Coquitlam's Evergreen Line soon to become reality

On Feb 25, 2009 Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced $350 million boost towards the much anticipated construction of the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam.

Addressing a crowd at a news conference in Burnaby, Harper received a standing ovation from a BC Liberals and Tri-City mayors when he declared the federal government would be “stimulating the economy by investing in the future.”

“We will build the Evergreen Line,” he said.

The federal boost will come out of the Conservatives' new Building Canada Fund, which is aimed at driving up infrastructure programs and generating jobs during the recession.

Maurine Karagianis, the B.C. NDP’s transportation critic, said TransLink faces an annual deficit of more than $100 million and will be hard-pressed to come up with the money.

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart, who was at the news conference, said, “Now that the final piece of the puzzle for funding is in place, the hard work now begins... A lot of work still has to be done with the cities, like the placement of the stations, and that’s the next year of engineering,” he said.

The 11-kilometre Evergreen Line' is proposed to run from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby, through Burquitlam and Port Moody, to Coquitlam Centre. The projected track will run above ground for the first portion, go into a tunnel down Clarke Road hill, then run parallel to CP Rail tracks through Port Moody and Coquitlam before curving up Pinetree Way and terminating near Douglas College.

Construction on the $1.4-billion project, which links Coquitlam with Burnaby's SkyTrain system, is slated to begin next year and is scheduled to be completed in 2014.