Surrey mayoral candidate Bruce Hayne wants to ‘pause’ light-rail project
Surrey mayoral candidate Bruce Hayne would like to “push the pause button” on plans to construct a $1.65-billion at-grade light-rail line running between the Guildford, City Centre and Newton neighbourhoods.
“I think we owe it to the people of Surrey — and not just Surrey, but the region — to make sure that the technology we’re choosing is right for the future,” Hayne said.
The 10.5-km Surrey-Newton-Guildford line, for which construction is expected to start in 2020, is fully funded by three levels of government, and the procurement process began when a request for quotations opened earlier this month. However, the fate of the line has been debated by candidates for the coming municipal election, with some calling for it to be scrapped completely, while others have said it would be better to extend the SkyTrain line.
Just last month, Hayne told Postmedia he believed the Surrey-Newton-Guildford line likely could not be altered substantially. He said there has been a great deal of work done already in terms of planning and pre-construction, and “it’s so far along that it probably won’t and can’t be changed at this point.”
However, he said that after looking at documentation for the project, including the recently released redacted business case, and talking to the public, he is not convinced that the current council and TransLink have made the right decision in pursuing light rail over SkyTrain.
When asked what it would look like to pause the project, Hayne said that if the new council voted to send the issue back to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council and board of directors, then he would consult with those two bodies and ask for a more detailed business case comparing the technologies. He would also ask for more information about whether the money that has been committed to light rail could be used for SkyTrain.
The federal and provincial governments, as well as TransLink, have said that the funding that has been committed to light rail can only be used on that project. If a new council decided against building light rail, then the city and TransLink would have to start the process over.
Hayne envisions building SkyTrain between King George Station and Newton and using rapid bus routes to serve Guildford. SkyTrain to Langley would be the next phase, and in the future the line between City Centre and Newton could be extended.