November 20, 2009
$54.6 million Park and Ride en route
Matthew Claxton, Langley Advance
Published: Friday, November 20, 2009
It's more than just a parking lot.
It's a new park and ride, a new way to get around the 200th Street interchange, and a jumping off point for rapid bus service from Langley.
On Thursday, a $54.6 million project was announced, creating a new transit hub in Langley.
Langley MP Mark Warawa is excited about the news of the new park and ride.
The 202nd Street Park and Ride and Transit Exchange will be located to the south of the TransCanada Highway, between the highway and 86th Avenue.
Tunnels will allow traffic to access the new park and ride as well as bypassing the 200th Street highway interchange.
According to the press release from the B.C. Liberal Caucus offices, 202nd Street will be extended to cross under the highway, creating a new north-south connection.
This will create a new link directly to the Golden Ears Bridge.
An underpass will also allow drivers to reach the park and ride from the eastbound lanes of the highway. Access on and off the highway will connect to the HOV lanes that are being extended to Langley as part of the Port Mann Bridge twinning and the expansion of the TransCanada Highway.
The park and ride itself will have room for approximately 1,000 cars.
"It's the real thing, it's extremely exciting," said Langley MP Mark Warawa.
He said it means Langley will be a big part of a regional transit system.
"Langley will be the eastern terminal for the RapidBus system," Warawa said.
The idea of RapidBus was brought up in the $14 billion transit expansion floated by the provincial Liberals a few years ago.
It means buses leaving from Langley and travelling down the TransCanada Highway to Coquitlam or Burnaby. That will only be possible once HOV lanes and the twinned Port Mann has been completed. Buses haven't run across the bridge in more than 20 years due to congestion.
Warawa said it will help give people in Langley more travel options and will get them out of their cars.
"I think there'll be groundbreaking pretty soon," Warawa added.
The project, which will have a budget in the same range as the Langley Events Centre, is being jointly funded by the provincial and federal governments and TransLink. Victoria will contribute $32.7 million, Ottawa will pay $19.15 million from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, and TransLink will add $2.75 million.
