Editor:
Re: Mayor still pushing for Fraser Valley light rail, Oct. 11
There is already a viable rail plan for the Fraser Valley. It is called the Leewood Study, which was commissioned by Rail for the Valley and done by Leewood Projects (UK) in 2009.
The report was delivered in September 2010 and though it was warmly received abroad by transit specialists, it has remained ignored by local planners and politicians.
The study showed that by using the existing former BC Electric rail line from Vancouver and Richmond, going to Chilliwack via the Fraser River Rail Bridge, a regional electric rail service, with three trains per hour per direction, could be built for just under $1 billion ($1.12 billion accounting for inflation in 2017).
In recent conversation with Leewood Projects, an hourly Vancouver service to Chilliwack light diesel multiple units could be installed for $750 million. Compare this to TransLink’s now rumoured $4-billion, seven-kilometre Broadway subway or over $2 billion for Surrey’s ill-planned LRT.
Rail for the Valley even had private financing ready to go for the project but no one at TransLink, Metro Vancouver or the province was interested.
Stumping the Fraser Valley municipalities for a hypothetical LRT line from Richmond, through Delta up the Fraser Valley, with no plan or cost estimates, to gain support for an expensive 10-lane bridge, is more than cynical.
To be successful, the proposed LRT must service Downtown Vancouver, which is not mentioned in the mayor’s plan.
If LRT were to use the proposed mega bridge, the cost of the bridge will escalate by about $1 billion to accommodate rail, as one just not adds rails to a road bridge.
With the Expo and Millennium/Evergreen lines fast approaching their legal capacity and the under-built Canada Line showing the strains of political interference, both light-metro systems need about $4.5 billion in rebuilding and retrofitting to increase capacity and reliability.
With the current obsolete light-metro system gobbling up precious tax dollars, there will be little appetite for an ill-conceived and hugely expensive LRT line, championed by a mayor who also supports an equally ill-conceived mega bridge.
But a $750 million regional rail line, using existing track, serving the Fraser Valley may just get the nod as Rail for the Valley has the plans that will attract private financing.
All that is lacking is the political will to make it happen.
Malcolm Johnston
Rail for the Valley
