My View on the Evergreen Skytrain Line

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            Everyday  I  wake up have breakfast then go to school. My commute consists of two buses and a sky train ride with a transfer in between. The trip takes 50- 80 minutes plus the return trip so I travel 2 hrs everyday by transit. After six months, the commute is getting repetitive and tedious. With the 2010 Olympics coming up, Richmond has been completing  its own skytrain line and Vancouver’s expansion will be in time for the worldwide event. Seeing Richmond having its own rapid transit system got me thinking “why doesn’t Coquitlam have its’ own skytrain?” And a few weeks ago I saw the Evergreen line project office completed near the current Park and Ride. Indeed Coquitlam is going to get its own skytrain. With the new proposed Port Mann Bridge having been confirmed, the timing couldn’t be better as the bridge is going to have a $3 toll (Hodson, J. 2009). At first I thought this was great news even though the project is aiming for completion in 2014. But then like a backlash wave the new rail struck me as a bad idea.

            The first problem I thought of was the increasing population in Coquitlam. I lived and grew up in Coquitlam almost all my life. When I first lived in the beautiful city it had a small town charm to it. Then over the course of 15 years I watched as the city slowly boomed into the town it is today. In over the last half of 2008 I saw four new highrises being built, the small forest of trees along David Ave decimated, giving rise to countless townhouses and now whenever I see a patch of relatively flat green anywhere in the city, I know its days are numbered and eventually will give birth to luxury condos and highrises with scenic views being a selling point. This growth hasn’t been slowed or swayed by the remoteness of the once small city. Richmond, Vancouver, and Burnaby all are at least a 35 min drive, the trip will take longer to reach the outskirts of those metropolises. If the remoteness hasn’t discouraged the population’s growth, then how fast will it grow with a skytrain? My parents have many friends who live in Coquitlam and but work in remote cities such as Vancouver and Burnaby. They aren’t phased by the hour drive there and back everyday so with a skytrain would be highly convenient. I know people living in Vancouver who work in Surrey and to them the trip “is just a 45 min train ride”.  Surely the population will boom even more with the new rail system.

I thought having a skytrain in Coquitlam would reduce my commute to and from school.  But the suggested routes might prove to be otherwise. My current route to school involves the C29 taking me to the Park and Ride, from there I take the 169 to Braid Station where I take the train to Columbia station and transfer on to the Expo line to Surrey Central Station. The Evergreen line will loop through Port Moody and end at Lougheed Station. The route is shown in this video, Northwest Route for Skytrain Evergreenline (CTV), 2008). It would seem to the route would take longer than my current route.  Lougheed Station being the destination means I am one station behind where I normally would be. Looping through Port Moody to Lougheed takes longer than taking the 169 to Braid. And having skipping Braid to reach Lougheed is as if the train was mocking me.

This problem is a little more trivial. Coquitlam, in fact has its own rail system the West Coast Express. The rail connects Vancouver to Maple Ridge, with Coquitlam being a mid stop. As some people have wondered wouldn’t expanding the line be faster and more cost efficient? A section in a blog post by a blooger called zweisystem supports this. “If modern light-rail were to be built on the Evergreen line instead of SkyTrain, there would be enough money to build a basic Vancouver to Chilliwack Diesel LRT service, with the ability for an Evergreen LRT, to network directly with the Interurban”.  It would be adding on to an existing system rather than implementing an entirely new one. Or maybe merging skytrain with the West Coast Express. I know Braid between and Sapperton station there is a train station. It goes the same direction, Eastbound, so I think it would be more beneficial and convenient as Sapperton Station is a short walk from the train station. Those who want to go Westbound can take the existing bus and skytrain routes.    

The last problem I thought of was the mess and chaos construction will bring. Construction is noisy and causes traffic congestion. As the shop owners in Vancouver know, it can also mean having to be closed down. If my speculation is correct and the station will be where the current project office is, then that would mean slow down and heavy congestion in the busiest part of Coquitlam, Barnet Highway. That highway is the way out of Coquitlam. Burnaby, Surrey, Vancouver all are linked to Coquitlam by that highway. I can imagine getting in and out of Coquitlam by car to be just as bad as trying to get out of Surrey during rush hour, not going anywhere fast. I myself may have to plan my commute to and from school better due.

The skytrain line seems to affect me negatively due to it not reducing my commute and increasing the population of Coquitlam. Yet I have to remember I am just one person living in Coquitlam and that there are those who welcome the new skytrain line.

Bibliography

Northwest Route for Skytrain Evergreen Line (CTV) 

            Retrieved March 4,2008. From

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oEg624sHK8

Hodson, Jeff.  (February, 5, 2009). Metro – Port Mann Single Span. Metronews Vancouver.

            Retrieved March 4, 2008. From

http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/Local/article/177185

Evergreen Line – Connecting Coquitlam to Vancouver via Port Moody, Home Page.

Retrieved March 5, 2008, from Translink website

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/evergreen_line/index.htm

Trans-Talk >> Blog Archive >> Translink sets Northwest route for Port Moody Skytrain.

            Retrieved March 4, 2008 from Trans talk website

            http://www.tetracom.ca/transtalk/?p=1918

Zweisystem. (2008, Janurary 8). Why it is important that SkyTrain not be built on the Evergreen Line. Message posted to http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/why-it-is-important-that-skytrain-not-be-built-on-the-evergreen-line/