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LETTER: Langley/Surrey shortchanged on transit for Vancouver

Funding to get SkyTrain to Langley City could come from not undergrounding Vancouver’s extension.
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Dear Editor,

Remember how unfair the tolls were on the Alex Fraser and Golden Ears bridges?

Langley and Surrey residents are now faced with similar inequity in the construction of a SkyTrain extension which, with available funding of $1.9B, will be constructed from King George Station to Fleetwood. Once that extension is completed, it will be 20 years before a further extension to Langley City is constructed.

For an additional $1B, the SkyTrain extension would terminate at Langley City rather than Fleetwood. Where would the extra $1B come from? The logical source is the money set aside for undergrounding the Broadway Skytrain extension.

The rest of us should not have to pay for the luxury of Vancouver having an underground system while the rest of the region goes without or puts up with a less aesthetically pleasing above-ground system. If Vancouver wants to tuck SkyTrain underground, Vancouver should pay for it. I’ve become weary of Langley and Surrey residents being treated like second-class citizens.

We spoke out and had the bridge tolls removed after the last provincial election. Let’s once again show that Langley and Surrey deserve to be treated with respect.

Allan Woodbury, Langley