The Trudeau government will fund SkyTrain in Surrey, if that’s what the city and region and province decide, according to Fleetwood-Port Kells Liberal MP Ken Hardie.
Surrey mayor-elect Doug McCallum has been clear from the start — he will cancel light rail transit (LRT) on his first day in office and start building SkyTrain to Langley.
But up until today, we did not know if the federal government would be willing to switch the $483.8-million it has already committed to LRT, over to SkyTrain.
Hardie says the answer is yes.
“The federal government interest is moving people as efficiently as possible and making the region less reliant on single-occupant vehicles. So rapid transit is the investment we’re making and the choice of technology and where it stops and starts, is up to the city, region and province.”
Hardie is not supporting one mode of transit over the other.
The total cost of LRT is $1.65 billion and McCallum says he can build SkyTrain for the same price.