This is your chance to say if you want the Broadway Subway all the way to UBC

Artistic rendering of a Broadway Extension subway entrance. (TransLink)

Do you want the Broadway Extension of the Millennium Line to continue all the way to the University of British Columbia campus? There will be an opportunity to voice your opinions to some of the region’s decision makers in an upcoming town hall.

Joyce Murray, the federal Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra, is inviting residents to participate in a town hall scheduled for Saturday, July 28.

The Broadway Extension will reach Arbutus Street and provide six new stations over a new underground SkyTrain span of about six kilometres. The project is anticipated to cost up to $2.83 billion and attract 140,000 boardings per day upon opening in 2025, with construction starting in 2020.

TransLink intends to extend the line all the way to UBC eventually, after the completion to Arbutus Street. Although the system will be designed for a westward extension, no formal decision has been made on what form of rail transit to the campus will occur.

“People have asked whether LRT to UBC might be worth considering,” said UBC President and Vice-Chancellor Santa Ono in April. “Frankly, the extremely high volume of users to UBC requires the speed and capacity of an underground or elevated SkyTrain. LRT would be suboptimal. When the extension to UBC is built, we must do it right from day 1.”

UBC renewed public discussions over the need and benefits of an expedited subway extension this past spring and offered funding to help cover the cost of the full extension by a theoretical timeline of 2028.

“Public transit forms the lifeline of communities—the central arteries through which people move and connect. Vancouver Quadra residents rely on public transit to shop; get to work, school, and appointments; and meet friends for coffee. Just how public transit is shaped and run has a tremendous effect on the future shape and functioning of the community,” said Murray in a newsletter to constituents.

“Plans to extend the Millennium Line along Broadway to Arbutus are well underway, and talk has turned to the possibility of continuing it on to UBC.”

The town hall will include a panel consisting of Michelle Barile from the West Broadway Business Improvement Association, Michael White who is the Associate Vice-President of Campus and Community Planning at UBC, and representatives from both TransLink and the City of Vancouver.

UBC Subway Town Hall 2018

When: Saturday, July 28, 2018

Time: 1 to 3 pm (registration from 12:30 to 1 pm)

Where: Memorial Hall at Pacific Spirit Church – 2195 West 45th Avenue, Vancouver

UBC Subway Town Hall 2018

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