AN UPDATE: We thought that you should know, but TransLink's new trip diary shows most Surrey residents DO NOT stay in Surrey, and have work and school destinations all over the region.

According to TransLink's 2017 Trip Diary, it is true that when accounting for all trip purposes (including non-commute trips for shopping or recreation), most trips that start in Surrey do end in Surrey. However, when it comes to the trips that people make to access economic opportunity in our region—that is, our trips to get to WORK OR UNIVERSITY—Surrey residents have destinations ALL OVER the region.

In the City of Surrey, 275,000 such trips are made on the average weekday. Less than half (125,000) of these trips stay within Surrey, and nearly as many trips cross a bridge to North-of-Fraser cities like Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond. These are the trips that typically happen during rush hour—the ones that congest our roads and make our trains and buses crowded and uncomfortable. Regardless of the final destination, the vast majority of these trips are made by driving—not transit. This... is why... we need... SkyTrain.

For outer cities like Langley City, Langley Township and Maple Ridge, it's clear that their distance puts them at a disadvantage. For instance, hardly any people in Langley City commute to Burnaby or Vancouver today, because attempting to do so means a long and stressful drive to the city or a 2+ hour transit commute. There is a lot of economic opportunity in our region but people in the Langleys are often shut out from it because of their access disadvantage. This... is why... the Langleys... need SkyTrain.

There is also a lot of data available on trip lengths. The average trip lengths across our region tend to be longer for work/university trips and longer for transit trips, reflecting that people are willing to commute farther to access economic opportunity, and farther on trains and buses than if they were to make the same commute by car. Future SkyTrain could be one of our most important opportunities to address a regional housing affordability crisis, by connecting to the Langleys to the greater region and giving people in our region more choice on where they can live and where they can work. This is why the region needs the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain.

In past debates on Surrey's transit future, we always heard catchphrases like "most trips in Surrey stay in Surrey". As a matter of fact, our opponents (LRT supporters) framed that as an excuse to invest in a system that's separate and disconnected from existing SkyTrain. Now, it's clear to see why future SkyTrain is so important: Surrey and Langley residents are depending on good, reliable transportation links with the rest of the region to access the economic opportunities within it.

By now you probably know the deal: we have funding for the first 7 kilometres of SkyTrain, and need funding for 10 more to reach downtown Langley City. Fellow stakeholders who recognize this (like the regional Mayors' Council) have been working hard to ensure transit is a part of the debate during this federal election round, and we should thank them for that. Recently, the Mayors' Council recognized that 3 out of the 4 major parties (the Liberals, NDP and Green Party) had committed to introducing permanent funding mechanisms for transit in their party platforms. Such a fund would not only provide the remaining funding necessary to build a full 17-kilometre Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, but it could also enable future extensions.

There's more work to be done, so let's keep up the good fight! You can help by talking to your local candidates about the need to expand SkyTrain and rapid transit—let them know that it matters to you!