Hwy 99 Fraser River Tunnel (George Massey Replacement) | Proposed

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Kisai

BC Ferries/Translink would be better off building a new ferry terminal closer to the airport than trying to extend the Canada Line to the existing one (which is 60 years old) and incorporating the bus stops closer to the ferry berth.

For those who haven't tried to get to the Ferry on foot. You take the 620 from the Canada Line, the Bus takes 35-50 minutes, arrives 5 minutes before the Ferry arrives typically, and is still a good 10 minute hike through the terminal and then you have to squeeze into the tiny waiting area at the end.

On more than one occasion, the ferry has pulled in , and there are lines going all the way back to Berth 2 from Berth 5. The Ferry terminal waiting area is quite literately too small for the foot traffic it serves, but at the same time it sprawls where an airport would have a people mover or a moving sidewalk. I have to wonder how much of a pain it for people in wheelchairs/mobility scooters to walk on. So why not just move the transit closer to waiting area.

Every time I hear "it doesn't make sense to extend the Canada Line" I think the person hasn't put any serious thought into it. No I don't think the Canada Line needs to extended into the middle of ALR, but the 620 is insufficient, but the ferry frequency doesn't work with a rapid transit line, or perhaps it would work better if people didn't need to take their car. So while right not it doesn't make sense, there's no matching rapid transit on the other side, there's no rapid transit at all on Victoria's side.

So to put this back into context, if the ferry terminal was on Richmond's side of the tunnel, a whole bunch of that car traffic would would have to shift, as suddenly all the ferry traffic wouldn't have to go through the tunnel, they would now have three ways to go, and would be closer to the Airport.

But I digress, "we don't need to extend the Canada Line" is short-sighted thinking. If they put space on the tunnel for a rapid transit line, the Canada Line should be extended through it, through Ladner, Tsawwassen Mills, and the Ferry Terminal. It doesn't need to be on day 1, but it should be guaranteed so short-sighted government people don't change their mind and convert the space into car space.

If you're going to move the ferry terminal, then indeed it makes no sense to extend the Canada. Lander and Tswaseen are tiny, and comparable in population to freaking Walnut Grove.