Can we get Sea to Sky commuter rail already?
There is seemingly no stopping the population and popularity train of our region.
The highway is not able to carry its weight.
And whoever or whatever is to blame, too many folks are dying or seriously injured on our asphalt.
And too many of us are stuck in traffic for too long, too often trying to get to graduations, work, medical appointments, vacations and the like.
Something has to give.
With the recent news of the Rocky Mountaineer Rainforest to Gold Rush vacation rail service returning to corridor tracks, locals took to social media to beg the honest question:
“If they can run this twice a week, then they can run a commuter twice a day,” said Robert Keir on The Squamish Chief’s Facebook page.
We need efficient, safe, affordable, convenient and sustainable regional transit, and the train seems like a great alternative.
But, of course, everything is always complicated.
Upgrading the rail line or building another and getting the areas for stops along the way is expensive.
And such transit systems require substantial financial resources to operate.
The 2020-released Mountain Valley Express vision was to connect Vancouver to Whistler in the north and Chilliwack to the east.
It was spitballed to cost between $7 and $16 billion at the time. That is a billion — with a B.
If current construction costs of anything else are to be our guide, it would be much more than that in reality.
Commuter rail would also require co-ordinating schedules, designing efficient intermodal connections, and so on.
And folks would actually have to use it enough for it not to be a debt pit.
Getting it off the ground would also require co-ordination and collaboration with various levels of government.
Clearly, this is an issue in the corridor, or we would have a public bus system through the Sea to Sky by now.
Nothing is impossible, though; we saw that through the pandemic.
When a government and health authorities work together with businesses and the public, the world can shift.
Can we navigate these complexities around rail? With determination and continued advocacy, just maybe.
