MEDIA RELEASE

Edmonton's LRT is failing to change commuter habits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 3, 2018 – Surrey, BC

A new survey collected by the City of Edmonton suggests that even after substantial investment in its Light Rail Transit system, transit mode-share in Edmonton has not increased.

The city’s 2015 Household Travel Survey, which took info from over 21,000 households, found that just 8.6 per cent of trips were on transit in 2015 — a zero per cent change from 2005. Meanwhile, the percentage of trips taken by car during this 10-year period actually increased. More than 75% of Edmonton commuters are continuing to primarily travel by car.

These results send a clear warning that a street-running LRT may not change commuter habits in Surrey.

During the 10-year period between 2005 and 2015, Edmonton expanded its LRT system 4 times:

Extension to Health Sciences Station (2006, 0.6 km)
Extension to South Campus Station (2009, 2.2 km)
Extension to Century Park Station (2010, 5.4 km)
Metro Line (2015, 3.3 km)

As these extensions were primarily built at grade-level, they incorporate several at-grade crossings of busy arterial roadways. The new Metro Line LRT is particularly notorious as its at-grade design has resulted in excessive traffic delays at road crossings.

In 2016 we pointed out that the Metro Line disaster must be seen as a warning for all Canadian cities that have chosen a street-running light rail system, including the City of Surrey. The results of this survey should send an even stronger warning.

We will not stand for a system that congests our communities, doesn’t reduce travel times, and doesn’t deliver reliability improvements that Surrey residents are expecting from rapid transit. It is time to abandon the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT project and scrap the Surrey LRT vision.

About SkyTrain for Surrey

SkyTrain for Surrey is the community organization that advocated for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension, and continues to push for high-quality rapid transit projects in Surrey and Langley. We began as a petition calling for the scrapping of a street-level LRT proposal, which eventually amassed more than 6,000 signatures, and later contributed to making SkyTrain an election issue as a registered third-party advertiser. SkyTrain for Surrey continues to call for high-quality projects that offer a positive return-on-investment and recognize the rapidly increasing demand for transit.

Media Contact:

Daryl Dela Cruz – Founder, SkyTrain for Surrey
Phone: +1 604 329 3529, [email protected]