Public transit is emerging as a major issue in area municipal elections
Vancouver council candidates agree SkyTrain extension to UBC needed, but differ on timeline
Housing may be the most talked about issue in the municipal election, but transportation is also a priority for voters. Overall, residents and businesses ranked it second, with residents in Surrey saying transportation is their top concern, according to a survey conducted by Mustel Group and FleishmanHillard HighRoad, with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. Today, on Pages 16 and 17, we look at two cities — Vancouver and Surrey — set to receive huge investments in rapid transit projects and where the candidates stand on the plans.
When it comes to transit in Vancouver, there’s one thing most candidates agree on: Rapid transit should be built all the way to the University of B.C. campus in Point Grey.
How and when that should happen, however, is up for debate.
Funding from three levels of government was reconfirmed and the business case approved this week for the 5.7-kilometre, six stop, Broadway subway — an extension of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line that will run from VCC-Clark station to Arbutus through a bored tunnel under Broadway.
It’s estimated that the project will cost $2.83 billion, and construction work will begin in 2020 and be complete in 2025.
TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond said that in the second phase of a 10-year regional transit and transportation plan, there is money set aside to study conceptual alignments, in consultation with the city, the university and senior levels of government, for an extension to the line.
However, there is no timeline for the extension — a rapid-transit line between Surrey and Langley is the priority and slated for the third phase of the regional plan.
“The Millennium Line project is $2.8 billion and it’s a further run to UBC. You know, down the road we have to find ways to fund that project as well. There’s a lot of logic for it, but that’s down the road,” Desmond said.
Independent mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester released her transit platform this week and is in favour of speeding up the process to get the line to UBC in a single phase, as opposed to two.
“I’m fully in support of an extension to UBC. I think once we start digging and that’s going on, we need to connect to what’s a really important part of the city,” Sylvester said. “I think once you’ve started to dig, you continue to dig — you don’t start and stop again.”
Kennedy Stewart, running for mayor as an independent, also supports the idea of rapid transit to UBC coming sooner rather than later, pointing out that the university and surrounding neighbourhood are only going to keep growing, but he understands that funding is an issue.
“Rapid transit makes sense, especially when you look over the long term,” Stewart said.
Hector Bremner, a sitting councillor and mayoral candidate for Yes Vancouver, called the current plan to terminate the line at Arbutus “a bit short sighted.”
“We need to get the project all the way to UBC ahead of the current projection,” Bremner said.
His reasoning is that there are additional costs when you stop and restart a project, and the longer a project is delayed the higher the costs of materials, labour and real estate.
“There is no cost savings and there is very little advantage to doing it later,” he said.
Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Ian Campbell said he supports a stepped approach, but would like to see the line extension become a priority, something he said this week that he would do if he was elected mayor.
He said a feasibility study would have to be completed — although a similar study was conducted by the city in 2013 — and he wants to have the results of that study by the time the 2019 federal election rolls around.
The Non-Partisan Association (NPA) supports an extension, but has not taken a position on when or how the extension should be done.
“We’re going to conduct an independent review,” said NPA mayoral candidate Ken Sim. “It’s a comprehensive review — it’ll happen quickly. We’re not going to take years to do this review, but you can’t look at transportation in isolation.”
Representatives from Coalition Vancouver and the Green party of Vancouver did not respond to requests for comment.
All candidates interviewed seem to agree that UBC has a role to play in advocating for and funding the line, and in April the university’s board of governors voted in favour of working to accelerate the line and said it was open to contributing money, but didn’t say how much.
Stewart said there’s only so much of the burden that can be put on taxpayers.
“I definitely think there is a role for UBC and I’m pleased that President (Santa) Ono has indicated that there is value for this and has committed UBC to contributing financially to a project that goes all the way to campus,” added Campbell.
They also agreed — with the exception of the NPA, which did not take a position — that the extension should be SkyTrain, not at-grade light rail, which has been discussed in the past.
“LRT is a wonderful strategy for a community that is just building out, and I think it’s the right one for Surrey. I think they’ve got a good plan for what they want to do,” Sylvester said. “It’s not good if you already have the ridership.”