Dear Editor,
Duh, what political party does Langley-Aldergrove MP Tako van Popta belong to?
While a Skytrain from King George Station to 166th Street in Fleetwood will be seen in place within a few years; however, all the way to Langley City will not happen until after 2030 or 2040… and only when the MP seeking that extension is in the same political party as the political party in power in Ottawa.
As a transit historian and researcher of note, I can address transit in the Lower Mainland from 1891 to current day… and although there are critics of Skytrain (Rail for the Valley and others) who think resurrecting the old BC Electric Railway Interurban line to Chilliwack is the way to go, they will never get on track due to CPR owning the 12 kilometre/seven mile trackage from 232nd Street (Livingstone Junction) to 180th Street (Pratt Junction). It is an issue of national economic interest versus local transit aspirations.
SkyTrain to the eastern part of Fleetwood (166th Street) is doable, but a Conservative MP can ask the federal government all he likes for $500,000,000.
But no one in the Liberal Party of Canada is listening to him.
The BC NDP being the current provincial government has promised $1.5 billion for extending the SkyTrain to Langley, but that government needs federal funding as well.
So, MP Tako van Popta… don’t hold your breath.
He and the residents along the projected SkyTrain line to Langley City need to learn how politics supersedes rational thinking.
Graham Evan MacDonell, Abbotsford
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