The Evergreen line limbo should be a wake-up call for the City of Vancouver.

Tomorrow, Vancouver’s Special Standing Committee of Council on Planning and Environment will be presented with a staff policy report outlining the suggested terms of engagement for TransLink’s UBC Line Rapid Transit Study.

The study, which is a partnered project between Translink, the City of Vancouver, UBC, the University Endowment Lands, and Metro Vancouver, will identify a wide range of rapid transit options for the Broadway corridor including a preferred route, technology(ies), and general station locations.

Here is what Geoff Meggs told News 1130 about how such a line would already be able pay for itself:

“There already are more people riding on buses, jammed on buses, hanging on straps on buses, watching buses drive by them, than we need to justify the line.”

The evidence to support such claims is concrete and real, and Meggs is doing his job in advocating for Vancouver’s transit needs first and foremost.  However, with the spectre of the yet-to-be-started Evergreen Line hanging over Translink and their next steps towards progressing forward on regional transportation, these plans for the city seem extremely premature.

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