TransLink has announced that they will replace the escalators at a number of SkyTrain stations, which will cost upwards of $12 million.
For those of us south of the Fraser, guess which station is scheduled to be done last? Our 30-year-old stub line at Gateway.
If the plebiscite is a “yes” majority, guess which transit improvements will be done first and which ones will be done last.
Not only that, South Fraser residents will pay for the first few years to get that subway line in Vancouver. We will also pay to complete the Coquitlam SkyTrain line.
Mayor Linda Hepner of Surrey continues to promise we will be getting the majority of the transit improvements by voting yes. She wants us to vote yes to ground-level LRT, while we pay for SkyTrain and subways north of the Fraser. She wants us to vote yes to be last in line for new escalators, yes to getting a new Pattullo Bridge 10 or 12 years down the road, yes to additional bridge tolls if/when the Pattullo is completed, yes to tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges, while all other crossings, interchanges and roadways are free for everyone else.
To top it off, our mayor has raised taxes by up to 10 per cent immediately after her election, without bothering to mention it during her campaign. As she said, whether the vote is yes or no, she is going ahead with LRT, to be funded solely by her taxpayers.
I hope I’m not the only one south of the Fraser to see, yes or no, Surrey taxpayers will pay for this vision. We are damned whether we vote yes or no.
If Lower Mainland residents are to pay equally, then we should demand SkyTrain and reject LRT. We should demand no tolls on bridges, or tolls on all bridges, tunnels and that golden highway to Whistler.
Mayors Gregor Robertson and Hepner are spending hundreds of thousands of our money to ram their ideas down our throats.
Please, someone stop Hepner from spending Surrey taxpayers’ money on transit when this is a financial burden that should be shared by all who live in B.C. We have paid more than our share and we have one bus from Surrey that crosses the new Port Mann.
The mayors north of the Fraser must be laughing at us while deciding which of their municipalities get first dibs on any new funding. Those of us south of the Fraser already know where we stand in the escalator line-up, and that is last, as usual.
Steve Bodajla, Surrey
