Metro Vancouver staff put Surrey line ahead of rapid transit to UBC

I think that map misses one area in Surrey. Grandview is really growing and kinda its own area from the other south surrey one.

Johnny Carline and Christina DeMarco----another report - that should be shoved where the sun don't shine.

I go through reports - the latest RCMP - used as fodder for news release---the BC Liberal Cabinet, caucus has no credibility--the NDP is losing credibility by seeming to be impotent to a government that has no credibility--the bureaucracy is losing credibility --- Joe six pack is telling me that "he was told" that "we were only supposed to have taxes for one world war"/that's the path this takes/ ------ nobody likes business - supports so low - respondents must be owners or top shareholders -- unions get little support -- in BC it is the end of institutional politics -- no insider will produce an election turnout result of even 35% turnout.

Any now these 2 with the fiftieth version of Evergreen - who gives a shit--I went to the news conference (had to be bribed to go) - with Falcon who said they were breaking ground 2 years ago --- I said at the time (carnies at the PNE have more cred than these clowns---and the news spins around and dances while we get screwed over)-------

Someone fly a plane into the BC Legislature - maybe that will get someone's attention.

It has always seemed odd to me that a city that used to have a complete network of urban transit trains, (BC Electric Rail ) can't seem to get its act together now. While skytrains are a wonderful thing, RAV lines seem to do a good job and even B-Lines have their place.... we seem to think that they are too expensive. One reader asks where the money was found to buy airplanes for the military, not the best comparison. I'd personally use, "Where'd the money come from for the Golden Ears bridge, the Highway 1 expansion and the new 10 lane Patullo bridge"?
Rapid transit is gonna be what ultimately saves us, reports coming out of most developed countries including Canada indicate that the amount of road that has been built is already more than we can use. The time is coming (maybe its already here) when Peak Oil is gonna drive the price of Gas so high that people are not gonna be driving cars (Then whats the point of a ten lane bridge?). Then what will we do? Personally, I think the answer lays in cheap pragmatic rapid transit. Many of the right of ways still exist in the Valley from the days of BC Electric.. we even got a few of the old cars... and we did have that lovely Bombardier demo model during the Olympics running along Granville island.
While I agree there is a need for the UBC line, and perhaps due to growth it needs to be some sort of RAV line affair, I'm thinking that to lighten the load on the need for such dead end expenditures as the new Patullo Bridge, we need to get people from Guilford, Fleetwood, Langley and Aldergrove etc.. into the transit system effectively. Perhaps an inexpensive grade level electric train system like the Old BC Electric is the real answer. We can not continue to spend money the same way as it always has been. These days, by the time the road is built its already to small. We need to change what we do, and how we spend our money. For the price of Falcon's new bridges and Highways we could have a transit system that went right out to Chilliwack and hit all the dense areas.

We don't need rapid transit to UBC. We really need to get the harrowing noisy and toxic smoking B-Lines off the roads.

TransLink has created the mayhem to UBC by funneling all the transit traffic from the Commercial Drive transit hub along the B-Line route. If we simply distribute transit along W 4th, Broadway and W 16th from Commercial Drive to UBC, we can avoid rapid transit to UBC. We can do this with express trolley bus service for around $100 million: a very reasonable cost to a very easy transit problem if you know what you are doing.

Rapid transit to UBC doesn't make sense and let's get to work with practical and affordable solutions to the B-Line service bending the noise and emissions by-law in Vancouver as far as social and environmental impacts go. Streetcars as nice as they seem are unsafe to pedestrians and traffic; whereas, SkyTrain service to UBC is financial suicide for TransLink. Get to work on trolley bus extensions up W 4th Avenue and W 16th Avenue for f'ks sake and get the B-Lines off the road now.

The 99 is not the only bus route serving UBC. There are also buses leaving elsewhere on the Expo/Millenium line to UBC such as Metrotown station, Joyce Station, Nanaimo Station, VCC-Clark station and from downtown. Yes, that's how many passengers go to and leave UBC on a daily basis.

Also, UBC is NOT the only destination on Broadway, there is VGH, lots of medical/dental offices, restaurants and other businesses, not to mention high population density along most of Broadway. Which means a lot of people leave from Broadway for work and a lot of people go to Broadway for work.

@Robin C, dreaming about a pie in the sky rapid transit system isn't going to solve the B-Line mayhem right now. Trolley buses are affordable and we can turn things around right now with trolley buses.

Wouldn't trolley buses improve the noise and pollution on the B-Line route? Couldn't we do it right now? TransLink and the COV are on the verge of being sued for the noise and pollution from the B-Lines. Keep dreaming.

I wouldn't say that drug money laundered to build condos along the proposed EGL is behind the EGL. We have the most upright politicians in Canada and I'm sure that not one cent has greased the palm of anyone at Metro or the provincial government.

The EGL will take thousands of cars off the roads. It will not bring needy welfare transit dependent people here to live in Coquitlam and commute to Vancouver for work.

Proceeds from the carbon tax combined with tolls on bridges and roads should go towards the building of rapid transit infrastructure. Building more roads to accommodate increased automobile traffic has proven to be a failure everywhere. The main feature of the Port Mann bridge construction and Hwy 1 expansion should have been a light rail line into the Fraser Valley.

Many years ago before skytrain I was working with a electrical engineer on a presentation to oppose skytrain. The reason is it is the most ineffecient (electrically) to transport people. For the cost of the Expo line we could have built road level tracks all across the lower mainland. There is no need for tracks in the sky when grade level rail transportation was already available. If you look at the Expo line you will see right from the CN yards on Main Street rail lines that at one time ran right below skytrain out to Surrey and beyond. Of couse we were ignored. The fix was in to Bombardier.

Looks like the press release missed a few details - see the Metro Vancouver draft regional growth strategy page 50(http://bit.ly/bmitQj) for more details.

Such as:
---
a) staging rapid transit expansion (busways or rail), in
the following priority corridors:
Ӣ Priority 1: The Evergreen Line connecting
Coquitlam Regional City Centre to Lougheed
Municipal Town Centre
Ӣ Priority 2: Connecting Surrey Metro Centre to
one or more of the following Urban Centres
south of the Fraser River: Fleetwood Municipal
Town Centre, Guildford Municipal Town Centre,
Newton Municipal Town Centre, and Langley
Regional City Centre, and connecting the
central Broadway area in the Metro Core to
the existing rapid transit network serving the
eastern and southern parts of the region.
b)

Ӣ enhanced service linking the University of British
Columbia’s main campus to the Metro Core,
including the central Broadway area;
---