A Letter From Jacob de Raadt

There is a growing realization from Fraser Valley taxpayers that the South Fraser region should secede from TransLink and even the GVRD. For far too long, the North Fraser cities have used the South Fraser as a 'Milch cow' for taxes to fund politically prestigious light-metro projects such as SkyTrain.

Valley taxpayers are waking up to the fact that there is no money for 'rail' transit South of the Fraser and no one at TransLink seems to be capable to plan for affordable light rail solutions for the region. The Rail for the Valley/Leewood report has shown TransLink's Achilles heel with their Vancouver to Chilliwack TramTrain plan. The RftV/Leewood report shows that light rail can be built for about $6 million/km, versus over $125 million/km for SkyTrain.

Fraser Valley civic politicians had better test the wind, so to speak, with local voters and taxpayers before next years elections, who are growing far more educated on regional transit issues than the bureaucrats in their expensive ivory towers on Kingsway would like. In fact, for South Fraser politicians, voting in favour of increasing or adding new taxes to fund the Evergreen Line might be treated like the soon to be former Premier, Gordon Campbell, with the HST debacle!

The only way that the region will get modern light rail is to secede from TransLink and go it on their own.

Dear Editor, Langley Advance,

The phrase “Moving Forward plan” was mentioned in your article “TransLink tax appears doomed” (Langley Advance, November 19).  I believe that in order to be “Moving Forward”, one needs to “go back” a little bit, to see where one has been.  With your indulgence, I would like to do this in some pre-TransLink time frames of 21 years each, gong back to 1947 – 1968 – 1989 and then 2010.

In 1947, oil was discovered at Leduc, Alberta.  The huge impact of that gusher (and those that followed) on Western Canada was likely the main reason for the short-sighted decision to abandon passenger services on the BC Electric Railway in the Fraser Valley in 1950.  The Trans-Canada Highway Act was promulgated in 1948, and the system was in the planning stages.  Diesel fuel was going to be abundant and dirt cheap, eh?  This passenger service abandonment followed the provisions of the 1907 Langley Rail, Power and Light Bylaw – the “charter” of this railway line – and soon after that, it was forgotten, also when the City of Langley separated from the Township of 1955.  We heard last year (2009) that the 1907 Bylaw is still valid in the Township.  Was the City of Langley ever advised of its existence, and that it may also still be valid there?  This affects the construction costs of railway crossings, likely also the one that is now being proposed at 196^th Street.  Perhaps both municipalities should pay nothing for it.  And the similar Bylaw that the City of Surrey has, might suggest that they pay nothing.

In 1968, a substantial part of the BC Electric Railway was relocated through the District of Surrey, City of Langley and Township of Langley.  To my knowledge, it was only Mayor Poppy of the Township of Langley who had the foresight to schedule a meeting with BC Hydro, in which a promise was obtained for a railway overpass at the Langley Bypass (although that was located within the City of Langley) “to be built whenever traffic would warrant”.  I guess that as only a few trains per day were envisaged, vehicular traffic was meant.  To date, after 42 years, nothing has come of this promise.  Methinks traffic warrants it.

I am not sure if those Township Council minutes are still enforceable on BC Hydro, in terms of the 1907 Bylaw.  I can only guess that if the City of Langley had known about that promise, and had been aware of the 1907 Bylaw, they would also have been able to solicit a similar promise for a railway overpass on 200^th Street.  That would have been their obvious “due diligence” for the long term view and good of the City.  Perhaps at that time, the City fathers still had post-partum depression, or they were still navel gazing about streetlights……

In 1989, the Socred provincial government of the day launched the “Freedom to Move” program, with many colourful glossy brochures.  The promise of lots of work for consulting engineers in fact brought my family to BC from Yukon that summer.  Under the Hon. Rita Johnstone, Minister of Transportation, this was to solve future traffic congestion in the Lower Mainland, continuing the Flying Phil Gagliardi highway building booms that were so typical of that party.

Under the “Freedom to Move” program, the Surrey-Langley Transportation Study was launched.  It recommended quite a number of highway improvements, including a railway overpass on the Langley Bypass.  Instead of a railway overpass on 200^th Street, (not possible due to the short-sighted build-up around it, which was acknowledged), one was proposed on 196^th Street, with the complete closure of the Fraser Highway railway crossing.  We all remember that the Socreds imploded soon thereafter, and that the second NDP regime started a decade of general decline in construction activity, except for some vibrating aluminium hulls.  Also, the Greater Vancouver Regional District was handed down various transportation responsibilities that the provincial government did not want to have any more, hence GVTA / TransLink.  And of course, the BC Transportation Financing Authority, a para-government agency that handled Design-Build-Develop projects that e.g. sold off the highway right-of-way of Highway 1 to a developer called Grosvenor International, to build a “fiasco”.  (The BC Liberals, when they came into office in June 2001, and the Township of Langley, both had a chance to stop it, but did not.)

Now, in 2010, we have new new buzz word – the “Moving Forward plan”.  TransLink now acts, through its CEO, as if it calls all the shots, while the Ministry that is now known as MOTI (instead of MOTH) – Highways has now become Infrastructure – is not even mentioned in your article, as if there are no provincial highways through our municipalities.  You may remember that at one time in the early 1990’s, the Township of Langley almost seceded from the GVRD (now called Metro) and thought about joining the regional district comprised of Abbotsford and others to the east.  Only “water” kept the Township in the GVRD.  It is surely no wonder that all mayors south of the Fraser River are now baulking at the request for more tax or fees or tolls into a gaping sinkhole, with a stated purpose to build a “Nevergreen Line” with outdated technology, way over there in Coquitlam and Port Moody, on the other side of the Fraser River, where many of us never go or want to go.

Someone else called TransLink a virus the other day on your pages.  Because TransLink remains to be an unelected body, while the Provincial Government with all its shortcomings still remains to be one, I would like to give that virus a name – the North Fraser Virus.  What medicines are helpful to combat viruses?  Isolation is perhaps one of them.  Perhaps the GVRD (now called Metro) should split in two, so that those of us on the south side of the Fraser River could pursue out own transportation future.

The South of the Fraser Rail Task Force has already brought these municipal councillors closer to each other.  I guess they now have a better and broader view of each other’s real needs, which are different from what the North Fraser Virus dishes up.  I would therefore encourage all of them, from Delta, White Rock, Surrey and the two Langleys) to stand together more, and to think seriously about such a split – and to make it a reality in 2011.  Now, there’s an early New Years Resolution!  This split would be more logical than the Langley split of 1955, which in my view, should be undone.  We all have streetlights.

Jacob de Raadt, Langley City