This is the second in a series of pre-election “Questions for Candidates” — for mayor and council candidates in the City of Surrey, Township of Langley and City of Langley:
For the portion of the Surrey-Langley rapid transit line running along Fraser Highway, do you believe LRT or Skytrain technology is best, and why?
A bit of context follows.
Phase Two of the Mayors’ 10-Year Vision calls for 27 kilometres of rapid transit south of the Fraser River.
While TransLink provided planning, advice, and forecasts on population, employment and transit ridership growth, the Mayors Council itself is making technology decisions.
Light rail technology (LRT) has been selected for Surrey-Newton-Guildford, as the mayors decided the additional capacity of SkyTrain technology was not warranted; a final decision has apparently not yet been made for the subsequent Fraser Highway extension from Surrey into Langley.
There has been a surprising amount of public debate to which technology is best suited to the region overall, and so we want to hear how mayor and council candidates in Surrey and Langley might choose to inform the discussion, and decision.
As with all questions past and future, we will use Twitter, websites and email to get the question out to candidates. Thanks to Cambie Report for maintaining this handy Metro Vancouver 2018 elections candidate spreadsheet.
Madness that this is even a question (skytrain is obvious choice for Fraser Highway)… but yes it is a good one to ask.
Skytrain to Langley.
Unlike the Surrey-Newton-Guildford Line, which is a local route, the line to Langley will be a regional backbone that must be built for generations of growth, which is Skytrain. Skytrain will have a higher build out capacity and higher frequencies than the largely at grade LRT that is being considered.
Then there is the simple fact that road and pedestrian traffic would not interfere with Skytrain (and vice-versa) but is a major concern regarding at grade LRT.
An elevated guideway would require less space along Fraser Highway.
Also the current eastern terminus of the Expo Line is perfectly orientated for a natural extension along Fraser Highway to Langley.
The fact that this is even a question is bizarre.
Vancouver, Burnaby, New West, Richmond, Port Moody, Coquitlam: Backbone rail = Skytrain. So why should Langley get any less? Even Surrey has its primary Skytrain backbone spur in place.
The politics of LRT must be removed from this decision. Skytrain to Langley.
Amen to that.
They just need to make the light rail such that in the future they can make an elevated Skytrain next to it (while still keeping it running.)
But if they’re going to do that they might as well just say that they’re going to have Skytrain there and in the interim do BRT along that corridor.