Why Vancouver Needs Regional Rail

If you live in the Metro Vancouver area, you know that our region is making progress when it comes to expanding transit and enabling sustainable modes of transportation. Less than 40 years ago, Metro Vancouver didn’t have any rapid transit. Now it has an almost 80 km network that will soon grow with the additions of the Broadway and Langley Extensions.

However, there is a long way to go. Translink has stated that it wants to see parity between sustainable modes and driving by 2050. The ratio is currently over 3-to-1 in favour of driving. Between driving and transit, it is 5-to-1.?

The reason for this is simple: transit times for most trips are simply not competitive with driving. Below is a chart comparing travel times between various regional centres:

As you can see there are a few trips where transit is faster than driving. But for the most part, it is a sea of red.

If you look closely, this diagram tells us something else: rapid transit alone isn’t enough to achieve parity. Look at any of the trips from Downtown Vancouver to destinations on the Millenium Line (Brentwood, Lougheed, Port Moody, Coquitlam). They are all red. That’s because a transfer is required at Commercial-Broadway.

Though Skytrain competes well for trips that run directly on its path through urban areas, it starts to fall behind when a trip requires a transfer or when it runs parallel to a freeway.

If we want transit to achieve parity with driving, regional rail is the missing piece. Virtually every large city in the world where more people use transit than drive has a regional rail system. Regional rail connects major regional centres and destinations with fast, all-day, bi-directional rail service. Instead of being limited to 80 kph, regional rail trains travel at speeds up to 160 kph, far faster than even freeway speeds. This means that even if a transit trip requires a transfer, it is still usually faster than driving.

The diagram below shows a similar comparison of trip times between different regional centres, this time after comprehensive investments in regional rail and rapid transit have been made.

The difference is almost night and day: a majority of transit travel times are competitive, if not superior, to driving.

However, there is no free lunch here. Building this network will cost billions of dollars. We estimate that regional rail alone will cost around $10 Billion. However, it’s a necessary investment if we want to reach our economic and environmental goals.

The benefits of regional rail extend far beyond making regional attractions or neighbouring municipalities conveniently accessible. It’s about tying our region together with sustainable transportation and allowing all of its residents to have access to its full range of opportunities.