New cancer screening strategy raises concerns
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- kilometre Surrey NewtonGuild ford 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 quotes opened earlier this month. However, the fate of the line has been hotly 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.
Last month, Hayne told Postmedia he believed the Surrey-NewtonGuildford 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 after looking at documentation, including the recently released redacted business case, and talking to the public, he is not convinced council and TransLink have made the right decision.
“There’s no shovels in the ground, there’s nothing that has been invested in so far that couldn’t be invested into SkyTrain if that is the preferred technology,” Hayne said.
Hayne said if the new council voted to send the issue back to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council and board of directors, he would consult with those two bodies and ask for a more detailed business case comparing the two technologies.
He would also ask for more information about whether the money already committed to light rail could be used to build SkyTrain.
The federal and B.C. governments, as well as TransLink, have said funding committed to light rail can be used only on that project.