Study backs call for Broadway subway
 

Subways zipping between Vancouver’s east and west sides, connecting Commercial Drive’s SkyTrain hub to University of B.C. research centres, is the key to “unleashing” the economic potential of the province’s tech and health sectors, according to a new report.

But the study by accounting firm KPMG, presented Thursday by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and UBC president Stephen Toope, has few details on just how exactly a $2.8-billion rapid transit line along the city’s Broadway corridor would be financed.

“It (funding) will undoubtedly come from leadership on the provincial and federal levels,” Robertson told reporters, adding TransLink’s Mayors’ Council doesn’t have the tools needed to raise cash for major transit projects across the region.

Among those high-price transit projects is a $1.8-billion light rail system in Surrey that the city’s mayor, Dianne Watts, has long been calling for.

Toope, who admitted it would be a “tough decision” for UBC’s board of governors to partner with the city to provide money for such a project, said pursuing a Broadway subway line doesn’t preclude the development of light rail for Surrey.

“We better be thinking about both of these projects now,” he said, adding it would be a mistake to only proceed with them one at a time since infrastructure planning can take years.

Watts also said there’s no reason why both projects cannot go forward simultaneously, but she emphasized problems remain with securing money from the province.

“Nobody’s going to get anything until the governance structure and the funding model is fixed,” she said, adding provincial legislation must change that would allow for a road pricing system or another carbon tax.

The report projects an 150,000-person increase in jobs and population along the corridor over the next 30 years and Robertson said despite the higher cost of an underground system compared to light rail, the only technology capable of handling the volume is a subway.

But UBC urban sustainability expert Patrick Condon said there are other light rail systems throughout the world that can handle the same volume as an underground line, even if the corridor’s population booms over the next three decades.

“If the rationale for the subway is dependent on that kind of growth there may be more efficient ways of getting people back and forth to UBC.”
Study backs call for Broadway subway | Local | News | Vancouver 24 hrs

Sigh why waste more money now.... I know we do need tranist but come on witht he evergreen line going to Coquitlam already projecting it will go over budget why another project.......

If they do this, they'd damned well better build it for an initial capacity of 200% current B-line and #9/16 bus passengers. The Canada line during rush hour is already at capacity. And there's no way to improve it because they didn't build the stations large enough to accommodate longer trains.

Start with 200% and be ready for more. Because you know there are people who don't go along the broadway corridor because they hate the busses....but will when there's a Skytrain. Lord have mercy upon all our souls.

Educate me why it is money wasted?

And it's called planning, you don't wait until you have cash in hand to start thinking about it.

I fully support public transit (not bike lanes:fuckthatshit:).

Becasue they are already building the EverGreen line...... and they claim they have no money left and I beleive they are millions in short already. So how are they going to fund another porject when the are already short on cash?

They can either increase fare, more carbon tax (which is already decline in teerms of reveinue), increase property tax or add more to sales tax. I take the tranist and yes it sucks sometimes during rush hour where you have to push your way into a Skytrain.

I think they should expand to more eities rather than building a line to UBC or a railway system to Surrey. There are already bus/skytrain to those place. Why not try to increase bus or traisn to Detla, Maple Ridge, White Rock or Mission? Those place hardly have any bus route and people are moving farther and farther from Vancouver and into those cities so it only make sense to make build tranist there.

When does the government ever have money? If they want to build this, it doesn't matter which tax they will implement cause it will come from us (residents) anyway. If they are gonna make us pay for it, that might as well be a subway system rather than stupid bike lanes.

That's because most of the jobs are here in Vancouver, and we represent a majority of the population.

If the project moves forward, I really hope that they will build a subway system rather then a light rail system cause I cannot imagine how a light rail system going along the broadway corridor, all the way down to UBC will improve traffic congestion except worsen it.

I for one fully support a subway line along the Broadway Corridor. As a student using the absolute shit bus system (all of them) to and from UBC, I can say with confidence that a subway system at the above mentioned 200% capacity level would greatly increase student convenience and significantly decrease travel times. I know UBC's student union is/will be lobbying hard for the project once it is approved.

Why should taxpayers fork out 2.8 billion for a private institution such as UBC?? It's not like it has stops between places too, it's a 2.8 billion dollar taxpayer funded project just to to increase the properly value around that area.

I guess this is the BC's equivalent to QE3, use taxpayers money to bring large real estate development projects more profit.

Thank you BC Govt, it's good to know that paying 1.50/L gas goes to fund projects that bring real estate developers more money.

Yeah, because between Commercial Drive station and UBC there's absolutely nothing there but valueless empty wasteland that people have no use for nor reason to travel to. </sarcasm>

Seems like there's a billion dollars worth of stoplights alone

Maybe initially, but as soon as you link two cities (say Delta and Surrey) with a single line, you've got even numbers. And let's face it; the majority of people who live outside of Vancouver Proper are travelling there to work. If you want to reduce congestion on the roads, you need to build viable alternatives for them.

Even though this is a pipe dream, I'd love to see either another West Coast Express train running from Langley out to Vancouver, with single stops in White Rock, Surrey, Tswassen and Richmond. Or even a Skytrain line that runs express routes with a separate track that runs local stops in between.

Don't all the NIMBY's say that building Skytrain stations in their area decreases property values because crime increases?

Build the line to Granville or Arbutus. If UBC wants it extended to the campus, they need to put up the money for the extension. After all, they should be flush with cash considering all the development that they've done over the last 5 years.

Besides, everyone knows that university education is overrated. Build a spur of the Millenium Line to the BCIT campus on Willingdon and call it a day.
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Having routes to the major Universities would actually make sense, especially schools like BCIT and SFU where campus boarding is either relatively limited or nonexistent. No, they may not remain busy routes year round, but I think it would be worth it to have those specific routes or off-shoots to be run at a loss since it decreases bus use and would allow fewer cars on the roads in those areas.

I'd have rather seen this than the evergreen line...yeah I know...I live there its SOO busy.

I think this area needs more service to be able to grow beyond the downtown core.

if we didn't revert back to PST/GST, which cost B.C. about 3 billion dollars, we could have had the money to build 1 and a half of these lines...

Go HST~ :woot2:

Yay, another gas tax!!

i see another excuse for tax increase ...

The Evergreen line is needed as much as the expansion at the Commercial and Broadway corridor.

As critical as it is having a subway on Broadway to alleviate transit pressure there, what about us on the other side of the Fraser? Yes Surrey and Langley are the butt of everyone's jokes, but we need more bus service considering the rapid growth of both cities. The service rates absolutely hurt at certain points in the day, and there's little to no service in areas that have seen recent residential development.

Again, I support the Broadway subway line because of the commuter choke point that it is, and I live in Surrey. But with all these proposals that benefit communities west of the Port Mann, I feel that Surrey/Langley is being neglected for transit help.

i would love for the skytrain to have a bike only car...they encourage bike to work/school but of course discourages this during rush hour...

I wonder why we dont use a tram system like the ones found in Amsterdam/Switzerland/Hong Kong and a lot of the other metropolitan cities?

The problem with increasing transit south of the Fraser is that there isn't enough density to make it cost-effective. Translink has greater cost-recovery if they run more buses and trains in Vancouver where demand is greater and distances are shorter. Vancouver itself is not very big, but Surrey and Delta are huge. Capital costs are small compared to operating costs: Translink can buy all of the buses it wants, but if it can't afford to run them in 5-10 minute intervals, then what's the point?

It's a classic case of the chicken and egg thing.
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Trams are useless unless they have a dedicated right of way and signal priority. Sure, they look pretty, but Broadway would be a total nightmare if they built a tram and took away 2-3 lanes.

Underground trains are the only solution for that corridor. Besides, people for the most part care about how quickly they can get from Point A to Point B.
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I dont understand why some of these politicans are recommending light rail as an option on the Broadway corridor. It shouldn't be an option at all.

^^ This.

I've said the same for years. There should a Westcoast Express/LRT equivalent that runs from Chilliwak with stops at say, Abbotsford, Langley and 176th in Surrey, then all the way in to Central Station in Vancouver. Imagine how many further cars this would take off the Port Mann and how awesome that would be for people commuting in from the Valley... you could sleep the whole time from Abby to Downtown! There should be an equivalent train put in to cover the Surrey market.

I thought I heard on CKNW that they even engineered the new bridge to be able to cantilever a LRT track off the side of it when they were talking about the plans to the bridge.