Bus riders will feel pinch of transit plebiscite rejection
My column in this week's Surrey Leader and Peace Arch News
Last week, word came down that the
proposal to add 0.5 per cent to the provincial sales tax to pay for an
ambitious program of transportation expansion was handily defeated.
Surrey voters voted 66 per cent against
the plan. Delta voters were against it by a 68-32 per cent margin, while
59 per cent of White Rock voters said “no.”
What does this mean for the projects which most benefit Surrey?
The Pattullo Bridge replacement project
will still go ahead. Even supporters of the added tax acknowledged this
during the campaign. TransLink’s portion of the cost of the new bridge
will be funded by tolls, so the sales tax revenue plan really didn’t
affect it.
The bigger question on the Pattullo
should be this - why spend more than $100 million to patch up the bridge
to keep it open for a few more years? TransLink announced just before
the final day of handing in plebiscite ballots that the bridge would be
closed to all but light vehicle traffic for close to two years to get
the patchwork done and would be closed every evening and weekend.
It would be far better to use the money
earmarked for that project as a down payment on the new bridge, and get
to work on it right away. Most drivers who now use the bridge would
likely put up with a permanent closure if it meant a new bridge would be
available to them sooner.
The LRT lines in Surrey will also likely
be built, according to Mayor Linda Hepner. She said private-sector
partners are ready and willing to invest in the projects. She made that
statement the day the plebiscite results were announced.
Hepner said partners could build,
maintain and operate the line. This is what happened with the Canada
Line, so it is not without precedent.
Federal and provincial money is available
for the LRT lines, so the partner(s) would have to come up with
one-third of the capital costs. The first line would run from Newton to
Guildford via King George Boulevard and 104 Avenue. Hepner promised in
the November election that it would be ready by 2018.
The more ambitious line along Fraser
Highway, which is controversial as it would mean hundreds of trees in
the Green Timbers urban forest would be cut down, is the second phase of
the LRT project. It was set for completion in about 10 years, according
to the mayors’ plan.
Whether this project would go ahead in
its current proposed form is debatable. For one thing, it would offer an
absolute minimum of travel time savings over rapid buses. Given the
distance involved, it seems that it would be better to invest in buses
for the foreseeable future on that busy corridor.
Green Timbers may also prove a more
formidable object than Surrey council thinks. The forest was protected
by a referendum vote by citizens in 1988, and any planned encroachments
on it could lead to legal challenges. While Surrey officials claim that
only trees which are not protected within the urban forest would be
chopped down, that claim seems a bit too convenient.
The LRT line from King George Station to
Langley City would also be very expensive, and in some rural areas,
there would be no passenger traffic. From a private sector perspective,
it may not be viable east of 168 Street.
The one part of the mayors’ transit plan which is least likely to go ahead now is expansion of the bus fleet.
Additional buses and more routes had been
promised if the sales tax plan was approved, but it will be hard for
TransLink to set up new routes or offer more service given its current
financial constraints.
Once again, those who depend on the bus system have been left out in the cold.
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