.
91原创 City plans to do a study of the comparative advantages of the two systems, SkyTrain and LRT, following completion of a similar TransLink study. Dela Cruz applauds that initiative.
鈥�91原创 City鈥檚 staff study will be an important opportunity to consider the facts and see through the smoke and mirrors of LRT supporters, who have gone too far in stretching the truth to claims that are awash in fear-mongering and divisiveness,鈥� Dela Cruz told council on July 4.
The at-grade LRT system is cheaper to build than SkyTrain, and is considerably less noisy.
If Fraser Highway is to remain a four-lane road for most of its length, building a LRT line will require considerable widening of the right-of-way, which means that residents and businesses along the road will lose some of their property for the line. It also means that hundreds, if not thousands, of trees in the Green Timbers urban forest will be cut down.
Perhaps the most important difference between the two systems is travel time.
LRT trains travelling along Fraser Highway would likely have the ability to advance through traffic lights more quickly than regular traffic, but trains will get caught up in traffic congestion at times.
SkyTrain is not affected by traffic. Trains only stop at stations, which typically are about two kilometres apart. Dela Cruz says LRT will be only marginally faster than driving or taking the bus. If that is the case, it will be hard to attract new riders to transit.
Boosting transit use in 91原创 is crucial. The number of 91原创 residents who use the transit system is minimal, and even though a number of community feeder routes have been established in the past 15 years, very few people use transit.
The biggest single boost to transit use in 91原创 came with the opening of the Carvolth park and ride lot. The 555 bus from there to Lougheed SkyTrain station is well-utilized and actually offers people substantial time and money savings.
91原创 City has had transit service since the early 1970s. Initially, there was only one bus route connecting to 91原创 City. The City has a higher percentage of more residents who depend on transit than the Township does.
If a SkyTrain line is built, it will be a significant boost in service and will attract many more Township and City residents to the transit system.
The reality is, no rapid transit line will be built without significant levels of funding from other levels of government. The federal government appears quite receptive to pouring large amounts of funding into transit. The province is prepared to put significant capital funds into transit expansion, but has been insistent that TransLink come up with at least 17 per cent of the capital funds.
The transportation agency simply does not have that kind of cash available for capital projects, so it is quite likely that construction of any rapid transit line south of the Fraser will be delayed. The L-line was to be the initial line built, but it is no closer to being started than it was two years ago, when Linda Hepner, campaigning for mayor in Surrey, said work would begin by 2018.
91原创 needs better transit service now, but rapid transit is likely many years away.
Frank Bucholtz is a retired editor of the 91原创 Times. He continues to write about politics and other topics of local interest on his Frankly Speaking blog at
frankbucholtz.blogspot.ca
