Carole James & the NDP – Have they missed the train?
Carole James and the provincial NDP’s regional transportation platform is in stealth mode, which is not surprising, as past NDP administrations have ignored sound public transport practice and used ‘rail’ transit solely as an election tool. Glen Clark, successfully used ‘rail‘Ai??Ai??projects as reelection tools:Ai??Ai??theAi??Ai??West Coast Express (known at the time as the Reelection Express) and the flip-flop on the Broadway – Lougheed Rapid Transit Project, from LRT to the Millennium Line SkyTrain and changing theAi??Ai??route to ‘show it’, billboard style,Ai??Ai??in NDP ridings.
The West Coast Express has never been a trueAi??Ai??alternative to the car, butAi??Ai??helped inAi??Ai??spreading sprawling population growth along theAi??Ai??North shore of the Fraser River to Mission, by providing a highly subsidized commuter rail service, exacerbating traffic congestion and gridlock in the region. The Millennium Line flip-flop cost the NDP many supporters, who worked hard to make modern light-rail a reality in regional planning and were seen to be ‘slapped in the face’ by Glen Clark and Joy McPhailAi??Ai??and did not vote in the 2001 election, the same election that the NDP were reduced to a rump of 2 seats.
The provincial NDP do not have a regional transportation plan and certainly have no vision for the return of the interurban to the Fraser Valley. The silence on this issue is deafening. Yet, reinstating the Vancouver to Chilliwack Interurban is a relatively easy thing to do; the tracks are there and vehicles are available, the only thing that has to be done is to negotiate with the Southern Railway of BC and the CPR/CNR over shared tracks in Langley. A basic (hourly) service could start within a year, with majorAi??Ai??track improvements happeningAi??Ai??when ridership demands new ` investment. The interurban is as ‘shovel ready’ project, as one can get!
What is needed is the political will to make this happen and certainly the Valley Interurban would grab the voters attentionAi??Ai??in May’s election, but the NDP are in silent running mode. The fear is that Carole James, like Glen Clark before, has succumbed to the ‘SkyTrain’ lobby, which always wants “one more line” to be built, this time the Evergreen Line, to make the network a success.Ai??Ai??Now, withAi??Ai??over $6 billion invested by theAi??Ai??taxpayer on the light-metro (those annual subsidies do add up), the best TransLink can say is that “80% of SkyTrain’s customers, first takeAi??Ai?? a bus to the metro“. SkyTrain has just given bus riders a slightly faster trip while at the same time, failing to attract the all important motorist from the car. The failure of TransLink to have independently audited ridership numbers and their refusal to accurately explain how they calculate ridership, indicates they have something to hide.
This election, the NDP could signal the end of the SkyTrainAi??Ai??and hugely expensiveAi??Ai??light-metro planning and join the rest of the world planning and building with light-rail. Supporting light-railAi??Ai??and the valleyAi??Ai??interurban, would go a long way to bring affordable ‘rail’ transit to the region. If that $6 billion, that has been spent on SkyTrain, had been invested in LRT instead the region would have that magic 300 km. light-rail network that would have gone a long way reducing congestion & gridlock, so much so that there would have been little need for new a 10 lane mega-bridge and the Gateway bridge and highways project. Many commentators have stated that this May’s provincial election is Carole James and the NDP’s to lose and by not supporting modern LRT and the valley interurban project, may be very well left behindAi??Ai??on the station platform, after missing the election train!
“The West Coast Express has never been a true alternative to the car, … ”
In polite language, an absolutely false statement.
The WCE provides a means of travelling from the suburbs to the Metro core during peak periods. If this same rolling stock were used 18 hours per day, in both directions, as is done on the main GO train line in Ontario, the utility of this sytem would be increased enormously.
We get a lot of BS about which transit system is best, and you’re write-ups on Skytrain do a lot of work exposing myths and innaccuracies on that front. Why spoil it by adding your own myths and inaccuracies about the WCE?
Sorry to disappoint, but the 5 in and 5 out service of the WCE has never really taken many cars off the road. What the WCE did do was make the North Shore of the Fraser River, as far as Mission/Abbotsford a bedroom community of Vancouver. It was estimated some years ago that at least 3,000 people moved from the metro Vancouver area to Maple ridge mission corridor, to take advantage of the commuter train. All the WCE has done is spread urban sprawl and its associated problems to the Fraser Valley communities.
Until the WCE runs return services all day long, it’s absolutely useless for people living in Vancouver and who want to travel East and will never attract the motorist from the car. As it stands, the WCE has further exacerbated our regional transportation problems by providing heavily subsidized fares, making it easier for people to move ‘up’ the valley from transit ‘rich’ Vancouver and commute back to town.