SkyTrain for Surrey, not LRT!

SkyTrain for Surrey
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Surrey SkyTrain was built on advocacy and demanded by the community

  • Media Release

The Surrey Langley SkyTrain is the people’s SkyTrain: with deep roots in community advocacy, it was earned not by one individual, but by thousands of Surrey and Langley residents who kept the conversation alive at kitchen tables, community meetings, rallies, and on the doorstep.

Years of efforts by advocates paid off: TransLink’s 2019 engagement on the SLS drew a record response from Surrey and Langley, with over 21,000 submissions collected and a vast majority (85%) voicing their support for the project[1][2]. That support locally was matched by support in the greater region: at one point, building the SLS had a higher level of public support than extending SkyTrain to UBC.[3]

Recent public back‑and‑forth about station names and personalities is a reminder that civic debates can get personal. I welcome former mayor Doug McCallum’s recent acknowledgement that SkyTrain is ultimately about Surrey’s long‑term interests—not individual legacies. That clarity refocuses the debate on the needs of our city, rather than political theatre.

It is important to emphasize that SkyTrain was the right long‑term choice for Surrey. Across Canada, high‑profile LRT projects have run into the problems we warned about—long construction delays, reliability shortfalls, missed travel‑time and ridership targets, and ballooning costs. Toronto’s Crosstown and Finch West LRTs, Edmonton’s Valley Line, Kitchener-Waterloo’s ION LRT, and Ottawa’s Confederation Line are all disasters[4][5][6][7][8]—and the new LRTs being built in Calgary and Mississauga have now escalated to cost more than Surrey Langley SkyTrain.[9][10]

Choosing light rail because it “connects neighbourhoods” is a false trade‑off. The Canadian record shows that while surface LRT can connect places, it is often done at the expense of speed, reliability, and capacity—the very attributes that make transit a genuine alternative to driving and that enable dense, walkable neighbourhoods to thrive.

SkyTrain delivers faster, more frequent, and higher‑capacity service, and that is what ultimately supports transit‑oriented growth, reduces congestion, and attracts investment. Let’s keep the conversation focused on outcomes for riders and taxpayers: the people of Surrey chose a system built to move them, not to slow them down.

Footnotes

  1. TransLink verifies majority support for Surrey Langley SkyTrain[↩]
  2. TransLink media release, May 2019[↩]
  3. In 2019 Mustel poll, support for SLS vs UBCx was 83% (SLS) vs 79% (UBCx[↩]
  4. A timeline of every single Eglinton Crosstown disaster — Toronto Life[↩]
  5. Toronto’s Finch West LRT: a $2.5 billion mega mistake[↩]
  6. Edmonton Valley Line LRT riderhsip falls far short of estimates[↩]
  7. “The launch of streetcars did not reverse a decade-long transit downturn” — Waterloo Region Record[↩]
  8. O-Train East Extension launch delayed until at least the spring — CTV News[↩]
  9. Surrey Langley SkyTrain still Canada’s best value transit project[↩]
  10. Recent $1.6 billion cost escalation to Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion Line LRT[↩]

Pictured in header: From our election-time signs promoting a vote for SkyTrain (left) to a crane constructing SkyTrain guideway segments (right)

SkyTrain for Surrey is a BC-based community organization that has advocated for the expansion of the Vancouver SkyTrain system, including our successful advocacy for the under-construction Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension.

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

Surrey SkyTrain was built on advocacy and demanded by the community