Editor:
I find it funny that TransLink had an opportunity to participate in ‘if you build it, they will come’ for the Canada Line, but stepped out due to a downturn in the economy in 2008. The developers continued with the line and as we now know, they are going make a killing with the development of condos and various other forms of residential and commercial development along that line. Of course, we all know that the real plan for the Canada Line was to cause interest and invite development along the line, but let’s put that aside for the moment.
Why is it that Translink can’t see the forest for the trees and build a transit system that supports those of us South of the Fraser. Again, ‘if you build it they will come’. Yes, if we have a good transportation system available to us, then more of us would use it, thus allowing for development and financial support. Look at Gloucester Estates in Aldergrove. I’m sure that they built with the expectation that they would have services, but instead, they have been ‘almost begging’ for some sort of transit support for their employees. Many large businesses and probably even more small businesses put up the front money and lived with initial losses only to find that once their services were in place the paying public embraced them and they flourished.
It’s time that Translink stopped catering to those people living North of the Fraser, a large number of whom can actually ‘walk’ to where it is that they have to go, and start focussing on the rural areas where a transit system is truly needed.
D. Atkinson, Langley
