Well, just as I recommended they do in a previous post (not that I’m saying they are reading, though if they are I’d love a shoutout :P), the Mayors of Surrey, Delta, White Rock, Langley City, and Langley Township, have unianimously rejected TransLink draft South of Fraser Transit Plan. They are simply calling it too little, too late:

Watts says the main issue is that 80 per cent of the trips taken south of the Fraser do not cross the Fraser. “We are very underserved and there has to be a recognition to that fact. We can’t wait until 2031 to catch up to where the rest of the region is today,” states Watts. She says what is needed now is an additional 300 buses south of the Fraser, especially as there is an international airport in Abbotsford with no cross-connective routes on transit.

Watts says while the plan calls for increases to bus service, it doesn’t meet the immediate or long term transit needs of the region, whose combine population is already 650,000.

[News1130]

I commend the Mayors for making this move. It’s typical of Watts’ style - a very democratic process. Unlike the Tri-Cities mayors, who, at one time, were clamouring heavily for the Evergreen Line, or the always raucus causing Sam Sullivan, the SoF Mayors simply wrote a strongly worded letter of rejection to TransLink. In addition, they notified the media of the unacceptablility of the draft plan, putting a bit of pressure on TransLink to improve it.

It has always been important that the communities SoF stand strongly united on this front. It is quite clear that TransLink doesn’t have enough funding to provide us with the system we need, at least not while they are putting down hundreds of millions for other capital investments at this point. However, that doesn’t mean that perhaps priorities can’t be shifted, or timelines moved to possibly see some improvements. In addition, this clear message that there’s not enough transit will notify the public of the situation, and provides a perfect chance for Mr. Falcon to jump in and provide funding to vastly expand the transit system in his own constituency’s area.

I found it interesting how, although all these Mayors are now on the new Mayors’ Council of TransLink, they still decided to get this point out to the public. It seems to me that the place to discuss these needs is at the Mayors’ Council and perhaps reflects their lack of control of transportation issues with the new TransLink.

This news release brought out another interesting point for me. I wonder, how much leeway or influence will Mayors have on TransLink staff. It’s my understanding that all along, the former Board relied very heavily on reports and plans put together by the professional staff. So, if the new Board is simply taking this executive look at this and just rubber stamping most projects, then I would assume that local politicians could go rub shoulders with staff to get improved service plans heading their way. In a sense, creating a loophole, whereby staff are doing specific municipalities biddings…

In any case, support and cheers go out to the five Mayors of the South of Fraser region. Let’s keep up the pressure to fix this major issue.

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