Massey Tunnel In The News
(Courtesy Integrity BC)
Here we go again department.
Once again the Massey Tunnel is in the news and every political hobby-horse is in play!
Delta South MLA, farmer Ian Paton, wants the original Liberal inspired 10 lane bridge, which somehow will magically fix gridlock, while at the same time ignoring the fact that there is no new bridge crossing the North Arm of the Fraser river to South Vancouver/Burnaby. This means highway 99 in Richmond will be turned into a massive parking lot.
So, for three or four billion dollars we will have moved gridlock about 5 km.
It does not matter a bridge or tunnel unless another bridge or tunnel is built from Richmond to South Vancouver/Burnaby, gridlock will reign supreme.
The following map is nothing more than a conceptual idea what should be done as what the Ministry of Transportation wanted to do back in the 90’s before the Liberal kow-towed to the Port Authority to remove the perfectly good tunnel so Cape Max. tankers and colliers could travel up the Fraser to load Montana coal and Braken oil.
Those plans are now dead and so should the push for replacing the Massey tunnel!
The real issue is that TransLink, as incompetent as ever, has failed to provide a user friendly bus service from South Delta to Vancouver and the same is also true about buses from South Surrey/Whiterock. This is because of a very questionable agreement between TransLink and the SNC Lavalin lead consortium operating the Canada line P-3. This secret agreement forces all Richmond, South Delta, South Surrey and Whiterock buses to forcefully transfer customers onto the Canada Line at Bridgeport Station to pretend the under-built, grossly expensive Canada Line is somehow successful.
That’s right, SNC Lavalin involved in another transit fiasco. Is there not one politician who not afraid to rid ourselves of this loathsome company?
Maybe a daily 15 minute 602 service, from 6 am to midnight from Tsawwassen to downtown Vancouver, would attract a portion of car drivers from South Delta, as it is the kind of service transit customers want!
At present, TransLink and the mayor’s Council on Transit and the provincial NDP (as well as the Liberals) have shown zero interest in improving South Fraser bus service. All they care about is building a politically prestigious bridge for photo-ops before an election.
(Courtesy Integrity BC – green is the George Massey tunnel))
As one can see, the demand for traffic using the Massey tunnel has hovered around the 80,000 for over thirty years. This should pose some very interesting questions for the Bridge Lobby, which has been so successful in deliberately misstating their case to the mainstream media; especially the old saw that gridlock is growing yearly, which it is obviously not!
Is it not time for honest debate and just as honest planning?
“Maybe a daily 15 minute 602 service, from 6 am to midnight from Tsawwassen to downtown Vancouver, would attract a portion of car drivers from South Delta, as it is the kind of service transit customers want!”
Maybe a limited express bus to downtown during peak hours would be a good idea when the Canada line is crowded.
What about extending the Canada line to south delta? There could be at least three more stations in south richmond, Ladner and Tsawwassen
Zwei replies: The Canada Line was built on the cheap and needs at least a $1.5 billion investment to increase capacity to match the millennium and Expo lines. This must be done before any extension can be made. A rough guesstimate at the cost extending the Canada Line to Tsawwassen would be in the neighbourhood would be $7 billion.