An Open Letter To The NDP & Leader John Horgan
As the NDP have been extremely weak with urban and metro transportation policies in the past two elections, may I offer a suggestion that the NDP take another look at the Rail for the Valley TramTrain plan, providing a TramTrain service from Vancouver to Chilliwack, using the study done by Leewood Projects of the UK as a basis for the construction and operation of such a service.
The Leewood Rail for the Valley study, was released in September 2010 and though was well received internationally, with articles in two international transportation periodicals, it was ignored locally.
Today, with gridlock and traffic chaos now common place on Highway 1, especially from Chilliwack West, the Leewood TramTrain makes more sense than ever at providing a cost effective transit and transportation alternative for those who wish to travel up the Fraser Valley to destinations in Langley, Abbotsford and the burgeoning Chilliwack and Sardis communities.
The proposed TramTrain service is not commuter rail, far from it as unlike the West Coast Express, it will provide a regularly scheduled service from early morning to late in the evening, thus offering a scheduled service that would provide a viable and affordable alternative to the car.
The genius of TramTrain is that it can both operate on mainline railway lines or as a tram (LRT) on street or on a dedicated rights of way in town centres and by doing so, provide affordable transportation alternatives to areas deemed unserviceable by transit.
Why operate as a tram? The answer is simple because a tram service, on the pavement has proven to be the best way to attract ridership. This simple diktat is well understood in Europe, but evidently not so in Metro Vancouver, where transit investment has been tied into massive densification and the construction of the hugely expensive, yet obsolete SkyTrain light-metro system, which paupers the taxpayer while it makes land speculators and developers wealthy.
The NDP must forget any thought of a $3 billion subway under Broadway because it is nothing more than boondoggle vanity project to suit the needs of Vision Vancouver and their financial backers. There’s just not the traffic flows along Broadway to justify such an investment and like the billion dollar over budget Canada Line (the only heavy rail metro in the world built as a light-metro and has less capacity than a simple streetcar costing a fraction to build), future generations will view it as a “white elephant“, which hamstrung transit planning in the region due to the horrendous costs involved.
The NDP must also question the idea of the Surrey LRT because it is so poorly planned it will be next to useless and in fact the Leewood TramTrain plan would get Langley residents to Vancouver faster than SkyTrain.
The NDP must do a mea culpa on SkyTrain and light-metro altogether as the proprietary light-metro system is obsolete, made obsolete by LRT in the 1980’s. Since SkyTrain was first developed in the 1970’s, only seven so far have been built and not one has ever been allowed to compete against light rail, while TramTrain, a variant of light rail which first saw operation in 1993, has now over 18 such systems in operation and over 25 more in various stages of planning around the world.
The funding for the Leewood/RftV TramTrain could come from the proposed $3.5 billion Massey Tunnel replacement bridge, which is the current Premier’s big vanity project, which, in the end, move gridlock about 3 km. North to Steveston Highway in Richmond.
What could $3.5 billion buy?
- A deluxe electric TramTrain service from Chilliwack to Vancouver and Richmond ($1.5 billion updated cost)
- A new combined road and multi track rail bridge replacing the decrepit Patullo and Fraser River rail bridges ($750 million)
- TramTrain service from Vancouver to Whiterock ($250 million)
- A Victoria to Naniamo TramTrain service using the E&N railway ($500 million)
- With money left over to fund other TramTrain initiatives!
It is time that the provincial NDP rise from their myopic and dated transit promises and instead support better and cheaper transit policies for Metro Vancouver and the province. The NDP must eradicate that aura of a betrayal of the public trust, which still lingers with Glen Clark and Joy McPhail dishonest flip flop from well planned LRT from Vancouver to the Tri-Cities to the hodge-podge of poor planning with SkyTrain resulting with the Millennium and yet unfinished Evergreen Lines. Let me remind you, that flip-flop, in part, cost the NDP dearly winning a two seat rump in that disastrous election after the betrayal. Today, a sound transportation policy just may win you seats in the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver, as well secure seats on Vancouver Island.
Almost every major transportation project in the past 40 years in Metro Vancouver, from the Expo Line to the Port Mann Bridge replacement, has been a political vanity project which has not reduced congestion, nor has it given the region good transit, as mode share by auto has remained at 57% for over two decades. Our endemic transit issues and traffic gridlock are a direct result of politicians spending billions of dollars on vanity projects to cut ribbons in front of at election time, instead of implementing sound regional transit polices and it is time that the NDP act to change this.
Who is not afraid to bell the cat?
This is extremely solid work that needs to be shoved onto the public agenda as we roll into the next provincial election. The current government will do nothing. The NDP appear headed down that same track. So where to turn in the political for a realistic hope of champions who will see the value here and act on it?
Why waste your time writing Horgan? They have no plans for anything, Liberals have already started campaigning and the NDP is not even out of the starting gate. Not to mention it seems the NDP does not want to win anyway. They need to fold up shop and let a new fresh party that wants to govern replace them
We need to find a new party or start one with vision.
Zwei replies: It is never a waste of time writing a letter to a political leader, but please for one moment I am not so naive to think that Horgan will be allowed to read it. My inside info on the NDP is a party heavily divided, fractured comes to mind, and Horgan is the reluctant Leader to see through next springs defeat.
Dix, to this day, does not understand why he lost and remains like a barnacle adhered to a ships hull, waiting to be vindicated, as with Carole James. It is a toxic mixture. Like the regional mayors in last years TransLink plebiscite blamed the poor tax guy instead of blaming the Mayors Council and TransLnk itself, the defeat, the NDP blame everyone but themselves for their ills.
In writing a letter to Horgan, I copied it to a lot of people both in the NDP or in the intrests of the Rail for the Valley domain. They will ask the NDP why.
Terrific letter, it is a big stretch for the provincial government to be funding municipal transit in the Lower Mainland. Tram-train service linking communities (Chilliwack to Vancouver) has more of a provincial mandate than the subway in Vancouver, from my perspective.
http://www.chilliwack.ca/main/page.cfm?id=3
Criminal elements which are behind the subways and viaducts by TransLink are under scrutiny at the federal level. Politicians in British Columbia are too corrupt to take on TransLink. Reform of public transit here is going to happen through the criminal justice system or federal government constraints. Behind the scenes, things are taking shape.