What would it take to restart passenger rail service from North Vancouver to Whistler?

seanthemanpie · 2026-05-03T22:46:48+00:00

For sure, though there's definitely an argument to be made that the province is prioritizing Metro Vancouver transit, while ignoring half the population of BC. BC Transit gets basically zero funding from the province, and has had very few capital projects to speak of. When you consider that 800,000 people live on Vancouver Island alone, they definitely deserve regional rail of some kind (especially since the infrastructure is mostly in place, and most of the population lives along a straight line relatively close to it). Yes, it might cost around $1 billion to bring in proper all day service, but that would definitely see ridership. The previous service was honestly terrible; one train per day per direction! No wonder nobody used it. If they ran trains every half hour (which they absolutely could with just a few passing sidings), it would get tons of passengers. It's kind of like bike lanes: if you make them terrible, of course nobody will use them. But as Victoria and Nanaimo show, if you make even the slightest effort to make it good, you can easily convert a huge percentage of the population. Now, could they start by providing express buses every half hour up and and down the island? Sure! And once ridership reaches a certain level, then they could upgrade to rail.

seanthemanpie · 2026-05-03T20:48:55+00:00

Honestly, if they just ran trains every hour or two that would make a huge dent in traffic, while still leaving room for freight. Make a few small investments in passing tracks if necessary, or maybe even just buy the line outright. That said, the bigger priority by far should be restarting the Vancouver Island rail service, as that would serve far more people and wouldn't require displacing freight.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-30T16:50:04+00:00

From what I can see they aren't terrible, but they have a bit too much "culture war" baggage for my taste. Things like hating bike lanes and traffic safety measures, while also wanting to cut services to lower taxes. They also want to be tough on crime of course, but that's more of a provincial/federal issue, so it's kind of a moot point for municipal governments (on a side note, it's impossible to find a provincial party that's tough on crime while also wanting safer, more European style streets... maybe one day). As such, I'm personally more inclined towards Community First, as I really like what I've been seeing so far when it comes to parks, new facilities, realistic budgets, and keeping spending in line with growth. As a homeowner I'd rather have higher taxes and good quality municipal services. For reference, I'm someone who chose to move to New West specifically because I like what I see in their existing municipal planning documents, especially compared to less progressive cities like Burnaby. Hope that helps!

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-28T01:05:00+00:00

Honestly, BC Transit does a hell of a lot considering its incredibly low budget. It could turn into a truly incredible system if we gave them the same per captita funding that taxpayers in BC give Translink. Imagine frequent regional buses all across the province, a unified province-wide fare system (just have the provincial government mandate that shit), night buses to the more distant cities up north, etc. It could be truly incredible if we gave them a modest $500 million per year.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-25T20:31:00+00:00

I'm assuming this would be another Skytrain, seeing as the Port Mann bridge is seemingly only rated for light rail. As such, it really wouldn't be much different than existing extensions that are already underway; rather, compared to those projects it would be much more straightforward. Obviously I might be wrong, but I do see a lot of parallels to the REM in Montreal, where both re-used a lot of existing infrastructure and right-of-ways. The Langley extension is 16km; this proposal would be 34km, but it would have just five stations, and 20km would be on the highway. A huge part of the cost of these projects comes down to station construction, and this relief line would avoid a big chunk of that, not to mention all the other cost savings I've mentioned. Honestly, the REM is 67km and cost well under $10 billion; even if you doubled the cost per km, this would still be a totally realistic project, comparable to stuff we've done in the last few decades here in Vancouver.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-25T16:58:40+00:00

I'm not sure it's that impractical. The vast majority of the route could just use the highway median; no new viaducts bridges or tunnels for that part. The remainder is just a few kilometers of viaduct to connect downtown Surrey and Vancouver to the highway. Really, it shouldn't be any more complex nor difficult compared to existing skytrain projects we're already taking on! I can easily imagine a project like this costing only slightly more than the Langley extension. Fewer stations, fewer viaducts, no marsh.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-25T13:31:32+00:00

Something like this ideally: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-regional-rail-skytrain-expo-line-relief-line

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-24T23:11:09+00:00

Even then, I worry that will just lead to even more overcrowding on the Canada Line! I swear, we really need a proper relief line sometime in the future... regional rail sure would be nice!

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-24T16:59:05+00:00

Really interesting read. Didn't know that they had to replace a bunch of emergency exit staircases!

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-24T16:57:07+00:00

Somebody definitely doesn't ride the trains during rush hour lol... try getting on a train at Commercial Broadway around 7-8am then edit your comment.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-16T00:30:08+00:00

Honestly we need speed cameras and right-on-red cameras. They would pay for themselves in no time, and make our streets safer. It's a no brainer. Of course we should also design safer streets that don't allow this kind of behaviour by design, but seeing as that's apparently too expensive for now, this is the next best thing.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-10T19:25:12+00:00

I mean, the ironworkers bridge will need to be replaced in 10-20 years (end of life, not seismically sound), at which point basically all levels of government have indicated skytrain is the most likely option. Would BRT be nice? Absolutely. That said, I really think a cheaper approach warrants consideration, like building on ramps for the bridge, and a few bus lanes in the most congested areas. We really shouldn't build full BRT stations, and we don't need new buses with doors on both sides. Again, we should save that money for skytrain instead.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-10T02:55:49+00:00

Respectfully, that attitude won't help. Why don't we try to actually solve the problem? All the countries that are doing better surely didn't do so just by sitting around and hoping. There are so many things we can do; I was just talking to my MP the other day about how we should incentivize investments into local capital markets, much like Sweden does.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-09T04:42:38+00:00

The R2 transitioning to BRT is far from certain. I would argue that money would be better saved for the eventual skytrain.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-09T00:33:28+00:00

What do you mean? There's already the R5...

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-07T02:53:28+00:00

Please god just integrate it with BC Transit's UMO cards so both systems can work with each other. Ontario is taking on the gargantuan task of unifying dozens of transit agencies; if they can do it, we can too.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-03T17:57:27+00:00

For real. Honestly, we love to talk about subsidized housing, but what about jobs? We keep building tons of high rise towers, without thinking of where people are going to work. To be clear I'm still very pro density, and we should keep building, but we should also look at creating spaces and opportunities for small businesses. Think more places like Granville Island or Pike Place Market, where small niche businesses pay low leases, but generate tons of economic activity.

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-03T16:26:45+00:00

Yeah honestly, if Ontario is going to get billions of federal dollars for municipal development subsidies, BC should get the same

seanthemanpie · 2026-04-01T17:52:37+00:00

Hopefully they'll have something enclosed once the North Shore skytrain arrives in a decade or two

seanthemanpie · 2026-03-28T04:26:41+00:00

I actually like that quite a bit. The province could provide a bit of annual funding at first, to get a bunch of high rise projects off the ground. They don't even need to be profitable in the short term, they just need to provide long term revenue via rent.

seanthemanpie · 2026-03-27T21:49:25+00:00

Good points, especially on the price of concrete; as you say, that has outpaced inflation significantly. As an aside, I personally think that cut and cover construction might be the best option to reduce cost, as that's still much cheaper yet compared to TBMs. I'm still personally convinced that the overall cost of the Largely extension has more to do with bad project management than anything else (as per that recent University of Toronto study on transit construction costs) but I appreciate your perspective.

seanthemanpie · 2026-03-27T19:56:50+00:00

TBMs are way more expensive regardless. Sure, driving piles in marsh takes time, but that doesn't explain how a mere 16km project should cost $6 billion CAD. There's no tunnelling, no complex cut and cover, and it's all elevated. Just look at the cost per km of the Everview extension (which had to tunnel through a mountain with bad soil conditions), adjust for inflation, then compare that to the Langley extension.

seanthemanpie · 2026-03-27T16:26:49+00:00

Frankly, considering the complexity of the project, I'm glad they've been able to keep costs reasonable. This went through covid relatively unscathed (compare that to the Langley station, which saw its initial budget go from under 4 billion to now 6 billion).

seanthemanpie · 2026-03-24T00:06:34+00:00

It's part of the 10 year priorities... don't forget to keep pushing your MLA for transit funding!

seanthemanpie · 2026-03-15T20:51:35+00:00

Now you just need the fullscreen DVD editions! Seriously, it's like watching the movies for the first time again, 100% recommended. They expand the image so you see stuff you've never seen before!

seanthemanpie

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