Editor:
Cutting through the miasma of political drivel, men of straw arguments and self-serving anti-tunnel tripe, one salient fact remains: there has been no capacity increase in crossing the North Arm of the Fraser River since 1975.
A 10-lane bridge or eight-lane tunnel will only cause massive gridlock on Highway 99 in Richmond.
TransLink is utterly useless in providing user-friendly transit and has just admitted that the pet Gordon Campbell/Liberal P-3 transit project was under built. With stations with 40-metre platforms and the ability to operate only two-car trains, the Canada Line has roughly slightly more than half the capacity of the Expo and Millennium lines, where their station platforms are 80 metres or more.
Claims that the Canada Line (which most of its ridership comes from forced transfers from bus to train) is successful is like calling the Edsel successful.
Just to increase capacity to match the other two light-metro lines will cost about $1.5 billion in today's money and this will increase by two to three times the rate of inflation every year hence.
There will be no rapid transit crossing the South Arm of the Fraser River for another 35 years, at earliest.
Until there is a comprehensive transit plan that includes a new crossing of the North Arm of the Fraser to open in conjunction with a new bridge or tunnel, talk of a new crossing across the South Arm is nothing more than stuff and nonsense as Richmond will turn into a massive parking lot.
Malcolm Johnston
