What are your thoughts on the idea of a gondola linking SFU on Burnaby Mountain with the SkyTrain? TransLink wants to know.
The regional transit and transportation agency is launching a public feedback campaign as it builds a business case for the proposed link.
TransLink is specifically asking the public their thoughts on travel to and from Burnaby Mountain, environmental impacts and design components, such as gondola cabins, towers and terminals.
The proposed gondola would connect a terminus at the bus exchange atop Burnaby Mountain with the Production Way-University Millennium Line station.
The straight-line route was selected after it won 85 per cent public support in a previous round of public engagement in 2020, according to TransLink.
According to TransLink, the gondola would support more than 25,000 trips up the mountain daily by SFU students, staff and faculty, and the residents of UniverCity.
The proposal has also earned the backing of the City of Burnaby and the SFU Student Society, which estimates 88 per cent of students access campus by transit.
The Burnaby Mountain Gondola proposal is a part of the TransLink Mayors’ Council’s latest 10-year plan, which also proposes to complete the Broadway subway to UBC and double regional bus service.
Funding for both the overall plan and for the gondola, projected to cost at least $210 million, itself has yet to be secured.
What’s more, TransLink is already facing the potential of a $4.7 billion deficit in the next decade, without help from senior levels of government to address what it calls a structural deficit.
TransLink Mayors’ Council Chair Brad West said the board has had “productive” conversations with the province about a funding solution, but still needs to hear from Ottawa.
“They have a role to play here, particularly because they are setting record targets for immigration … it puts a significant strain on the services that we are offering, including transit, so we believe they have a role to play,” he said.
West said there was no clear timeline for when funding assurance would be in place for the gondola, adding that the mayors’ council will need clarity on its bigger funding asks before it can assess where the project fits in with other major plans such as completing the subway to UBC and rapid transit for the North Shore.
“These are not luxury items, these are not nice-to-haves,” he said.
“These are basic requirements if we are going to be a functioning region that continues to see significant population growth and has to have options for people to get around.”
The gondola project must still clear both the business case development phase and the development of an investment plan and formal project approval with the sign off of the mayors’ council before any work can begin.
-With files form Angela Jung