Delay of Surrey-Langley SkyTrain opening ‘disconcerting, disappointing’

SURREY (CityNews) — Those who have been pushing for a SkyTrain extension to Langley — including Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum — are frustrated after learning they will have to wait until 2028 for the project to be completed. 

The 16-kilometre expansion of the Expo Line will stretch from Surrey’s King George Station to 203 Street in Langley and costs about $3.95 billion. It was supposed to open in 2025.

McCallum, in a statement, says the delay is “disconcerting,” given the funding is in place and the city is moving ahead with its work to facilitate the extension.

“What we need now is the political will by all levels of government to get this long talked about project off the drawing board and to get shovels into the ground. There can no longer be any delay for rapid transit expansion in Surrey and communities South of Fraser,” he writes.

“At a time when the environment and global warming is at the forefront, the need to get people out of their fossil fuel burning cars and into transit has never been greater.”

Statement from Mayor McCallum: "The reports of the Surrey Langley SkyTrain being delayed is disconcerting given the fact that funding for this vital project has been fully committed…Rapid transit is long overdue and is of critical need now."

Read the full statement:

— City of Surrey (@CityofSurrey) September 21, 2021

Daryl Dela Cruz, the founder of Skytrain for Surrey, says the population is already growing, and municipalities have factored a completed project into their community plans.

“We’re starting to see that development demand. There’s a lot that’s going on, and they’re all doing this in anticipation of it opening on time. So it’s very disappointing,” he says.

“People are very patient. What I’ve seen over these last few years is through consecutive elections — local, provincial, and federal — people, the voters, have really sent that message that this is something that needs to be built.”

In July, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $1.3 billion in federal funding to complete the project, something Dela Cruz says was “the most exciting thing we’ve had for a while.”

Jonathan Cote, chair of TransLink’s Mayors’ Council, said the delay is partly due to COVID-19. Dela Cruz says he understands this, but hopes something can be done to speed things up.

“I think we understand that with the challenges of the pandemic, the timeline that it had before is quite challenging. This is why we’ve made the call to governments — let’s get this expedited and try to reduce that delay as much as possible, because there’s now a real need to start accommodating the ridership growth as well as the need to get people on transit.”