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‘Divert trucks to bypass’

Rapid bus still sought, hoped to going by time new SkyTrain opens in Coquitlam
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Rapid bus may not be getting to Maple Ridge for awhile.

The City of Maple Ridge isn’t having any luck persuading the province to improve the Haney Bypass, so council soon will look at declaring it a truck route.

Requiring semi-trailers to use the bypass rather than going through downtown could help make the case that the bypass needs widening.

It could also lighten the load of traffic on Lougheed Highway as heavy vehicles seek to move from one end of town to the other.

Coun. Gordy Robson has told council he’ll introduce a motion to that effect next meeting.

“We’ve killed so many people on there [Haney bypass], it’s just ridiculous,” Robson said.

“The government promised four lanes from Maple Ridge to Mission in 1972. And it’s been promised almost every election since.”

Transportation Minister Todd Stone said earlier this year that there are no plans to improve the Haney Bypass. Only the Lougheed Highway east of 240th Street will get concrete barricades to separate traffic.

Robson wonders who how the city received responsibility for Lougheed Highway, but can’t find any documents formally transferring it to Maple Ridge.

Council also recently approved spending $15,000 for its share of a rapid bus transit study, first announced in 2014.

Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam are all offer that amount, while TransLink contributes $60,000.

The goal is to complete the study in time for opening of the Evergreen SkyTrain line in Coquitlam next year.

The study will identify a route and stops to allow a rapid bus link from Maple Ridge to the SkyTrain line in Coquitlam as soon as possible.

“I’m hoping still that they’ll have a direct bus by then, whether it will be an articulated bus,” or a bus rapid transit service that could use its own lanes with traffic signal priority, Robson said.

But, he added, TransLink has said that a rapid bus could connect with Braid Street SkyTrain line in New Westminster instead because of road limitations.

“We’ve been talking about it a decade.” Bus station locations have to be identified so development can proceed around them, Robson said.

“I have been pushing for this and asking for this a long time.”

Maple Ridge, in 2007, did its own study identifying a light rail transit line along Lougheed Highway.

Pitt Meadows has already approved its $15,000 share for the rapid bus study.

But Pitt Meadows Mayor John Becker wants the line to run along Lougheed Highway to Coquitlam Centre and connect with the Evergreen SkyTrain line there.

As far as he’s heard, that remains the route.

“To my way of thinking, that  makes sense. It seems somewhat illogical for a so-called bus rapid transit to have to get into New Westminster. Why wouldn’t you stay on the Lougheed and get into Coquitlam?.”

He’d also like a rapid bus to divert south from Lougheed Highway into the Maple Meadows West Coast Express station, where there’s a park and ride.

“But I can appreciate the whole point of this is having people scooting along Lougheed Highway with minimal fuss and bother. At the end of the day, that may not be doable.”

So far, there are no locations identified for westbound buses to stop along Lougheed Highway.

Becker pointed out, without TransLink’s final funding piece, there won’t be the money for any rapid bus.

The federal government, in June, said it was kicking in $370 million for transit in Metro Vancouver, while the province as going to give $246 million.

But Metro Vancouver mayors and the province have yet to come to an agreement on TransLink’s 17 per cent share, as well as operating costs. The province has refused to allow the region to create additional funding sources.

“Every day that doesn’t happen, the likelihood of us being able to hook up a brand new shiny bus to the Evergreen line in 2017, that possibility drops a notch.”

The first phase of the transportation plan calls for 28 new SkyTrain cars, 22 Canada Line cars, a new SeaBus and five more cars for the West Coast Express commuter rail.

Robson said he doubted that the frequency of the West Coast Express service would expand beyond five rush-hour trains each morning and evening because of the demands for track time by Canadian Pacific.

A RapidBus service was part of the mayor’s regional transportation plan that was rejected by voters last year when they defeated a proposal to raise the sales tax by half a per cent.