BCIT to UBC and Picnics In The Park
First published in 2009., The post has been updated.
A Wee Bit Of Local History
In early 1996, during BC Transit’s meaningless public consultation period for the Broadway Lougheed Rapid Transit Project which later morphed into the Millennium Line, Zwei received a phone call from an European Transit specialist, who worked for Asea Brown Boverai (later absorbed by Bombardier Inc.) regarding the project.
The European transit specialist, wanting to make contact with those planning for light-rail, had phoned BC Transit to arrange a meeting regarding the then proposed Broadway/Lougheed LRT project and was given Zwei’s phone number instead!
After his initial shock and displeasure being fobbed-off by BC Transit, the transit specialist entered into a long conversation with me on transit issues in the region and how modern light rail could help solve them. To make a long story short, he proposed a classic European style tramway for Broadway, with stops every 500m to 600m, going from BCIT to UBC, replacing all Broadway bus services and a second line via Main Street, Hastings St. to Stanley Park, that, he claimed would double present bus ridership on the two routes within two years, providing enough fare revenue for the tram to operate without any subsidy, with fares covering not only operating costs but most or all debt servicing costs as well. By doing so, a private company could build and operate the light rail line at no or little cost to the taxpayer.
“The rest is history” as they say and the SkyTrain Millennium Line was built instead and is subsidized by over $100 million annually!
The Light Rail Committee Proposes the BCIT to UBC and Stanley Park Light Rail Project.
In late 1996 the Light Rail Committee (now defunct) proposed a bold Broadway light rail plan: a tram/light rail line from BCIT to UBC via the Lougheed Hwy., Broadway, 10th Ave. and University Blvd. with a second line via Main street to Hastings Street to the Aquarium in Stanley Park. The plan consisted of lawned reserved rights-of-ways and on-street running; priority signaling on traffic calmed Broadway and Hastings Streets; tram/streetcar stops every 500 metres; a single track Vancouver General Hospital Loop via Fraser St., 10th Ave. and Cambie St., providing front door service to the hospital.
Commercial speed would be about 20 kph to 25 kph (depending on the number or tram-stops per km.) and the construction costs in the region of $35 million/km to $45 million/km; with maximum hourly capacity more than double the Millennium Line’s maximum capacity of 7,500 pphpd after a $1.47 billion re-signalling program!
In Finland a recent (2025) 3.9 km extension to a tramway cost CAD $34.1 million/km to build!
The value of the Petržalka contract is €83.043.464 (CAD $133 million(no VAT). This works out to $34.1 million/km. Compare the current cost of the 5.7 km, $3.5 billion extension to the Millennium Line to Arbutus (Broadway subway) at over $600 million per km, for the same cost of 5.7 km extension to the Millennium Line, we could build over 100 km of modern European Tramway!
Signaling would be line of sight with intersections and switches protected by local signaling. Headway’s could be as low as 60 seconds in peak hours.
What the LRCs plan would do is service many important transit destinations (UBC, BCIT, VGH, downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park, etc.), while providing economy of operation by replacing all bus services on Broadway and many in Vancouver, thus reducing operating costs by about half. Further economies are made by using existing masts and span wires along the proposed transit routes. The new LRT would be merely seen as the reinstatement of streetcar service by modern articulated trams, operating on 21st century rights-of-ways.
The concept of a private operator, by securing private financing to build the line at no or little cost to the taxpayer must be looked at by politicians. This type of P-3, not to be confused with the Canada Line scam, would see little or no subsides from government, unlike the Canada line which is heavily subsidized by TransLink by over $110 million annually.
The plan would reduce Broadway to one lane of traffic in each direction (passive traffic calming) except in areas of mixed operation, while keeping the all important on-street parking for local merchants. The plan would have offered a minimum of three transit routes: BCIT to UBC; BCIT to Stanley Park; UBC to Stanley Park.
The plan incorporates modern European light rail and tram practice; lawned reserved rights-of-ways, modular cars, high capacity, passenger comfort, and affordable cost.
It was not to be, as the Glen Clark NDP government, for reasons that can only be speculated, dismissed LRT out-of-hand and went for the then obsolete and hugely expensive Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) system, the fourth renaming of what is generally called SkyTrain.
The City of Vancouver and TransLink are demanded and got $3.5 billion dollar subway under Broadway, basically to serve their belief that “subways make a city world class”.
It is time to again to consider again a BCIT to UBC and Stanley Park light-rail network, that could cost the taxpayer little or no money instead of a $3.5 billion subway to Arbutus or a $8 billion plus subway to UBC that ignores transit concerns East of commercial Drive.
I was talking on line to a group of transit fan boys and fan girls yesterday about something unrelated to this article but your new/old article’s subject came up. The main critic was that the Skytrain was faster and therefore better although, the group did acknowledge that the LRT Line would be considerably cheaper, it would still be slower. I commented by how much though, how much is faster worth, when you add in the order of magnitude cost increase?
The original Stage 2 LRT Line to Langley that was killed outright by the switch in operating technology when the 10.6 km Stage 1 LRT line in Surrey was changed to a Skytrain extension to Langley was at the most, half the price, with inflation included, compared to the current Skytrain extension capital cost. For saving how much time over 16-17 km? It was 5 to 7 minutes at most. That’s a minimum of $3.5 Billion for 5 to 7 minutes less travel time. Is that even worth it? As a transit professional, “Oh hell no! ”
That’s why I laughed joyously, when Translink let out that, the expected cost of the upcoming Purple Skytrain Line (Noryh Vancouver to Metrotown) was already in the neighborhood of $8-$10 Billion, at a minimum. As a planner, going in front of a political council as well as an army of housing advocates or any other group advocating for a pet cause and explaining to them, we need $10 Billion at a minimum, for the next Skytrain line, good luck with that! When the current Stage 3 LRT Project here in Ottawa, had a capital cost hitting $5-$6 Billion for just 12 to 14 km of LRT lines, simply because of inflation. Housing advocates here in Ottawa screamed! $6 Billion would solve more than 60% of our current housing crisis. You can’t ignore that as a politician!
That’s why when the former Mayor of Surrey actually convinced people in Surrey that a Skytrain line extension to Langley was better than 2 cheaper LRT lines. I said on this very website, you idiots are getting nothing until after 2030! So far, I’m right.
Instead of a stage 1 LRT Line which would have realistically opened in the period of 2024-late2025 (given Covid shutdowns) and a Stage 2 LRT Line to Langley, more than likely already under construction and probably opening 2028-2030, for a Billion less than just the current Skytrain extension to Langley, which most likely will open really late, somewhere around 2029 to 2031. Mainly due to the fact, it’s way over budget right now and I’m not including the OMC#5 costs.
I’m talking about the $6 Billion cost. Which was way more than the current $4.01 Billion Federal and Provincial funding had been originally budgeted for. I recently learned the cost (without OMC#5) is now around $6.6-$6.7 Billion. Keep in mind here in Ottawa, we built and are building a total of 64 km of electric LRT and Diesel Multiple Unit operations, operating as Diesel LRT (both Stage 1 & 2 of our LRT Program) for a combined capital cost of $6.7 Billion. Have we had issues, oh you bet we have however, everything is working pretty good now (took the Confederation Line this morning). The East LRT extension is opening somewhere between December and February and the western extension in 2026 or early 2027 (massively over engeered project, way too many canyons, tunnels and bridges thanks to the NCC) but it’s going to open.
The surface LRT Line that was planned as the second stage of Vancouver’s LRT program from the current end of the Skytrain line to Langley would have carried the same amount of passengers as the current Skytrain extension to Langley will on opening day, (Translink admitted to that at the least) but would cost, even with inflation, only 33% to 60% of the capital cost of the current Skytrain extension. No need for a Billion dollar plus yard (OMC#5) either! This was because the yard for LRT Stage 1 would have been more than enough. The cost of the Surrey Line (stage 1 of the LRT) was higher than expected, for many reasons but mainly because the planned LRT yard needed to be very large and expandable.
Unfortunately, OMC#5 must be built, sorry Skytrain fans, if you build that line extension to Langley, you will have to eventually build OMC#5, simply because of the required fleet size of Sktrains and the need for maintenance tracks. Even with the completed expansion of the current OMC#4, the network will still be short of maintenance track space. That will greatly increase operating costs because of lack of space and functional time pre sure on existing facilities, unless you open OMC#5.
Contrary to people who believe driver-less means automatically cheaper operating costs, are unfortunately just plain wrong. Otherwise LRT lines would have disappeared decades ago. I use to work for Bombardier, its just not true most of the time that driver less trains, powered with LIM propulsion is cheaper and easier than standard LRT Multiple -Pole “Can Motors” and a train operator. The shear increase in the amount of basic infrastructure that the Skytrain right of way needs ,just to move the trains, 3rd rails for power and a 4th rail (the induction rail) which actually moves the trains, plus the automation technology, greatly increases long term operating costs, especially as the line ages.
There is a reason Montreal’s new Light Metro “The REM” has overhead wires and standard electric motors, uses standard Light Merto Vehicles (smaller versions of the full Metro Vehicle designs that Alstom uses) even though, it is driverless. Before you jump all over me, yes, I know they refer to the REM as LRT but legally and operationally speaking, under Transport Canada, its considered a Light Metro. The LRT label is because of marketing, not legal definitions for Transport Canada.
The costs of constructing new Skytrain and other types of rapid transit lines has unfortunately exploded. I had to explain to this group of people on line that, most of you have grown up in the era (roughly 1996-2020) where govenments, especially federal governments of all political stripes, realised that giving people rapid transit infrastructure got them elected.
Whereas it use to be, there was a very large subset of voters, usually Conservative but not always Conservative, who believed that government should cut and not spend at all. The less they spent, the better. The more they cut, the more they got elected. The Ontario Conservative Party’s “Common Sense Revolution” in the mid 1990’s was this entire political concept made manifest. It killed several Toronto NDP planned Subway lines ( two them were actually under construction) and Ottawa’s downtown Transitway Bus Tunnel, which all died in 1995.
The only survivor was the Sheppard Subway which had its Provincial funding cut way back, this is the main reason the first stage only went to Donmills Rd. instead of Victoria Park Ave. This shortened the length of the Sheppard line by over 4 km. This killing of rapid transit lines meant the Sheppard Ave. Stubway as locals call it, was the only new subway line constructed in Ontario between 1966-2002. Everything else were line extensions. In fact, between 1980 and 1995, no subways lines or extensions were opened at all. Just the 6.4 km Scarborough RT Line (paid firv100% by Bill Davis’s Conservative Government) and the 1.4 km Harbourfront LRT Line There was a 0.8 km extension to Downsview Station (Now Sheppard West Station) in 1996.
The current federal Liberal government isn’t a majority, its a minority and could die very quickly as soon as somebody in the government makes a mistake. The current Conservative Party federally, is much more like the we won’t spend on anything other than cutting taxes kind of party. As I say, “the funding pendulum has swung back to the 1980’s, get use to it”. Even the current federal Liberal party always points out that, they will spend “strategically” (government speak meaning, you won’t get everything you use to get in terms of infrastructure funding).
So Skytrain fans unless Vancouver’s regional government wants to cover 33% – 40% of transit line capital costs like it use to have to, something like Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton and Waterloo (sometimes even Toronto and Montreal) were forced to recently, no new lines. Unless your provincial government wants to continue paying 100% of the remaining costs of rapid transit lines beyond the feds current 30%-33% project funding limit.
The only caveat for 100% federal funding is for projects of “National Importance” like the current ALTO High Speed Rail Line in Ontario & Quebec. Notice, even the original western end point of Windsor, then London Ontario and the spur line to Niagara Falls have all been cut back to just Toronto to Quebec City (Via Ottawa directly). No Trenton to Ottawa to Montreal spur line anymore.