Transit advocates say that light-rail streetcars such as the Bombardier demonstration line running between the Olympic Village and Granville Island, pictured here, could be a viable alternative to SkyTrain-style rapid transit along Broadway.

Credit: Doug Shanks

NEWS: City mulls future of rapid-transit line on Broadway

While city officials say the proposed rapid-transit line from Commercial Drive to UBC would not bring about a repeat of the chaos along Cambie Street during building of the Canada Line, the exact timing, construction methods, and funding for the project are yet to be determined. A January 19 city council report by Jerry Dobrovolny, the City of Vancouver’s general manager of engineering services, and Ronda Howard, director of planning, notes that the Provincial Transit Plan calls for the UBC Line to be in operation by 2020, but the timing of the project is unknown. A shortlist of six rapid-transit options will be selected by spring 2010, followed by a detailed evaluation of the possibilities.

A rapid-transit solution for the congested Broadway corridor has been in the works since 1997, when city council approved the City Transportation Plan, which included a rapid-transit line along Broadway with possible extension to UBC. Broadway is now one of the largest transit destinations in Metro Vancouver, according to Dobrovolny and Howard’s report. Buses along Broadway carry more than 80,000 trips a day, with frequent passenger pass-ups and overcrowding, even with a bus arriving every 90 seconds.

Heated debate continues to swirl around the possibility of a SkyTrain-style transit system along Broadway, but some say a strong rapid-transit solution for the congested Broadway corridor is already here, with last week’s arrival of two Belgian streetcars running between the Olympic Village and Granville Island. The trains, on loan from Belgium’s Brussels Transport Company, run on 1.8 km tracks the City paid $8.5 million to upgrade. Trains will run every six to 10 minutes between 6:30 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. until March 22.

Members of the transit-advocacy group Business and Residents for Smart Transit Alternatives (BARSTA) have expressed their support of the Belgian streetcars as a strong solution for rapid transit on Broadway. “[BARSTA] is a coalition of businesses and residents who want to make sure that the community comes out of this ahead, so that businesses aren’t forced out the way they were on Cambie, and that residents aren’t forced out just because the neighbourhood changes so much,” says BARSTA co-founder Mel Lehan. He and his BARSTA colleagues consider a light-rail transit solution like the Olympic Village streetcars to be less expensive and more environmentally sustainable than a SkyTrain-style project.

“Of course they can do it better,” Lehan says of city planners in charge of rapid transit along Broadway. “Will they do it better? My experience with planners over the last 30 years is they always say the right thing, but that’s just part of their job. When it comes down to reality, they don’t often follow up.”

Part of BARSTA’s role, Lehan says, is to ensure that Broadway’s rapid transit comes with a strong public consultation process.

Public consultation will be key to avoiding a Canada Line situation while building Broadway’s rapid-transit line, says former TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast, who attended the Olympic Village streetcar opening last week. Prendergast left his post at TransLink in November 2009 to take a job as president of New York City’s public-transportation system. “What has been successful in other places is extensive outreach with the community, an examination of the different options, and then once the option is selected, you still need to go through the different ways of how you would construct it, and how you can minimize those impacts,” he says, adding that the Olympic Village streetcars should be explored as possible options for Broadway.

“In my career in transportation, light rail is a very viable option for an urban environment. It provides a different alternative than a heavy rail, like a SkyTrain. In many cases, it’s less impactful to a community, but it can provide the same utility. I think this demonstration project for 60 days is really going to give Vancouverites an opportunity to whet their appetite to how good streetcars will be.”