New rapid transit would connect Maple Ridge with Langley

Maple Ridge might be one of the first municipalities in Metro Vancouver to get a new Bus Rapid Transit Line.

While funding has not yet been secured, TransLink recently wrapped up public engagement on the line, which would run from Haney Place to Kwantlen Polytechnic University, making 13 stops on the way. TransLink estimates that the construction will be finished within five years once started.

With signal priority and its own lane, the BRT should speed up service by about 40 per cent, according to TransLink.

The new line could be a “game changer,” said Maple Ridge Mayor Dan Ruimy.

“It makes more sense to do more BRTs across the region,” Ruimy said. ‘“It’s the way of the future, because it’s a more economical way of building out your transit system. And you can build it out faster.”

With Maple Ridge rapidly growing, the municipality needs new transit to avoid overcrowding on already “log-jammed” highways, like Lougheed and Dewdney Trunk, Ruimy explained.

While Maple Ridge is on the West Coast Express line (a commuter rail service from Mission City to Downtown Vancouver), its services are limited to a weekdays only westward trip in the mornings and eastward trips to Mission in the afternoon and evenings.

Transit “checks off all the boxes” from affordability, housing, economic development, climate change, and mobility, Ruimy said.

“Not everybody will need a car. Not everybody wants a car,” he said. “When we’re talking about affordability today, just look at the cost of buying a car, owning it, insuring it, paying for the gas and the trips and everything. That’s a pretty hefty sum that could be used towards other things in life, but nobody’s going to get out of their car if you don’t have reliable transit.”

The Langley-Haney Place BRT would provide rapid transit access to approximately 72,000 residents and 55,000 jobs within walking distance of the planned station locations.

Where the project stands

There weren’t any promises for BRT in B.C.’s budget on Tuesday, but Ruimy isn’t concerned.

“The budget tends to highlight the biggest and boldest things, and the brightest, shiny stars in the drawer, so to speak. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not on there. They know that they have to contribute,” he said of the province.

“The system has to evolve. It has to grow, to meet the growing demand of our population.”

Christopher Logie, the constituency assistant for Maple Ridge East MLA Lawrence Mok, said that their office has had mostly positive feedback when it comes to the BRT.

“Maple Ridge is not a totally accessible city within the Lower Mainland. Right now it takes about an hour and a half to go from Maple Ridge to Langley,” Logie said.