Editor:
It's a tale of two towers. With rapid transit we wouldn't need to replace the tunnel ... but woe to anyone who proposes a six-storey office building.
Rapid transit is an enormous investment requiring intense ridership to justify cost. Operating costs are partially covered by fares, but not capital cost.
TransLink fares are reported to cover about 52 per cent of operating cost. The balance and capital cost are paid by taxes on just about everything TransLink and B.C. can find to tax.
Fixed guideway transit is an instrument of growth. Like the proverbial chicken and egg, no matter which comes first, they are inseparable.
Look at what surrounds Surrey's SkyTrain stations: 40 major projects completed. Skyscrapers are celebrated, including a 50-storey one to be built by Century Group.
Contrast this with Tsawwassen's tepid reception of a Century proposed six-storey office building that might provide needed local jobs.
SkyTrain terminates in three major cities: Surrey, Vancouver and Richmond with respective populations of 468,000, 604,000 and 190,000. By what logic would it be extended 25 or 30 kilometres to cross a river or traverse a bog and serve a community of 21,000 that hardly uses the service it already has?
We have bus service yet approximately eight per cent of our commuters use it and we utilize only 38 per cent of its available capacity.
The historic advice "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country" might today be "Go east, young man, find a job in Surrey and avoid the river." Surrey's rapid growth suggests that over time more and more South Deltans will work and shop there rather than north of the Fraser.
The dominant transportation corridor will become east-west along the Fraser, not north-south under it.
Think what wonders the future holds for us: The cherished palms on 56th Street won't compete with unsightly transit guideway and stations. Skyscrapers won't sully our bucolic views. We will drive swiftly to work or shopping on our magnificent new South Fraser Perimeter Road.
I know this won't end our yearning for convenient rapid transit service. It may, however, invite useful discussion about why TransLink won't provide more than we already underutilize.
Ed Ries
