Evergreen Line was a long time coming

Frank Bucholtz photo
A SkyTrain rolls into the Lafarge Lake-Douglas station at the end of the Evergreen Line on Friday, Dec. 2, opening day for the extension of the rapid transit system.


Friday was a day that many Tri-City residents thought would never come.
The 11 kilometre extension of SkyTrain into Coquitlam and Port Moody, the Evergreen Line project, was officially opened by Premier Christy Clark and local mayors. Passengers started boarding the trains at 12 noon.
The Evergreen Line has been a long time coming. First promised even before the Millennium Line opened in 2002, it was put on the shelf many times. Its history is instructive of the challenges involved in building rapid transit in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, and of the many twists and turns which inevitably occur when a project does finally get the green light.
Way back in 1980, the provincial government decided on SkyTrain as the long-awaited rapid transit technology that would be used in the Lower Mainland. I covered that announcement in downtown Vancouver as a young Surrey Leader reporter.
The first line was the downtown Vancouver-New Westminster Expo line, which started service in December, 1985, just in time for Expo 86.
At the time SkyTrain was first announced by minister responsible Bill Vander Zalm, there were plans to extend it to Surrey (as far as Newton) and Richmond, and the most likely third extension would be to the Tri-City area. That initial announcement was 36 years ago this month.
After the Expo line opened, the Social Credit government of the day moved ahead on building a bridge to Surrey from New Westminster, and extended the line to Scott Road station in 1990. A line extension and three further stations in what is now called Surrey City Centre opened in 1994. By that time, an NDP government was in power under Premier Mike Harcourt.
At that point, the Evergreen Line and a line to Richmond were jostling to be first in the queue. But Premier Glen Clark, who took over from Harcourt, had a different idea. He gave the go-ahead to the Millennium Line, which ran from the Broadway station on the Expo line to Columbia station in New Westminster. Essentially, it paralleled the Expo line.
This occurred just as TransLink was being set up. This was also a Glen Clark initiative. Lower Mainland mayors were offered control over urban transit and some extra taxing authority - but nowhere near enough to pay for all the capital needed to extend the transit service. Nonetheless, they couldn't resist the bait and TransLink was born - short of cash all along the way.
The Canada Line, the long-promised route to Richmond and the Vancouver Airport, finally got the go-ahead from TransLink in 2004, but only after two earlier rejections by the TransLink board, made up solely of municipal representatives. The province had the right to name three directors to the board, but did not do so.
The Canada Line was built specifically to be ready for the 2010 Winter Olympics and has been a huge success. The ability to travel to the airport by rapid transit is something that isn't possible in many cities, and even though there is a surcharge for doing so, it pales in comparison to the ridiculous charges to use the transit line between Toronto Airport and the downtown.
By the time the Canada Line controversies were over, Tri-City residents wondered if the Evergreen Line was dead, given the extensive fighting over how transit lines would be built and paid for. However, there was a promise of an at-grade LRT line (as is being proposed in Surrey right now.) This and other suggestions failed to make the grade, and mayors were ready to shelve the Evergreen Line because of costs.
In 2011, they finally agreed to boost the gas tax to help pay the TransLink share of the costs.
I checked the new extension out quite thoroughly in Friday's pouring rain, and it is quite impressive. Travel time is 15 minutes between Lougheed station, where it joins the Millennium line, and the end of the line at Lafarge Lake-Douglas. Two of the six new stations (Coquitlam Central and Moody Centre) tie in directly with West Coast Express.

Frank Bucholtz photo
The Moody Centre station is a gateway to both SkyTrain and West Coast Express. The wood beams in the ceiling are a nice west coast touch - quite different from the stark architecture at most SkyTrain stations.

The other four stations are at Burquitlam, Inlet Centre (the Newport village and Ioco Road area), Lincoln (adjacent to Coquitlam Centre, and partially paid for by the mall owners) and the end of the line station, which is near Coquitlam city hall and numerous other community buildings.
A lengthy tunnel between Burquitlam and downtown Port Moody delayed the completion date, but ensures that the line's grade is reduced.
The line has great potential to be a real city builder in the entire Tri-City area, and there is already considerable density along it. Transit use is certain to increase, and likely quite dramatically over time. Much more development is coming.
When looking at it from a Surrey point of view, it seems to make a strong argument that the longer proposed LRT line in Surrey along Fraser Highway should also be a SkyTrain line. There would be no conflicts with road traffic, travel times will be quicker, impact on the Green Timbers forest would be lessened and there would be seamless travel all the way from the terminus at Langley City to Waterfront station in downtown Vancouver.
It will cost a lot to build the 17 kilometre line from King George station to Langley City. The Evergreen Line cost just under $1.5 billion, and a Fraser Highway SkyTrain line in Surrey would likely cost twice as much.
People in the Surrey area who aren't sure whether LRT or SkyTrain along Fraser Highway would make the most sense should make the effort to ride the Evergreen Line and see it for themselves.