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LETTER: Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner on wrong track

‘2018 is an election year and the emergency brakes should be put on LRT until after the election’
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The end of the SkyTrain line in Surrey, at King George Station.

The Editor,

In November 2014, Mayor Linda Hepner and her “Surrey First” team were all elected to city council.

Unfortunately, with Hepner’s stubborn decision to move forward with light rail transit, there is no one from city council to oppose it.

Choosing LRT is a poor decision and frankly, as the party’s name suggests, it does not put “Surrey First.”

The good news is that 2018 is an election year and the emergency brakes should be put on LRT until after the election.

Hopefully, a SkyTrain extension will be an election issue.

See also: Surrey mayor urges province to ‘hurry up’ lest LRT price tag rises

I offer your readers a few points to consider.

First, it makes good sense to have SkyTrain above street level to bypass traffic in the event that there is an accident. You want public transit to move safely regardless of what is happening on the ground.

Second, as a Langley resident, LRT will “derail” any chance of having SkyTrain in Langley for decades.

Finally, how can the mayor defend her support for LRT when Surrey’s population is exploding?

Surrey will be B.C’s largest city surpassing Vancouver with a 760,000 population in 2041.

Surrey has a mere eight kilometres of SkyTrain track with no expansion for more than 30 years.

This time frame will expand to at least half a century with the current transit plan supported by Mayor Hepner. It is no coincidence that the line ended on Fraser Highway at King George running eastbound towards Langley.

The King George SkyTrain station appears to be the end of the line for Surrey.

Tibi Roman, Surrey