TransLink Mayors’ Council unveils funding wish list for transit improvements
Posted November 23, 2023 6:59 am.
Last Updated November 23, 2023 11:30 pm.
Local politicians are hoping the federal government plays Santa.
The TransLink Mayors’ Council detailed its wish list Thursday for federal funding to help pay for a litany of transit improvements across Metro Vancouver.
The funding requests include supporting the building of new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects, giving $375 million for an expanded bus fleet, $1.4 million for additional bus depot capacity, $70 million for active transportation and road safety projects, as well as $120 million for the Golden Ears Way BRT readiness project.
“Transit-oriented development is a key component of the province’s and region’s plan to respond to the housing affordability crisis, but without federal financial support and a sustainable funding model to help deliver additional transit into the future, we won’t be successful,” said Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, chair of the Mayors’ Council.
He adds that this funding is important as Metro Vancouver’s transit services are “essentially frozen at 2019 levels even as the region’s population has grown by almost 200,000 between 2019 and 2023.”
The announcement came a week after TransLink unveiled plans for three new BRT routes in Metro Vancouver. The “priority corridors” will be King George Boulevard from Surrey Centre to White Rock, Langley Centre to Haney Place, and Metrotown to the North Shore.
The timeline, however, isn’t as quick as some might hope. TransLink says potential services on these routes could roll out in 2027.
Multiple speakers at the Mayors’ Council meeting called for TransLink to go back to a proposed route that would see the bus run through Burnaby Heights on Hastings between Willingdon and Boundary.
But Isabel Kolic with the Heights Merchants Association says that route doesn’t work for the community, adding the association wants to see the BRT go up Boundary Road instead.
“It really feels like it’s going to change the character of this district and it’s going to disrupt that commercial framework that small local independent businesses need to keep their doors open,” she said.
TransLink says it’s still a long way away from deciding on a final route for that area, and there’s plenty of public engagement that still needs to take place.
The ask from the council also came before work on the multi-billion dollar Surrey Langley SkyTrain is set to begin in 2024. The province previously said it expected to start awarding contracts in the first few months of the year.
Earlier this month, the Mayors’ Council pushed for an injection of cash for local transit projects after the B.C. government announced it had tabled legislation to densify housing near transit hubs.
“The fact is, you can’t have transit-oriented development without transit, and TransLink’s current system is unable to keep up with growing public demand for services across this region,” said West.
“With transit in Metro Vancouver currently frozen at 2019 levels, we need to see both the provincial and federal governments commit funding to dramatically expand public transit service. This legislation represents one of the most significant changes to land use and zoning policy that we’ve ever seen in this province, but it won’t succeed unless our three levels of government work together to deliver better transit in this region.”
