Myths and Facts

Here are some myths you might have heard about passenger rail.

1. We don't have the population yet. Maybe in 20 years.

In 1910, we had 18,000 people in the Fraser Valley, and we had Interurban passenger rail service all the way from Chilliwack to Vancouver. In the 1950s, we had 80,000 people, but the Interurban was shut down because people were driving cars instead. Today, the Fraser Valley has 10 times the population (800,000), and traffic headaches you'd never dream about in the 1950s.

And if we reach some never-specified magical population number in 20 years anyway, why not prepare for it today?

2. We don't have the density.

We don't have the density for expensive Skytrain, but we don't need Skytrain. We need regular trains like we used to have, and we have plenty of density for that.

All around the world, light rail is being built in regions with comparable or lower density. We don't even need to look to Europe - the sprawling spread-out city of Calgary has the C-Train, carrying 250,000 passengers a day.

3. Laying track is just too expensive.

Think about this. There are tracks everywhere. All across Canada. We could afford to build those thousands of miles of track when we were relatively just a few people, but now it's too expensive to build a bit more track in order to connect the people of the Fraser Valley? This idea that with all our population and wealth of today we can't afford to build a few kilometres of new track - is laughable.

When politicians say laying track is too expensive, it just means they want to spend our money on something else.

But in fact, WE ALREADY HAVE TRACKS just waiting to be used. The old Interurban tracks could be upgraded to passenger service at low cost. All totalled, it would end up costing from about $250 million for a basic service, to $1 billion for an extremely comprehensive service from Chilliwack to Vancouver, which would include a new rail bridge over the Fraser River. These amounts include stations, trains and everything else. It sounds like a lot of money, but compare this to the $2.4 billion being spent on Vancouver's 19km RAV line, $2.8 billion for a planned 12 km Skytrain extension to UBC, and the $7 billion and rising pricetag of the proposed Gateway highway-expansion projects. Why not spend a bit of money on rail transportation in the Fraser Valley for a change?

4. The geography of the Interurban line makes it too slow and impractical to use.

Some sections of the Interurban track have a slight grade to them. This makes some politicians and bureaucrats claim that trains running uphill on them would be too slow, only travelling at 50 km/hr. It's completely bogus. Once the track is upgraded, we can expect speeds of 80-90 km/hr in areas where the density of stations is not too high.

From its terminus in downtown Chilliwack, the Interurban track runs through Sardis, Yarrow, down to Sumas and up past UCFV to Abbotsford. From there, it runs westward past Trinity Western University, through Langley, Cloverdale and Surrey, currently ending near the Scott Rd. Skytrain station. It's walking distance from ALL of our south of Fraser colleges and universities, most commercial centres, and a short shuttle ride from the Abbotsford Airport.

5. The Interurban, and trains in general, are slower than cars.

The eastern sections of the Interurban track don't take a perfectly direct route, so an Interurban train wouldn't get you from Chilliwack to Vancouver quite as fast as a car would (in good traffic and GOOD WEATHER). The train ride would be much more relaxing though, and you would actually enjoy the trip. Ideally, another line would serve longer-distance commuters from the eastern Valley, such as an expanded West Coast Express or a new track along the highway.

It's NOT generally true that trains are slower than cars. The West Coast Express, for example, travels at 110 km/hr and takes 73 minutes to get from Mission to downtown Vancouver - easily faster than a car, and ridiculously faster than a car stuck in traffic.

6. Rail services like the West Coast Express are heavily subsidized.

Not true at all. The Westcoast Express would actually be profitable if it were not for the expensive lease fee that has to be paid to CP for the use of their track. Unlike roads, trains can make money.

And unlike the West Coast Express, the Interurban right-of-way south of the Fraser River is owned by the government, as well as the rights to run passenger rail on the track. No expensive lease fees here.

7. Trains would create bedroom communities.

The argument REALLY is: in order to keep outlying communities from becoming bedroom communities, the powers that be must artificially restrict the mobility of their citizens by denying us the right to travel in a relaxing, environmentally friendly way.

It's backward thinking, an iron curtain mentality. And it's wrong.

The train goes both ways. Just as good "rail" transit makes it attractive to live in outlying communities, it would also be a sure inducement for businesses wishing to relocate from the higher-taxed and congested Vancouver region.

Forget about bedroom communities. How about polluted communities? Increased smog, air quality alerts, growing levels of asthma and lung disease resulting from more and more vehicles on the road creating greater traffic congestion, emissions wafting eastward? That's what we're looking at in the eastern Valley without rail.

Passenger rail will help clean up the air we breathe!

8. We're not a train culture. We wouldn't get the ridership.

One second, one politician will claim rail will create bedroom communities. Then, another will claim that we wouldn't get the ridership because we're not a train culture.

Which is it, guys? These are just excuses for the status quo - the easiest answer is always inaction.

Anyone who uses the Skytrain or the West Coast Express knows that we are as much of a train culture as anywhere in the world, and if we are less so south of the Fraser, it is only because we have no trains.

9. The government is spending lots of money on transit. We need a balance. There's just no extra money available right now.

Other than Surrey Skytrain, we have ABSOLUTELY NO RAIL TRANSIT south of the Fraser. This is not balance.

It's a question of priorities. There's plenty of money available for costly Gateway road-building and glamour projects for Vancouver such as RAV. For the price of the over-budget Vancouver Convention Centre, we could have already had deluxe rail all the way from Chilliwack to Vancouver.

Re-establishing the Interurban rail line is an incredibly cost-efficient thing to do, with the right-of-way and track already in place. It's been said that the premier recently had an "epiphany" regarding climate change and the need to reduce our greenhouse gases. Rail for the Valley would do that. It's an idea whose time has come. Now is the time to get our rail.

10. Yes, it makes sense to have rail, but it's not going to happen, because we're just ordinary people, not big-money special interests.

That's the last myth. Let's make it happen.

To learn more, here are some additional resources on the web:

VALTAC's Interurban page

South Fraser On Trax

The Fraser Valley needs passenger rail service NOW! facebook group. If you look enough, you'll find a lot of information in all the past discussion boards and wall posts.

The Fraser Valley Light Rail - A detailed SFU Urban Studies proposal for light rail in the Valley.

Light Rail Transit Association - a worldwide resource for all things light rail.