Editor:
Re: Plan fails commuters by ignoring rapid transit, MLA’s Report, March 12
Delta South MLA Ian Paton demonstrates his ignorance of South Delta's transit ills with his column in the Optimist.
Despite the hype and hoopla by TransLink and the Mayors’ Council, the Canada Line is deemed internationally as a "white elephant" which was forced upon the region by the then Gordon Campbell Liberal government.
The Campbell Liberals forced a questionable P-3 construction program for the Canada Line which saw a SNC Lavalin lead consortium bid against another SNC Lavalin lead consortium to construct and operate the line. Judge Pittfield, presiding over the Susan Heyes lawsuit against TransLink, called the bidding process for the Canada line a "charade."
The result of this charade is that the Canada line is under built, has limited capacity and is very expensive to operate, leaving taxpayers with massive future costs to maintain and expand.
To cut costs, station platforms were limited to 40 to 50 metres and can operate with only two-car trains, which severely limits capacity.
To increase capacity to match that of the Expo and Millennium lines will cost in excess of $1.5 billion and must be done before any extension can be planned. The cost to build the Canada Line, which has heavier construction than the other lines, is more than $200 million per kilometre with 50-year costs around $600 million per kilometre.
Show me the funding to extend the Canada Line, Mr. Paton? No? Thought so.
It's disingenuous for the Liberal MLA to blame the NDP when his BC Liberal Party was so involved in building a dated and underbuilt light-metro that left a massive deferred debt for future generations.
Malcolm Johnston
