IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 30, 2018 - Surrey, BC

TransLink has revealed that the cost to build the first phase of Surrey's street-running Light Rail Transit system is $1.65 billion dollars. The Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT (SNG LRT) line will now be over $700 million more expensive to build compared to original cost estimates of $920 million.

At these costs, which exceed $150 million per kilometre, the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT will also be more expensive - per kilometre - than both the Millennium Line: Evergreen Extension and the Canada Line.

We have been made aware that as a result of these high costs for the SNG LRT line, a potential extension of SkyTrain from Surrey to Langley down Fraser Highway may become DELAYED.

No other rapid transit project in Canada will deliver so little for this much money.

The selection of Light Rail technology is the outcome of years of misinformation from LRT advocates who have demonstrated a poor understanding of rail rapid transit planning and cost metrics, and have consistently overstated the cost savings of building a system at grade-level.

In the months leading up to this, Surrey's LRT vision has been criticized by experts across the country for its poor business case; is facing heat from prominent community voices including Surrey-Guildford MLA Garry Begg, who says Surrey Council is doing a poor job 'selling' LRT; and has drawn the ire of locals who have faced consequences such as the razing of trees in Hawthorne Park for an LRT-related road project.

We will not stand for a system that offers poor value for the money, congests our communities, and does not deliver on the travel time savings that Surrey residents will expect from their future rapid transit system. SkyTrain for Surrey has called for BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) on 104th Avenue and King George Blvd, instead of an LRT. A BRT system would offer nearly all of the benefits of an LRT system, for a fraction of the cost.

It is time to abandon the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT project and scrap the Surrey LRT vision.

We are calling on all decision-makers, at all levels, to do whatever is possible within their power to put a stop to the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT.





SkyTrain for Surrey is a local grassroots organization calling for a SkyTrain and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network instead of the currently-proposed on-street Light Rail system in Surrey. Our campaign has called on decision-makers to build the Langley Extension of the SkyTrain Expo Line, in conjunction with an extension of the 96 B-Line to Coquitlam Centre and White Rock as a Bus Rapid Transit system.

For further information, contact:

Daryl Dela Cruz, Founding Director

Phone: +1 604 329 3529, info@skytrainforsurrey.org