In brief: We have a new website and blog!

From now on, please go to http://www.railforthevalley.com for the main website, or, for blog articles, http://www.railforthevalley.com/blog.

Please change your bookmarks accordingly. Thank you!

http://www.railforthevalley.com

The BC provincial transportation plan is running out of political fuel, dollars and sense. How long can we continue to promote, finance and build 1970’s infrastructure, expecting it to meet the needs of our rapidly changing 21st century communities?

Extravagantly expensive and monolithic elevated rail systems like Skytrain can serve only Metro core areas, while heavily subsidised by taxpayers who can never benefit from them. FAIL

No urban region has ever successfully built its way out of traffic congestion by expanding freeway capacity. This only invites “induced traffic” and encourages car dependent sprawl . EPIC FAIL

Today, our needs and our cities are changing. Density and sustainable, walkable community plans are the norm. Traffic patterns and lifestyles are changing. Fuel costs climb inexorably year after year. Many would happily keep the thousands of dollars they spend each year on car travel. But for almost a million people south of the Fraser, this is not an option. The only viable way of getting to school, to work, or to socialize is by car.

Incredibly, a solution to long term affordable and efficient public transportation has been in place and ready to use for many years, but completely ignored by a BC provincial plan dedicated to road building and mega-project mentalities better suited to the previous century.

Turns out we own a railroad. A really long railroad. One hundred kilometres of track, connecting all the major urban areas south of the Fraser. It starts conveniently, at the Scott Road Skytrain Station. From there it travels through the heart of Surrey, to Cloverdale, then Langley City, on to Abbotsford, and finally Chilliwack. Not only does it connect all the downtown centers, it passes within walking distance of five university/college campuses and through several industrial parks. One hundred years ago an electric tram train travelled daily on this corridor, moving people, freight and farm produce efficiently across the region. It was called the BC Electric Interurban. Fifty years ago the service was abandoned as road systems improved and our North American car culture took hold. With rare foresight, the Provincial government of the day, through BC Hydro, retained the right to re-establish passenger rail when they sold the use of the line to a private freight rail company.

Community groups interested in sustainable public transportation have been petitioning the BC government to consider re-activating the Interurban Train. We already own the line, it’s underused, and for the cost of about four kilometres of Skytrain, we could have a full service connecting all the urban cores, education and employment centres south of the Fraser. How do we know this? A study was recently completed by a professional transit consulting firm from England. They see the Interurban Rail as a diamond in the rough, and are astonished that we have not yet embraced this system as the core of a community rail-based public transportation plan. The 85 page report, commissioned by the rail advocacy group RAIL FOR THE VALLEY, is available on-line at http://rftv.wordpress.com/

The Rail for the Valley/Leewood TramTrain study has had region wide reporting, with most of the weekly papers featuring this historic news release. Here are some links. (Stay tuned for more!)

CBC News Video: Light rail recommended for Fraser Valley

Chilliwack Times: Report supports light rail: ‘An honest accounting’ of the potential transit system

Abbotsford Times: All aboard: Report reviews Fraser Valley Interurban light rail

Surrey Leader, Richmond Review, Delta Leader, Langley Times & Chilliwack Progress: More ammo for light rail service through Valley

North Shore News: Valley residents on track with light rail

Vancouver Province: Valley light rail all go, twin groups claim

Rail For The Valley is extremely excited to announce the release of a comprehensive independent analysis of the potential for light rail service on the existing and publicly owned Interurban Rail Corridor, connecting communities from Chilliwack to Vancouver with an affordable, sustainable public transportation system. The study, now complete, was performed by Leewood Projects.

About Leewood Projects:

Lawrence Frank, PhD, CIP, ASLA

Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation University of British Columbia

604-822-5387 ph / 604-822-1628 fx

Bombardier Active Transportation Lab

http://www.act-trans.ubc.ca/

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UBC School of Environmental Health and the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning are pleased to inform you of our upcoming symposium:

STREETCARS: THE MISSING LINK?

September 29, 2010 (Wednesday)

Program:  8:30 am – 5:15 pm

Reception: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel, Vancouver BC.

OVERVIEW:

The Olympic Line – Vancouver’s 2010 Streetcar demonstration project held during the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games saw urban streetcars return to Vancouver for the first time in almost half a century. The project proved extremely popular and has ignited the idea of reinvesting in streetcars as part of a broader sustainable transportation system for the City of Vancouver and the entire Metro Vancouver region.

KEY TOPICS:

Streetcars: The Missing Link? brings together decisions makers, academics, and community leaders to explore, discuss and debate the potential role of streetcars as a critical link within the transportation system and the idea of bring streetcars back to Vancouver. Key topics of this symposium include:

• Historical role of streetcars in Vancouver
• Implementation costs
• Streetcar impacts on urban form and mobility
• Urban design and modal integration – lessons learned in other regions
• New data and information from the Olympic Line demonstration project.

DETAILED AGENDA is available here:  http://www.soeh.ubc.ca/Continuing_Education/Streetcar.htm.

REGISTER AT:  https://www.eplyevents.com/streetcar_UBC.   Please register early as space is limited.

A hosted reception will follow the program at the revolving Vistas 360 restaurant/lounge on the 20th floor of the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside. Join delegates for complimentary refreshments, appetizers, and additional network opportunities while taking in a 360-degree panoramic view of the city and harbour. Information from UBC students in the Schools of Community and Regional Planning, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and Environmental Health on streetcar systems and their impacts will be shared at the reception.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:  decision makers, municipal staff, developers, community leaders, media, academics, organizational leaders.

This event is sponsored by the J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation at UBC.

Inquiries:

Lydia Ma

UBC School of Environmental Health

Phone: (604) 822-9599

Email: lydia.ma@ubc.ca

Web:  http://www.soeh.ubc.ca/Continuing_Education

Hello everyone,

Rail for the Valley is hosting a fundraiser at Corkey’s pub in Chilliwack on May 21, from 5pm-8pm (there will be live music after 8).

This will be a great opportunity to meet with fellow advocates and to simply have a good time. I hope to see you there!

May 21 5pm-8pm

Corkey’s Pub Chilliwack

$10 = Burger and fries (you can purchase tickets in advance, just let me know, I deliver!)

Facebook event link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=115151648523819

On March 25, Peter Holt, an influential advocate for passenger rail, made a presentation to the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce regarding the need for passenger rail in the South of the Fraser River communities. Brian Lewis of the Province was there and this is what he had to say…

If more of our federal, provincial and municipal politicians who represent constituents south of the Fraser River thought like Wayne Gretzky, then moving throughout this vast and fast-growing region would be as enjoyable as it once was watching the Great One score hat tricks.

“Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is now,” was Gretzky’s advice to fellow hockey players.

But his straightforward lesson still applies to far more than jocks chasing a little rubber disc on the ice. It’s also tailor-made for public transportation planning, for example.

This is why engineer and community-rail guru Peter Holt used the Gretzky analogy in his recent presentation to the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce when he spoke about why he and many others strongly feel that the Fraser Valley’s best long-term transportation solutions are riding on the rails.

The eloquent ex-Brit and former Royal Navy engineering officer has an extensive professional background that includes a number of senior roles in Canadian aerospace programs and with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Since moving his family to Surrey in 1997, Holt has focused on regional issues and served as executive director of the forward-thinking Surrey Board of Trade between 2004 and 2007. That’s where he also furthered a keen interest in urban and regional growth, public transit and, of course, trains.

On the nostalgic side, he’s an enthusiastic spokesman for the Surrey-based Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society, which is well along in restoring one of the original cars from the old B.C. Electric interurban rail line that ran from downtown Vancouver and up the Fraser Valley to Chilliwack from 1910 to the early 1950s.

On the practical side, Holt sees the “Fraser Valley Heritage Railway” and its refurbished vintage rolling stock as an excellent medium for creating awareness of the potential to fully restore the 103-kilometre right-of-way, which is still owned by the B.C. government, to accommodate a new, state-of-the-art community rail system.

Not only is the interurban right-of-way a wholly-owned public asset, Holt points out, but the legal authority to use it for public transit has also been established.

An introductory “heritage tourism” service during the summer on part of the line could be introduced by late 2011 for as little as $700,000, he suggests, and the City of Surrey is very serious about backing the initiative.

But the primary goal for Holt, his rail-heritage pals and a number of Valley rail advocacy groups, is a full community-rail service that would link SkyTrain in Surrey with Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack.

Holt told the Chilliwack business group that about 20 years from now, another 400,000 people will be living in the Fraser Valley. That’s equal to another city roughly the size of Surrey today.

But, he warns, expanding the road system to accommodate this growth will be much more expensive and far more environmentally damaging than choosing a community-rail option.

“Of course cars are more convenient today, but as our roads become more congested and expensive to expand, people will have to look at other transit options,” Holt says.

In other words, plan transit based on where it’s going, not where it’s at today.

That’s how politicians can score with taxpayers. blewis@theprovince.com

http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/columnists/story.html?id=d9192722-fe39-4e68-945b-80f2d3c37047&k=84094

We handed out hundreds of leaflets, got media attention (CBC and News 1130), and overall raised a whole lot of awareness. There were large numbers of people of all ages taking the train; Bombardier’s volunteer conductors were kept busy with crowd control!

Thank you to all our volunteers!