Expo Line - Surrey Langley Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[BCPhil]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

I don't know if this is mentioned in the article (hooray paywalls!) but Bill Vander Zalm, Patrick Condon, and the aforementioned Rick Green are holding a few "Skytrain [sic] Lies: Exposed!" sessions in June: https://twitter.com/Steve_Tornes/status/1133906677369954304

The problem with these guys is that they each have different problems that all culminate into one giant wrong idea.

Rick Green's problem is he just wants to get elected and is looking for some kind of tentpole idea. Patrick Condon's problem is he's against encouraging long distance movement. Bill Vander Zalm's problem is he's a media 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 who craves attention and seeks it out by catering to the lowest common denominator among the populace, the pocketbook, and will hitch his horse to any wagon that is promoting the cheaper alternative to taxpayers.

And somehow, this Venn Diagram of overlapping bad opinions and goals overlaps at the center and aligns with supporting Chilliwack Tram-Train.

The only reason this overlaps with the Tram-Train idea is because the most vocal proponents of it have gotten it in their heads that the one and only hurdle in the way of achieving a light rail line to Chilliwack is Skytrain.

"If only Skytrain projects weren't happening," Zwise says to himself, "then obviously my idea would take precedent."

And I don't think that's the case. BC is fairly financially prudent. We don't look have x amount of dollars to spend so go looking for a project that costs x dollars. We have projects we rank by benefit and find the budget for them.

If Tram-Train to Chilliwack made financial sense (the benefit to the community offset the obvious subsidy that would be needed), then it would for sure be in the pipeline of projects. I don't think it's a situation where because we build Skytrain, we can never build anything else.

Skytrain is not standing in the way of this Tram-Train. If anything Skytrain to Langley would actually make the Tram-Train more viable in the future. It would connect riders from the Township and beyond to rapid transit in Langley that would connect them to corridor of high employment along the Fraser Highway.

But forgoing Skytrain to benefit rural communities makes no sense. Skytrain will benefit thousands of riders who already take transit, thousands more who want to take transit but it's too slow, and encourage the city to grow in a way that will result in even more thousands to move to the area so they can take transit.