24 Hours Highlights My 200th Streetcar Plan

My thanks to 24 Hours newspaper columnist Ian King for covering my 200th Streetcar plan. From Ian's article:

There's a stereotype in Vancouver of Fraser Valley residents as little more than a mass of blinkered, sprawl-loving, SUV-driving, blacktop-laying car nuts.

Not so. In fact, advocates from south of the Fraser - from all parts of the political spectrum - are pushing transit expansion far more aggressively than anything you'll find on TransLink's website or in a provincial government plan.

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You wouldn't expect a strong proponent of twinning the Port Mann Bridge to call for a streetcar to provide unheard-of levels of transit service in Langley. Langley Township councillor Jordan Bateman wants both.

Langley, explains Bateman, is at a crossroads. The next round of development could mean another swath of car-oriented suburbia - if regional leaders let it happen.

But it's not inevitable. The Langleys' centres of population and commerce are realigning, and with that comes the opportunity to pursue transit-oriented development.

"Langley was oriented east-west, along the Interurban, Fraser Highway, Old Yale. Now, the population runs north-south."

Enter, then, the idea of building some form of light rail along 200th Street from Willowbrook north to the job-rich Port Kells area, with expansion to Willoughby and Fernridge as those two areas become the last major developments in the township.

Bateman's calling it a streetcar; the actual technology might be light rail, but he's willing to leave that to technical experts. What it would be is surface rail with a moderate capacity - and a much more modest cost than the planned SkyTrain extension to 168th Street and Fraser Highway in Surrey.

"There's the [provincial government's] plan to extend SkyTrain to Guildford, and that's great, but the fact is that SkyTrain is four times as expensive to build as light rail, meaning you can get four times as much light rail for the same amount of money," says Bateman.

Monday night's Township debate on my Interurban motion is covered in both the Times and the Advance today.

South Fraser OnTrax has posted a recording of their inaugural meeting here.

I also see that my 200th powerpoint presentation is closing in on 900 views since being posted last week. In case you haven't seen it, here it is again:

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