Light rail vs. SkyTrain expansion: Surrey transit a hot election issue
Well at least there is some discussion about modern LRT, but the SkyTrain lobby remains mute on one very important issue and that is funding. currently the region can afford only afford to build one metro line a decade, with light rail, we can build up to four light rail lines a decade.
If Surrey politicians want SkyTrain in their city, they will be mouldering in their graves before a usable SkyTrain network is achieved, but with LRT a usable network could be had in under twenty years. One SkyTrain Line in Surrey will achieve very little, but if we could build three or more light rail lines for the same amount of money, the the city would be well on its way with gaining a usable LRT network that will actually attract the motorist from the car.
As with all political hyperbole Calgary is not planning that "every future kilometre on their system would be raised," but has fallen victim to land speculators driving up the cost of land, adding $200 million to an already over-engineered LRT plan (let's face it, Engineers tend plan a regional rail project to suit their own RRSP needs, why do they still keep supporting SkyTrain).
The annual death rate on SkyTrain is about two to three times higher than Calgary's LRT and both systems suffers from suicides, either by jumping in front of a train or disobeying stop signals and driving a car into a light rail vehicle. Aspiring politicians should not throw stones at glass houses.
What is true is that politicians who support SkyTrain expansion also support much higher gasoline and property taxes to fund the mini-metro, something they do not admit to at election time.
Light rail vs. SkyTrain expansion: Surrey transit a hot election issue
Read more: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/story.html?id=5709322#ixzz1dsjpJ8Xu
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says light rail is the right option for Surrey, but some of her political opponents say SkyTrain expansion is the way to go.
Photograph by: submitted, for Surrey NOW
SURREY – Surrey and Langley mayors are commending Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom for a letter indicating the provincial government is examining transportation issues south of the Fraser River.
In the letter, Lekstrom states, "We are examining the use of LRT (light rail train) as well as the potential for bus rapid transit and SkyTrain technology to provide frequent, fast and reliable service to communities south of the Fraser River."
He goes on to state that he is "committed to working with the City of Surrey and the communities south of the Fraser through this process."
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts is confident Lekstrom will create an effective transit network.
"We have been pushing for increased provincial spending on transit in our cities for quite some time, to level the funding inequity both cities are currently experiencing," Watts said in a press release.
"This letter is both an acknowledgement of our issues and a sign that transportation in Surrey will be improving in the future."
Watts said the city has been advocating for light rail transit because it's an "effective and efficient form of transportation. It will allow us to shape our communities and connect our town centres, while at the same time increasing economic development in our city."
Surrey is exploring three light rail transit routes: 104th Avenue between 152nd Street and City Centre; City Centre to Newton, with an extension to South Surrey; and Fraser Highway between City Centre and Langley.
But independent council candidate Paul Griffin said SkyTrain expansion is what the city needs.
Griffin said the mayor's ground rail proposal is second rate, adding that it will create "traffic chaos" and will inconvenience users.
"Calgary tried it," Griffin said of light rail during an all-candidates meeting on Nov. 8. "They had so many accidents and so much traffic congestion that they determined that every future kilometre on their system would be raised," he said.
"We've got to start thinking not only about the people in the public transit system, but about the people who aren't planning to take the public transit system," Griffin added. "They are going to be greatly affected by a ground rail system."
Griffin also said that creating light rail and SkyTrain would cost nearly the same, but light rail could have more operating costs.
But earlier this year, in an interview with the Now, Jeffrey Busby, manager of infrastructure planning for TransLink, said SkyTrain comes at a very high cost.
"Our SkyTrain options range from $900 million for just a short extension all the way up to almost $2 billion," he told the Now in May.
"In terms of the per-kilometre cost of rapid transit, you can get much more of LRT (light rail transit) or BRT (bus rapid transit) for the same level of investment."
Coun. Judy Villeneuve is pro light rail.
"I think it really helps develop a community," Villeneuve said during the Nov. 8 all-candidates meeting.
"Public transportation is so important. Many people in the Lower Mainland move to Surrey because housing is more affordable. But the problem is that there's a real lack of transportation. People can't get around," Villeneuve said.
"The truth is 76 per cent of the people in Surrey commute by car to get to work in Surrey or outside of Surrey. And it's becoming very expensive for people to do that."
Surrey Civic Coalition council hopeful Grant Rice said transit expansion needs to start with rapid bus service on King George Boulevard.
"And we have to do something immediately," Rice said during the all-candidates meeting, pointing out students at Queen Elizabeth Secondary school often wait for two or three buses to come by before they can get on.
"There has to be linkages between our communities because the businesses that are on King George Boulevard need to be serviced. They need to have people get off the bus and do their shopping locally here in Whalley."
Is Surrey is being badly shortchanged on transit?
Is Surrey being shortchanged on transit?
The entire area, South of the Fraser River, has been shortchanged with public transit and still being shortchanged with current transit planning. TransLink's myopic 1950's style of planning doesn't include, nor want to include proven modern public transit technique, such as modern LRT and its cousin Tramtrain.
Tramtrain, a development of modern LRT, allows a tram (or streetcar) to operate not just on its own rights-of-ways, but track-share with mainline railways. Reminiscent of the earlier 'interurbans', Tramtrain allows modern LRT to penetrate areas, which would be otherwise unable to sustain a 'rail' service.
There is no density issue with Tramtrain!
First perfected in Germany in the early 90's, Tramtrain is now operating in over 20 cities around the world, with many more being planned, but not in Metro Vancouver, where TransLink has invented contrived rules to omit Tramtrain, even when Rail for the Valley and Leewood projects released a professional study that showed that a 20 minute service (trains operating at 20 minute headways in each direction) from Scott Road SkyTrain station to Chilliwack could be obtained for about $500 million or for $1 billion, a grand Vancouver/Richmond to Rosedale Tramtrain could be built.
But TransLink refuses to play saying that unless the proposed 'rail' transit can operate at a 10 minute headways, they are not interested.
With this grand ignorance, TransLink has shortchanged Surrey and the South Fraser Region of viable light rail, built at a cost that would be $400 million to $900 million cheaper than the now approved SkyTrain Evergreen Line and will continue to shortchange Surrey and the South Fraser Region in the future.
The failure of TransLink, its board, bureaucrats and politicians to grasp 21st century public transit philosophy means Surrey will always get second prize in the rapid transit sweepstakes!
Guest column: Surrey is being badly shortchanged on transit
By Stephanie Ryan, The Province
Public transportation has become a key issue in many Metro Vancouver civic elections, but nowhere is the lack of ser-vice more acute than in Surrey.
Surrey has become a have-not city when it comes to public transit. Residents are understandably fed up with abysmal service.
We are not prepared to wait any longer. It's time to get our fair share. For two decades Surrey has been growing at an unbelievable pace of over 10,000 new residents each year. But transit — like schools, hospitals and other infrastructure — has not kept pace.
Surrey has become the poor cousin in TransLink negotiations, and receives only 25 to 30 per cent of the service received by communities north of the Fraser.
This is unfair. Data on growth shows that Surrey has grown at nearly three times the rate of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster since 1986, when those cities first welcomed the opening of SkyTrain.
Even with the newest two-cent-per-litre gas tax, which Surrey council proudly boasts will allocate 45 per cent of new bus service hours to the city, Surrey will receive very little, dollar for dollar, compared with communities north of the Fraser.
The Evergreen Line to the Tri-Cities, with a population half that of Surrey, is expected to cost $1.4 billion while the new bus service for Surrey will cost about $194 million — less than 10 per cent of Trans-Link's gas-tax plan.
Not only do Surrey residents receive less service, we have to pay more than our counterparts to the north. Surrey residents will pay the same extra two cents per litre as everyone else but are more reliant on their cars and have to drive greater distances. Add to that the fact that TransLink has added an additional fare zone for those who cross the river into Surrey and that all three bridges leading north over the river are expected to be tolled in the years ahead.
It's a triple whammy for Surrey that applies nowhere else in B.C.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts chaired the TransLink Mayors Council for a year but failed to fix any of the funding inequities.
Meanwhile, her Surrey First councillors nod along, toeing the line, gratefully accepting whatever TransLink happens to throw their way. That just isn't good enough.
Surrey residents can no longer afford to wait with Watts as she dithers over transit service. We have been paying into TransLink for years without receiving our fair share of service. It is time to start playing catch-up with those cities that receive many more service hours per capita than we do.
Whether it's tolls, gas taxes, fare zones or a proposed vehicle levy, it is time Surrey reaped the rewards of a system we have been paying into all along.
Surrey residents should reasonably expect their city council to take a more aggressive stance at the Trans-Link bargaining table, pursuing an expansion of bus service, express bus service and light-rail service now – not just when it is politically convenient.
In politics, you get what you negotiate and that means taking risks, being bold, building alliances and not accepting "no" for an answer, particularly when the people you represent are being treated as unfairly as Surrey residents.
What does Surrey need? More tough negotiating with the province and fewer celebrity "love-ins" with world leaders.
– – – – – –
Stephanie Ryan is a council candidate for the Surrey Civic Coalition.
Could be Granville Street or Broadway
Though this is K Street in Sacramento, it could be Granville Street or Broadway in Vancouver!
SkyTrain Craps Out Again – So what Else Is new! (Updated)
For the third time this week, the SkyTrain Expo Line has shut down, first due to electrical problems; then for mechanical problems; and as I write this, the news on the radio claims that the Expo Line is closed for electrical and mechanical reasons – go figure.
For those who claim that SkyTrain is more reliable than light rail, I have news for you – IT ISN'T!
Yet politicians who support SkyTrain expansion seem to have collective amnesia, when it comes to operational problems with the mini-metro, let's hope the taxpayers don't come next weeks civic elections!
SkyTrain issues cause major delays
No word when things will return to normal
Nov 12, 2011 08:36:27 AMSURREY (NEWS1130) – SkyTrain passengers are having some major problems this morning. A mechanical issue has completely stopped service on the Expo Line.A bus bridge has been set up between King George Station and New Westminster Station. People will then have to transfer to another bus bridge from New Westminster Station to Braid Station and then take the Millennium Line to Commercial-Broadway Station and then head to Downtown Vancouver.
Earlier in the morning, the Canada Line was not working properly out to YVR.
Technicians are running test trains on the Expo Line, but there's word when things will be running normally.
SkyTrain service halted
METRO VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
11/12/2011
Due to mechanical and electrical issues the Expo Line is not operating right now.
The Millennium Line is running between VCC-Clark and Sapperton stations.
Bus bridges are in place between Commercial-Broadway station and downtown Vancouver.
A bus bridge is also operating out of Surrey, from King George station to New Westminster station
Canada Line was having some problems earlier this morning, but Canada Line service is now back to normal.
Update 12:30 pm:
SURREY (NEWS1130) – SkyTrain passengers spent much of the morning waiting for a bus bridge after major mechanical issues slowed down service on the Canada Line and shut down the Expo Line.
Early this afternoon, the Expo Line was running normally. TransLink won't say what the problem was or why it took so long to fix.
A Ford Fiasco In Toronto
There are many in the Metro Lobby crowd that think moneyAi??grows on trees and taxpayers just love paying more taxes and modern LRT is nothing more than an “European concept” andAi??not really applicable here in Canada or the USA. What is applicable for grand metro schemes is the extremely high cost of construction and I will wager, Toronto’s anti-tram/pro-carAi??Mayor Ford isAi??at the beginning ofAi??a very steep learning curve as to the costs and financing of heavy-rail metro, especially built inAi??subways.
The real question is, “How far will Mayor Ford go, sacrificing the Toronto taxpayer to fund needless metro construction to suit his political needs?”
Regional mayors in the Vancouver metro region have already answered that question by approving a two cent a litre gas tax to fund the questionable Evergreen Line.
Toronto Star
No early cash for Sheppard, province tells Ford
Light rail closer to reality for Surrey, Langley – From Newsradio 11:30
Some positive news – well maybe, but we have all heard this before. If TransLink is involved with light rail planning for Surrey, it will fail for sure as TransLink couldn’t even plan for an outhouse, let alone understand its function. TransLink is famous for gold-plating proposed LRT that the cost becomes more than an elevated SkyTrain mini-metro!
‘Zwei’ would be happier if TransLink and South Fraser mayors engage real transit consultants, who have a real knowledge of modern LRTAi??forAi??proposed LRT planning. May I suggest David Cockle and Leewood projects for this task, as they have ample knowledge of the region with the ground breaking Rail for the Valley/Leewood study!
Houston’s innovative new light rail traveling on a reserved rights-of-way which also happens to be a water feature!
Provincial Light rail closer to reality for Surrey, Langley
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/298136–light-rail-closer-to-reality-for-surrey-langley
government is thinking about it
Nov 10, 2011 PMAi??SURREY (NEWS1130) – Surrey and Langley have received the first indications the provincial government is considering light rapid transit for those cities.It’s something the mayors have been lobbying for, for a long time. With the Evergreen Line finally heading into Coquitlam and UBC clamouring for a SkyTrain extension down Broadway, commuters in Surrey and Langley have been feeling a little left out.But that has changed with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom saying he’s seriously looking at a light rail system for those two cities.
Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender says trains are the way to go. “I think from a construction point of view and the ability to perhaps build more at the same cost as we would for a SkyTrain line out here, I think it’s an option that makes a lot of fiscal sense.”
Surrey Dianne Watts has always argued it’s important to widen the focus, away from strictly SkyTrain, to include the possibility of streetcars and light rail.
“Look at what occurred in Portland when they put in at grade rail, they spurred on $31 billion worth of economic development. So, for those businesses and creating jobs and things like that was really the way to go.”
She says possible routes include 104 Ave., the Fraser Highway, and King George Boulevard.
Rail For the Valley gives Top Honours to Rick Green
Media Release: Rail For the Valley gives Top Honours to Rick Green
Rail For the Valley has singled out Langley Township Mayor Rick Green for Top Honours when itAi??comes to advocating timely, sustainable transportation options. Among South of Fraser politicians hisAi??efforts have been outstanding in ensuring that people understand that there are affordable and practicalAi??solutions available to our transit problems.
Rail For the Valley founder Dr. John Buker had this to say: ai???Of all South of Fraser politicians, RickAi??Green’s achievements with respect to Rail for the Valley, and his advocacy of sustainable and timelyAi??transportation options, stand out. Mayor Green deserves unique recognition from us, for his work soAi??far.ai???
Rick Green’s three major Rail for the Valley accomplishments during his first term as Mayor ofAi??Langley Township:
1) Renewing passenger rights on the Interurban corridor. These rights would have quietly expired 2years ago, giving CP Rail a huge financial windfall, without the public even knowing, had MayorAi??Green not intervened. If the public had lost these rights, any hope of implementing a future InterurbanAi??service at an affordable cost to the taxpayer would have disappeared forever.
2) Creating the South of Fraser Community Rail Task Force. Thanks to this Task Force, communities,Ai??educational institutions, and other supportive organizations throughout the Fraser Valley are nowAi??actively communicating and working together on the regional rail issue.
3) Consistently advocating for timely and cost effective transportation alternatives to Translink. NotAi??only has Mayor Green been vocal about the possibilities for Light Rail in public, he has shown aAi??willingness to ‘stand up and be counted’ on this issue, even when encountering strong resistance fromAi??Translink and the provincial ‘Powers that Be’.
Transit agencies must put customer first
If ‘Zwei’ ever wants to createAi??howls of “shock and disbelief“, from the transit elites in the region, all ‘Zwei’ has to say is “transit is about moving people andAi??the transit customer comes first. Well ‘Zwei‘ is not alone with this thought. Custom journeys for transit customers andAi??seamless (no-transfer) journeys for transit customers both areAi??a non-subjectAi??with TransLink, whose only role it now seems is to cram as many bus passengers onto the SkyTrain and Canada Line metro systems so they can claim “astounding” success. A Pyrrhic victory if I ever saw one.
Transit agencies must put customer first
Toronto StarWhen Toronto talks mobility, it doesnai??i??t just talk about tolls and taxes to pay for transit, although the subjects come up. It talks about a seamless, regional transportation system that puts convenience ahead of the car.
That was the theme of a public forum at City Hall Wednesday evening with a panel of international transportation experts and regional politicians.
If the Toronto region is going to maintain its competitiveness and avoid choking on traffic congestion it must find a way to provide commuters with custom-tailored trips, said Edinburgh-based cities expert George Hazel.
Calling Toronto ai???a city at risk,ai??? Hazel said transit operators must start offering retail-style customer service.
Cities winning the battle over congestion are using mobile technology to let riders pay their transit fares, learn when and where the next vehicle is due to arrive and where thereai??i??s an available parking spot, he said. They are also giving road space back to people, who give cities vitality.
ai???A city should be like a party you donai??i??t want to leave,ai??? Hazel said. ai???Seoul took out a freeway ai??i?? just took it out.ai???
But a centrally managed transit network doesnai??i??t mean that municipal transit agencies have to disappear, said Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. But traditional boundaries must be broken.
Mississauga buses that cross the Toronto border should be able to pick up passengers and TTC buses should be able to do the same in her city, she said. Thatai??i??s not currently the case.
ai???Weai??i??re an economic unit ai??i?? the GTA ai??i?? and it is so important that we put our transportation needs together,ai??? said McCallion.
But Ottawa must step up its transit investments because property taxes wonai??i??t cover the bill.
ai???The property tax was never intended to take care of people. It was meant to look after property,ai??? she said, adding that the region canai??i??t wait until 2013 for the Metrolinx investment strategy that will show how to finance more transit.
ai???Itai??i??s got to happen in 2012. Weai??i??ve got to know how weai??i??re going to get the money federally, provincially and locally,ai??? she said.
Toronto Talks Mobility, organized by U of Tai??i??s Cities Centre, Councillor Joe Mihevc, the Pembina Institute, the Canadian Urban Transit Association and CivicAction Alliance, continues with a day-long conference at Wychwood Barns Thursday.
Toronto Talks Mobility
What: An examination of the state of transportation in the GTA and the need to implement funding solutions.
Where: Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St. (at St. Clair)
When: Nov. 10, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The SkyTrain Faregate Saga – The Farce Continues!
While transit authorities around the world are doing away with faregates and turnstiles and investing in smart card that can be automatically read even if the card is in one’s pocket or wallet, TransLink, abetted by the provincial government is, at great expense, retro-fitting faregate to the entire SkyTrain/Canada Line system.
The real story about the faregates is very disturbing. Former provincial Premier and Vancouver mayor, Gordon Campbell’s good FriendAi??since the City of Vancouver days and recent winner of the Order of BC Ken Dobel, acted as a lobbyist for the company selling the soon to be obsolete faregates and as everyone knows, what Ken Dobel wanted, Premier Campbell granted.
Just another instance that SkyTrain and the Canada line are just a vast slush fund of taxpayers monies, enriching friends and cronies of the government.
Construction officially begins on faregates at SkyTrain’s stations
Ai??By Frank Luba, The ProvinceWhat took so long?
That was the reaction Tuesday in a quick survey of people outside the Broadway-Commercial SkyTrain station, where construction officially began on the faregates for the Compass “smart card” you will need to gain entry to the Lower Mainlandai??i??s rapid-transit system.
There will be 400 gates installed over the next 12 to 18 months, with the system to start operating in 2013. The $170-million project is being paid for by the federal government ($30 million), the provincial government ($40 million) and regional transportation authority TransLink ($100 million).
To avoid paying a fare, cheats will have to vault over the four-foot high gates or slide under the paddles that open when activated by a wave of the Compass over the fare-card reader mounted on top of each gate.
Scofflaws will have to repeat the manoeuvre again to exit the system, giving authorities another chance to nab them.
Greg Robertson, who splits his time between Vancouver and the Gulf Islands, was surprised itai??i??s taken so long to put in barriers to prove commuters paid their fare.
ai???They should have built them when they built it [SkyTrain],ai??? said Robertson of a decision that’s been criticized ever since the system opened in 1986 for Expo 86, a world transportation exposition.
ai???Every other place Iai??i??ve been in Europe and Asia, they have gates everywhere,ai??? said Robertson.
Sadie Lawrence also lamented the 1986 decision.
ai???I would have thought they would have done that [put in gates] from the get-go, based on Torontoai??i??s [transit] system,ai??? said Lawrence, 39. ai???Itai??i??s a bit ironic that itai??i??s an afterthought, but it will save money.ai???
Itai??i??s not like turnstiles or the faregates with paddles that will be employed in the Lower Mainland are a new idea, said Jane Harmon of Vancouver.
ai???I grew up in Philadelphia,ai??? she said. ai???I think we had them back in the 1940s ai??i?? turnstiles.ai???
Harmon liked the idea of smart cards, which she hopes she will be able to load up in the same way she buys minutes on her cellphone.
ai???It will just be more efficient,ai??? said Harmon.
Faregates are also included in the project for the $1.4-billion Evergreen Line, said Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom, if that rapid-transit expansion to Coquitlam passes the hurdles needed to raise TransLinkai??i??s $400-million commitment.
Because the faregates and Compass card make it tougher for cheaters to ride the system, the rationale is it will increase safety and security, thus attracting even more riders.
The Evergreen Line Farce Continues
The Evergreen Line saga continues, with tenders being called for construction. The sad fact is, the winning bidder will have to cut corners to if is to secure the winning bid, just like what SNC Lavalin did when it won the Canada Line bid, by changing from bored tunnel to cut-and-cover tunnel construction and not paying compensation to affected businesses and merchants along the metro route.
As SkyTrain is the transit mantra for the BC Liberal Party, the BC NDP and the Federal Conservatives, there will be no end in sight for hugely over engineered light-metro planning in the Vancouver Metro Region. SkyTrain has been and always will be a political pork barrel where huge sums of taxpayers money are spent on short lengths of metro lines, while at the same time time enriching friendsAi?? and cronies of the government. Just follow the money folks.
The regional rapid transit farce continues!
Three companies to vie for lucrative Evergreen Line contract
Ai??By FRANK LUBA, The ProvinceThe long-awaited Evergreen Line is another step closer to reality.
Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, PNG files
A request for proposals to build the Evergreen Line rapid transit project was finally issued Wednesday to the three qualified bidders on the $1.4 billion extension of SkyTrain to Coquitlam.
Consortiums EL Partners, Kiewit/Flatiron Evergreen Line and SNC-Lavalin Inc. will bid to design, build and finance the line. Their technical submissions are due in April next year, with financial submissions due shortly afterward.
The winner will be selected in the summer of 2012, with the line to open in 2016,
That opening is delayed from previous forecasts for the line, which had been dubbed the ai???Neverseen Lineai??? for all its financing woes.
Evergreen had been the priority for TransLink and Metro Vancouver until Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics and the province began pushing for construction of the RAV Line, which had been ranked behind Evergreen regionally.
RAV became the Canada Line to the Vancouver International Airport and was built, albeit with much controversy over construction.
Evergreen languished on the sidelines because TransLink was not able to come up with its $400 million share of the project until earlier this year when gas taxes were increased and property taxes hiked.
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