Infrastructure

Reminder: SkyTrain upgrades coming to Surrey soon, but…

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Photo courtesy: City of Surrey.

Scanning the Twitter feed a notable tweet appeared from @TransLinkMedia:

This is an interesting reminder given last week’s rally in Surrey, which stemmed from TransLink’s finalized optimization plan, a plan that councilors were at odds with at first, but soon accepted the merit of.

Of the seven SkyTrain station upgrades, two are in Surrey: Scott Road and Surrey Central (perhaps the latter will be renamed to City Centre station given the area in which it now sits has been re-branded as such).

All upgrades are to be completed within three years and will cost $164 million in total, with $41 million of that total coming from the federal government as part of the Building Canada Fund, and the rest filled by the provincial government and TransLink.

Recommendations as per the Expo Line upgrade strategy taken from a  document dated 2009-10, is to eventually shift to 5-car trains from its current 4-car setup to run at full capacity, but to accommodate such a change would require station upgrades to support such infrastructure.

So, sometime in the near (up to 3 years) future, Scott Rd. and Surrey Central station will see upgrades and potentially an increase in capacity.

As stated, this is interesting news but considering the rally held last week where citizens displayed frustration towards TransLink’s services, it’s also interesting timing.

The fact is, however, the Expo Line upgrade strategy came from recommendations made 2009-10. Why a reminder March 2013 for a project that still requires $123 million in funding, part of which is to come from the province government, in an election year?

Skepticism is moderate-to-high.

Furthermore, in the Expo Line Upgrade Strategy link, a curious statement stood out:

In the coming years, the [Expo Line Upgrade] strategy will shape future discussion about increasing the Expo Line’s capacity and the investment decisions needed to make this happen.

Something to monitor may be whether the station upgrades will “shape future discussion” by way of a compromise on Surrey receiving its much sought after LRT lines.