Well, the bombshell of sorts was dropped today at the Union of BC Municipalities meeting in Whistler. Premier Gordon Campbell addressing the group promised SkyTrain to Langley City. He said:"It's time to get started doing the SkyTrain to Langley City which has planned itself to actually provide the opportunities for the future that are required to make sure that transit works. It's time to get ready to build a rapid bus from Langley to Chilliwack. It's time to build rapid transit to UBC. It's time we got started. We decided finally on the technology. We made the decisions within the next year so we can get on with building the kind of communities and cities that we need that will serve the needs of our citizens."You can read the whole speech here. There is talk of more highway work and new park initiatives. It is a bit disheartening to us LRT advocates I must say. While we agree with rapid transit in Langley City and the Township, we want something that is sustainable, efficient and makes good business sense. A SkyTrain station is $30M-50M and an LRT station is only about $5K. Besides the capital costs to build this, what will the operating costs be? I have mixed feelings about this plan and mostly I'm thinking we could get more bang for our buck and more areas of Langley serviced by other modes. I have to politely disagree with the Premier on this one.
Hat tip to Mike MacDonald for directing me to this CBC article.
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