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$14 billion transit plan for B.C.

June 30, 2008  By  Carey Fredericks


Premier Gordon Campbell and Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon recently announced a massive $14 billion transit plan for British  Columbia. The plan calls for $11.1 billion in new funding, with the province committing $4.75 billion, and the remainder coming from partners including the federal government, TransLink and local government.

Premier Gordon Campbell and Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon recently announced a massive $14 billion transit plan for British  Columbia. The plan calls for $11.1 billion in new funding, with the province committing $4.75 billion, and the remainder coming from partners including the federal government, TransLink and local government. The investment will double the number of buses throughout the province by 2020, and will bring two new rapid transit to Metro Vancouver the Evergreen line from Burnaby to Vancouver and the UBC line from Broadway Station to the University of British Columbia. The plan also provides additional funding for the $2 billion Canada Line that is currently under construction, and for upgrades to the existing Expo Line. The Evergreen Line is expected to cost approximately $1.4 billion and could be completed as early as 2014. The UBC Line will cost some $2.8 billion with an anticipated completed date of 2020. Other key aspects of the new transit plan include expenditures of $1.2 billion for a new, cutting-edge energy efficient, high capacity RapidBC service along nine major routes in the high-growth urban centres of Kelowna, Victoria and Metro Vancouver and a $1.6 billion capital investment in 1,500 new clean energy buses. The province estimates that a cumulative total of 4.7 million tonnes in transportation greenhouse gas will be reduced by 2020.

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