In December 2018, the regional Mayors' Council on Transportation directed TransLink to proceed immediately with planning and project development for a Surrey Langley SkyTrain Project.
In light of the resolution passed by Surrey City Council on November 5, 2018 to cancel the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT Project and instead extend SkyTrain along Fraser Highway toward Langley, the Mayors' Council endorsed a TransLink recommendation to suspend the Surrey LRT Project, pausing all work and spending on it.
This planning work includes design requirements, costing, public engagement, First Nations engagement, an environmental review, municipal partnership agreements with the City of Surrey, City of Langley and Township of Langley, and drafting a business case for senior government approval.
Project development will take approximately 15 months until spring 2020. Following this, a procurement process would take another 15 months, and construction would take approximately four years.
No. The project requires business case approval by federal, provincial and the Mayors' Council as well as TransLink's Board of Directors.
In 2017, a preliminary cost estimate for a 16-kilometre Surrey Langley SkyTrain was $2.9 billion. Current approved funding for this project is limited to what remains of the amount that was originally approved in TransLink's Phase 2 Investment Plan for the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT Project – approximately $1.6 billion.
Part of our work includes updating the cost estimate and determining how far along Fraser Highway the line could be constructed with the already approved funding.
Public engagement will be a key component of project development. We value your input and want to know what you think. Sign up below to receive project updates and learn about opportunities to get involved.
TransLink is committed to sustainable best practices and will conduct an environmental review of the area.
As the population in communities south of the Fraser continues to grow, so does demand for transit. A SkyTrain along Fraser Highway will help meet current and future transit needs. It will also connect commuters travelling between Langley and Surrey as well as the broader region, providing commuters with a frequent, reliable and convenient mode of rapid transit.
In December 2018, the Mayors' Council directed TransLink to initiate a planning process to refresh the South of Fraser Rapid Transit Plan, consistent with the 10-Year Vision of building 27 kilometres of rapid transit on the 104th Avenue, King George Boulevard and Fraser Highway corridors.
While the Fraser Highway B-Line would be a welcome service along the corridor, until rapid transit is implemented, it isn't cost-effective to invest resources in new B-Line infrastructure that would only be dismantled for construction.
Resources for the proposed B-Line bus service along Fraser Highway will be directed toward improving existing local bus services, such as the 502, 503 and the 96 B-Line.