Vancouver needs a subway on Broadway, already considered North America's busiest bus route, says the city's mayor.
The Broadway Corridor, which runs from Commercial Drive in the east to the University of British Columbia in the west, is expected to swell with 150,000 people who work and live in the area in the next 30 years, so the area needs transit to accommodate it, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said Thursday.
"We need a subway rapid transit system that will allow us to compete with tech hubs like Toronto and New York City and unleash the additional economic and investment potential along the corridor," the mayor said in a statement.
A KPMG report shows the Broadway Corridor is B.C.'s second-biggest job centre next to downtown Vancouver.
The report notes that Broadway buses carry over 100,000 transit riders every day, with up to 2,000 crowded buses forced to leave commuters at bus stops every day.
The City of Vancouver's plan for Broadway calls for a $2.8-billion subway that would run beneath the street, the Vancouver Sun reported. The city will need provincial funding to build the line.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts slammed the plan last December, telling News1130 that it is "is not going to fly" with the city's residents.
Rapidly growing Surrey seeks three rail lines of its own that would go through the city's Guildford area, to White Rock and out to Langley.
"There are needs throughout the region; you can’t really pick one over the other," she told the station.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark, in a Vancouver Sun editorial board on Thursday, would not say which project she thinks should be built first and said the decision would be up to TransLink, deputy managing editor Adrienne Tanner Tweeted.
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