Misinformation Abundant in SkyTrain vs Light Rail Comparisons

We are puzzled by a letter recently published by the Langley Advance. According to the letter-writer, who read (where?) that 8 kilometres of light rail can be built for the same cost as 1 kilometre of SkyTrain, SkyTrain “is not best for the environment – nor the taxpayer, for that matter.”

Clearly, the person who wrote this letter has been misinformed by other light rail advocates—particularly in his referencing of the Evergreen Line.  There are several reasons why TransLink is now planning to build the Evergreen Line as an extension of the SkyTrain system:

• Firstly, a long section between Burquitlam and Port Moody stations passes through Burnaby Mountain, and would have to be dug by T.B.M. (tunnel boring machine) at very high cost, whether the Evergreen Line were to be constructed as light rail or SkyTrain ^[24].
• Second, large portions of the Evergreen Line in Port Moody will be built at-grade along the CPR rail line ^[24] – only short portions would be elevated, resulting in little cost premium over at-grade LRT.
• Third, implementing an LRT—which will use a different technology and rolling stock—would require large startup investments. New rolling stock would have to be bought, along with land for a larger maintenance centre for the fleet. Additional cash would have to be spent as new employees at a new maintenance centre would have to be hired, trained and qualified to work with these specific new trains.
• Lastly, the Evergreen Line as SkyTrain would be an integrated expansion of the existing system. It would operate continuously to VCC-Clark station, optimizing service by taking over the Millennium Line’s service on that segment.

SkyTrain operates with just one employee for every 150,000 annual passengers—a rate that is 3 times less than Portland’s MAX light rail ^[22]. Because of this operating efficiency, fare revenues pay for operating costs on all three of the present Metro Vancouver SkyTrain lines.

It would be less costly over the long term to simply build the Evergreen Line as a SkyTrain extension.

Misinformation is abundant in comparisons between SkyTrain and LRT costs. Tons of considerations, facts and realities are being hidden from you on purpose by light rail advocates.