The City of Surrey is working to become the first municipality in Metro Vancouver to introduce a new form of transportation.
The city wants TransLink to serve as the first in a series of bus rapid transit (BRT) lines planned for the area.
According to TransLink, BRT will use higher-capacity buses and provide faster service through dedicated lanes, traffic signal priority, off-vehicle fare collection, and enhanced stations. TransLink has highlighted nine potential routes and would like to select the top three to prioritize.
Surrey would like to see a line running from the existing Central City SkyTrain station down King George Boulevard south to the Highway 99 bus loop.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke told Global News that Surrey is on the front line, with much of the infrastructure already in place years ago in preparation for the defunct Light Rail Transit (LRT) system. He said it is perfect for.
“It’s probably going to go through the center and take up two lanes. But we’re ready for that. We had all those plans in place when we started the LRT.” she said.
“You can see there are already bus-only lanes at most points after I-72.”
Surrey’s pitch for the first line also hinges on the fact that some of Metro Vancouver’s busiest lines are located here.
Surrey and Langley bus ridership is at 120% of pre-pandemic levels, according to TransLink statistics, with ridership on some routes, such as the No. 310 bus from Surrey to Radnor, at 2. It has more than doubled.
“Newton is a larger community than many cities in Metro Vancouver, with approximately 170,000 people living in the Newton area alone,” Locke said.
“Growing the infrastructure and growing the transportation network is going to be very important.”
Surrey’s business community is also involved in the pitch.
Anita Huberman, president and CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade, said the city is “under-invested” in transportation compared to the rest of Metro Vancouver. .
He said the city is growing by up to 1,400 people a month and will be home to most of the 1.3 million people expected to move to Metro Vancouver over the next 12 years.
“Our entire strategic plan is predicated on the fact that transportation drives economic development, so we want this bus rapid transit proposed by Translink to be prioritized regionally. “Surrey needs to be first on the priority list,” she said. she said.
“Yes, SkyTrain is coming, but that’s just part of the puzzle of what transpiration investment requires.”
Huberman said he’s also bullish on the idea of BRT, as the same corridor could eventually be used to transition to an LRT system, and hopes it can be built both north-south and east-west of the city. said.
Surrey’s aggressive push for a BRT line comes after Richmond City Council flatly rejected a proposed route between the city center and Burnaby’s Metrotown.
Lecture at CKNW jill bennett show Mike Hurley, mayor of Burnaby and vice chair of the TransLink Mayor’s Council, said he was not surprised by the City of Richmond’s refusal.
He said the city of Richmond doesn’t think the road network proposed for this route is good enough, and the idea is going back to the drawing board to see if staff can come up with something more to the city’s tastes. He said it was highly likely.
Meanwhile, he said the rejection meant the Board of Mayors would choose from eight routes instead of the nine proposed.
“If we can get funding, we’re going to move forward on all three routes as soon as possible. The Richmond to Metrotown route is just going to take a backseat.”
Whether Surrey makes it to the top of that list depends on the outcome of the vote at the next Board of Mayors meeting, he said.
The mayor will evaluate the proposed route based on a variety of factors.
“We have ridership, which is one of the top, and we also have a location that helps people get to work. That’s the second factor,” he said.
“And, of course, it’s actually easier to do that. Some routes are better suited to it than others, require less to design, and probably cost a little less to build.”
TransLink said in a statement that it will continue to work with Mayors’ Associations to prioritize municipalities that are ready to move forward with BRT implementation, while working to speed up service on existing lines in other areas.
The TransLink Mayor’s Council is still seeking funding for the proposed $21 billion 10-year Universal Access Plan. The plan aims to double bus service in the region, add nine new bus rapid transit lines, extend the Broadway subway to UBC, and build a subway. Gondola to SFU.
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