by Jacob Parry
BCBusiness, Oct 30, 2015
(Image: City of Surrey is finalizing light rail station locations. Courtesy of BCBusiness, photo from city of Surrey)
If you commute from Langley to downtown Vancouver, Surrey’s choice for light rail over familiar and faster SkyTrain lines may seem counterintuitive. But the choice for smaller “Euro-style” low-floor trains is more attuned to the city’s ambitions as a place where South Fraser residents can easily commute within the region, ideally without a car, according to Don Luymes, Surrey’s manager of community planning, who discussed Surrey’s light rail ambitions at the Architectural Institute of British Columbia’s annual convention on Friday.
The city of Surrey and TransLink are in the process of finalizing station locations, coordinating bus schedules and selecting run times for a system that Surrey planners hope will form the backbone of the city’s future development. By early 2016, the city will have finalized the final number and locations of stations along the 10-kilometre first phase, which will be nailed down in early 2016. But when it comes to the $2.1 billion price tag, little has changed. While provincial Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone has reiterated his commitment to fund one-third of the proposal, and the incoming Trudeau government has made a similar commitment, the city still has to come up with $700 million to pay for its share. Read more…