As of today (October 6, 2024) in the leadup to the October 19 B.C. provincial election, two parties have released their 2024 transportation platforms
Meanwhile, the B.C. Conservative Party has not released their complete platform but here are two links related to transportation:
Below, transit commentator Nathan Davidowicz comments along four themes and provides references for more reading.
1. Supporting TransLink plans: Transport 2050 and Access for Everyone
These are unambitious and incomplete plans that will continue the present mode share in Metro Vancouver 75% of all trips done by cars( it is over 90% in all of BC ).. Mode share has not changed for many years despite major capital investments in SkyTrain but very small investments in active transportation. We need a better transit plan, similar to ConnectingBC by the BCFed (https://bcfed.ca/connecting-bc).
Here is a new opinion article by five credible commentators about a new BC Ministry of Transit which has not been proposed by any of the three main parties. Link: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-ministry-of-public-transit
2. Supporting SkyTrain extensions
Every major transit consultant knows that SkyTrain is past its best before its due date. The Surrey Langley SkyTrain Project (SLS Project) is now budgeted at $6 billion, but that does not include upgrades that needed to be done, including new garage, additional cars, new control centre etc. When all these additional costs are added up, the amount could rise to $10 billion.
See former Township of Langley Mayor article. Link: https://langleywatchdog.com/2024/08/19/translink-insanity-driven-by-skytrain-must-stop-ndps-incompetence-on-full-display/
Construction has not started yet on SLS and now is the time to stop this bad project. If this project is allowed to precede, there will be no money left for many other projects
Originally in 2019 SkyTrain extension in Surrey was only for 7 km to Fleetwood, but the extension now planned is 16 km (about 5 km in Agricultural Land Reserve land, with zero population ) to Langley City. “Regional rail,” which is at least twice as fast as SkyTrain and costs way less, would result in better transit for the Lower Mainland of BC. (Just look at the regional rail systems in Ontario and Quebec as well as much better VIA Rail system.)
More reading, from Rail for the Valley:
3. The BC NDP has not revealed the list of new projects that they will support.
They are just repeating previous commitments to study more known old projects that have been previously studied by MOTI, BC Transit and TransLink.
