If Surrey can make SkyTrain plans work, feds will keep funding: MP

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Surrey’s mayor-elect says he can build SkyTrain to Langley for the same price as light rail, but TransLink doesn’t think so.

Doug McCallum believes it’s possible to build a 16 kilometre SkyTrain line for the $1.6 billion allocated by the federal government for LRT, because he says it is similar to building the recently finished Evergreen Extension. However, the transit authority has pegged the estimated budget for SkyTrain at $2.91 billion — nearly double that of what it would cost to build light rail.

“The federal government… agreed to support the agreement that was reached between the region and the province,” Fleetwood-Port Kells MP and former TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie explains.

“The plan specified LRT. Now it is very, very unusual for the federal government to get very granular about what’s in those plans. Routes and technology are things that we leave up to the region. In a case like this, though, I think that the real work that has to be done is that the regional level — through Metro Vancouver and TransLink — and with the province to see if the plan can be changed.”

On Monday, soon-to-former Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore warned that Ottawa and Victoria would likely pull funding if the plans changed because the deal was a legal document.

However, Hardie says if it does, parties will come back to the table to discuss this with the federal government.

“But it’s highly unlikely that we would change our position based on everything else being the same in terms of the amount of dollars requested, et cetera,” Hardie tells NEWS 1130.

McCallum’s suggestion would mean the route is several kilometres longer than the aforementioned Evergreen Extension, meaning it’s unlikely the cost would be the same.

“We would have to really let the regional planning process play out,” Hardie adds. “We want rapid transit to be developed in Metro Vancouver, and we’ve approved money for the Broadway line, we’ve approved money for the system in Surrey.”

He says if there are changes to that, it needs to be reconciled at the regional basis “based on the plan that had been previously approved.”

If McCallum can somehow make it work, Hardie says Ottawa’s share will still be on the table.

Vancouver mayor-elect Kennedy Stewart has said he’ll support any plan that gets more money for transit, because it’s often the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

New Westminster mayor refutes claims SkyTrain can be built for same price

New Westminster’s re-elected mayor says building SkyTrain from Surrey to Langley for the same cost as LRT isn’t possible.

“That’s actually incredibly factually incorrect,” Jonathan X Cote says. “There’s significant increase in cost from moving from light rail technology to SkyTrain technology, so to publicly indicate that they are exactly the same cost is dead wrong.”

Cote speculates McCallum is basing his figures on what it cost to build the Canada Line. However, he points out that construction costs have increased over the last decade, and reiterates the technologies differ greatly.

“I think it actually does a disservice to the discussion by saying publicly that these things cost the same amount of money, because they don’t.”

With a number of new faces joining the Mayors’ Council, Cote highlights the importance of keeping an open dialogue around the table, and allowing all parties the opportunity to talk about each of their priorities.

“I would caution the new group that plans that are already underway, and where money has already been spent, can be problematic in terms of investments where funding has already been received, planning and design work has already occurred,” he says, adding it could result in set backs and even delays in future funding for transit projects.

The region has already spent around $50 million on the work done on LRT plans. Cote believes it shouldn’t have to pay for any change.