Surrey Rapid Transit Study

This morning I had the chance to attend a preliminary meeting for the Surrey Rapid Transit Study. Calling it a Surrey study is a bit of a misnomer, it should real be called the South Fraser Rapid Transit Study as it includes Surrey, Delta, White Rock, and Langley (though only Willowbrook and the City of Langley). One thing that is special about this study is that the Province, TransLink, and municipalities are working together. In the past, TransLink has released plans only to have them trumped by the Province at later dates. Also, this study will take into account the results of the Fraser Valley Transit Study.

Today's meeting was mostly a planning/feedback meeting for the public consultations that will be taking place later this year. TransLink will look at all corridors and all technologies during this study including the Interurban. Rail for the Valley blogger zweisystem should be happy that TransLink called SkyTrain a metro system on their slide presentation. Public consultation will begin later this spring with a final report scheduled to come out around this time next year.

At today’s meeting we focused on four main questions:

1. How does transit currently support your community’s strengths?
2. What are the main transportation issues that affect your organization and the people your serve?
3. How do you think expanded rapid transit would affect your organization and the people you server?
4. How can we best engage with people you represent during this ongoing consultation?

One of the big items that came out of today’s meeting was that TransLink should look at the 200th Street Corridor as this will be a major growth area in Langley. Also, everyone noted how much of a transit deficiency there is in the South Fraser and that over 80% of all trip stay in the South Fraser. Another clear message was that bus service simple won’t cut it, we will need light rail.

Anyway it was a very interesting first meeting and I look forward to getting involved as the public consultation process begins.

Update: Actually, the public consultation begins this fall and will continue until the end of the study. Check out TransLink's website for the timeline.