EDITORIAL:When it comes to transit,Surrey ‘don’t get no respect’

November 16, 2007


What does this city have to do in order to get the basic transportation it deserves?

Twin reports delivered to city council last week detail what most commuters already know – this city is getting the short end of the stick when it comes to necessary transportation resources.

An update on the South of the Fraser Area (SOFA) transit plan outlines the painful facts.

As the plan stands, Surrey will not reach the level of bus frequency that Vancouver has for another 25 years.

“This makes us the Rodney Dangerfield of the Lower Mainland,” steamed Surrey Coun. Linda Hepner. “This has got to be a joke.”

Indeed.

Currently only 10 of our 33 bus routes run at 15-minute intervals during peak hours. The rest take longer – in many cases much longer.

The plan to 2031 does not include community rail lines, and SkyTrain expansion is only given passing reference.

The Vancouver-centric TransLink loves to break out the old saw that this community’s population doesn’t make higher levels of bus service justifiable.

Wrong.

Surrey staff examined the operating hours of transit service throughout the Lower Mainland. Vancouver and the Burnaby/New Westminster areas are receiving four times the service per capita, and this city receives one-third the regional average per person.

In addition, the majority of bus service currently provided focuses on moving residents of this city into Vancouver.

However, almost 80 per cent of all trips in Surrey take place within the municipality.

Meanwhile, Vancouver is pushing hard for a Millennium Line expansion of SkyTrain down the Broadway corridor out to UBC, which would suck another $400 million in precious financial resources from the transit system.

On the same day council reviewed the TransLink report, Surrey staff detailed the impacts of the widening of Highway 1 and the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge.

Increased noise, deteriorating air quality, communities severed and isolated by the project, and traffic snarls are all expected local impacts.

What’s more, city staff anticipate half of the tolls on the Port Mann Bridge will be paid by motorists headed to or from Surrey. Given the state of the transit system, they have little choice.

When will senior levels of government understand this city is woefully under-served?

TransLink must take a hard second look at its long-term plan and put Surrey at the top of its priorities.





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