Cost of TransLink's King George Boulevard BRT line soars to $700 million | Daily Hive

Cost of TransLink's King George Boulevard Bus Rapid Transit line soars to $700 million

January 2026 revised design of BRT bus stops with centre bus-only lanes. (TransLink)

The estimated cost to build the proposed King George Boulevard Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line is now considerably more than what was originally estimated.

This is TransLink’s project to build a 19-km-long rapid transit route along the King George Boulevard corridor between SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station in Surrey City Centre and Semiahmoo Town Centre in South Surrey.

Articulated buses would operate on their own right-of-way, using bus-only lanes along 90 per cent of the route outside of the Serpentine River agricultural zone. In addition the dedicated lanes, the buses would benefit from traffic signal priority at intersections.

A total of 12 BRT stations would be built along the route, with long station structures — each resembling a street-level Light Rail Transit (LRT) train station — providing extensive overhead weather protection for waiting passengers, and digital displays offering real-time, next bus times and other pertinent information.

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According to TransLink, with such bus-priority measures, the King George Boulevard BRT could have a consistent end-to-end travel time of about 40 minutes, making it as fast — or faster than — driving during the busiest periods of the day. During peak periods, travel times between the key northern segment of Surrey Central Station and Newton (72 Avenue) will be under 15 minutes, down from about 25 minutes on the existing R1 King George Boulevard RapidBus, which would be replaced by this BRT. During peak hours, BRT buses will run at frequencies of up to every five minutes.

TransLink forecasts the ridership on this BRT line could reach over 25,000 riders per day by 2035. In 2024, the existing R1 RapidBus saw average boardings of over 15,000 per weekday.

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April 2026 concept for King George Boulevard BRT. (City of Surrey)

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R1 RapidBus at SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station. (Kenneth Chan)

However, the estimated costs of building BRT — driven by the cost of major road construction works — have steadily climbed over the years.

In 2022, during the very early stages of planning BRT, a figure of $15 million per km of BRT was touted as being a more cost-effective rapid transit solution that can be implemented in a much quicker timeline, providing services to meet short- to medium-term demand, compared to $400 million per km of SkyTrain and the associated longer design, planning, and construction timelines. At that juncture, this put King George Boulevard BRT at a total cost of approximately $300 million.

In its submission to the federal government in 2023 requesting funding, TransLink estimated its first three BRT lines could each cost between $250 million and $300 million.

During TransLink’s public consultation in early 2026 on the preliminary design of both the King George Boulevard BRT and the 22-km-long Langley-Haney Place BRT, the estimated cost was pegged at $20 million for each km of BRT built. At that juncture, King George Boulevard BRT carried a total cost of about $380 million and Langley-Haney Place at approximately $420 million.

“We have to be honest about the cost”

The cost of the King George Boulevard BRT has since grown even further, with Surrey mayor Brenda Locke revealing on Thursday that TransLink now anticipates the project will cost about $700 million — or roughly $37 million per km.

“We have to be honest about the cost. As I understand it, the most up-to-date rough estimate for a 19-km BRT line is about $700 million,” said Locke during her State of the City address to the business community.

“TransLink didn’t want to say it. I don’t blame them,” she continued, before emphasizing that she still believes BRT’s lower-cost and quicker approach is pragmatic at this time, as it acknowledges the current challenging financial realities of TransLink and the Government of British Columbia and the desire to provide improved public transit services sooner than later.

At this time, the provincial government has yet to fully approve the BRT concept and provide the necessary funding for it. This comes against the backdrop of the provincial government’s new pivot beginning in the 2026 budget of slowing the pace of its capital spending — construction projects on new facilities and infrastructure — in an effort to better control the accumulation of staggering provincial debt, and the resulting high interest payments on debt that add to the province’s annual operating deficits and overall debt. Some of the most significant capital project cuts relate to the delays to building the multibillion dollar second phase of the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment.

“We need transit that will be funded, and while the province has not yet announced the BRT funding, we need to be realistic about the fiscal environment we are in as a province. With the province facing a $13 billion deficit, a new multi-billion dollar SkyTrain or LRT line is simply not going to happen any time soon, and Surrey can’t wait that long for a north-south rapid transit,” the mayor continued.

“Frankly, LRT makes zero sense anyway”

She further asserted that building this 19-km-long rapid transit project along the same King George Boulevard corridor using more complex modes such as LRT would cost about $4 billion, while SkyTrain would cost more than $8 billion. In the same breath, she dismissed LRT, deeming it a higher-cost option that functions similarly to BRT but with fixed rails.

“Frankly, LRT makes zero sense anyway. For Surrey, it would operate very much like BRT, but on tracks. So realistically, LRT would take more than a decade to complete, SkyTrain would probably take more than two decades to complete, and those are very, very different scenarios, very, very different numbers and timelines,” said Locke.

“I will always fight for Surrey’s fair share and leadership. Leadership also has to be very practical and pragmatic. We do need transit that can be built now. Surrey needs it now.”

She suggests that over the longer run, she would like to see BRT replaced with a SkyTrain extension, with the right-of-way space created of BRT repurposed for SkyTrain.

“BRT is the practical path forward. It can be delivered in a few years at a significantly lower cost, and it gives residents real service much sooner. It also protects the long-term vision by laying the foundation for a future SkyTrain corridor if the provincial funding becomes available, and that is where Surrey ultimately chooses to go,” continued Locke.

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January 2026 revised bus stop and route map for King George Boulevard BRT and Langley-Haney Place BRT. (TransLink)

translink bus rapid transit brt curbside bus lanes

January 2026 revised design of BRT bus stops with curbside bus-only lanes. (TransLink)

In response to an inquiry from Daily Hive Urbanized, TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain confirmed that the BRT costs have seen an increase due to market inflation, and emphasized the importance of securing the necessary funding from senior governments to prevent any further cost escalation from waiting.

He also noted that even though BRT now carries a higher cost, it is still the most cost-effective rapid transit option at this time.

“TransLink’s original preliminary estimate for each bus rapid transit route was approximately $400 million. While updated costs will be confirmed through the detailed design phase, project costs are expected to be higher than those initial estimates due to inflationary pressures since they were developed,” Mountain told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“BRT remains the most cost-effective option among rapid transit alternatives, and securing funding as soon as possible is critical to help manage further cost escalation,” added Mountain.

TransLink has also seen significant cost escalation recently for its other major capital projects under construction. The cost of building its new SkyTrain operations and maintenance centre near Braid Station in Coquitlam (OMC4) has risen from $658 million in 2021 to $1.3 billion, the new SkyTrain control centre building at the network’s Edmonds hub in Burnaby has risen from $110 million to $327 million, and the Marpole Transit Centre battery-electric bus depot on the Fraser River in Vancouver has risen from $308 million during the early planning stages to $848 million.

Last week, Surrey City Council approved the preliminary design for the King George Boulevard BRT, while Langley Township Council and Maple Ridge City Council approved the preliminary design for the Langley-Haney Place BRT — TransLink’s other prioritized BRT project for implementation. With these approvals, TransLink will enter the detailed design process, with an aim to finalize the design of both BRT projects in 2027.

TransLink is in an earlier stage of planning for the Metrotown-North Shore BRT. In September 2026, as an interim service improvement step, it will significantly extend the North Shore’s R2 RapidBus route from its current eastern terminus of Phibbs bus exchange to reach SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre Station and Metrotown Station via Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, Hastings Street, and Willingdon Avenue.

“Every dollar spent on the King George Boulevard BRT is a dollar that won’t need to be spent later on SkyTrain”

Daryl Dela Cruz of SkyTrain For Surrey — the local group that advocated for SkyTrain extensions in Surrey and against the previous street-level Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT project — says he fully supports the King George Boulevard BRT project for how it would better prepare the corridor for an eventual SkyTrain extension.

“Every dollar spent on the King George Boulevard BRT is a dollar that won’t need to be spent later on SkyTrain. That’s because BRT construction includes utility relocations, land acquisition, street reconstruction, and corridor widening. All of this work would otherwise be bundled into the SkyTrain budget — at a higher and inflated cost, and with greater disruption,” he said.

But Dela Cruz also challenged some of Locke’s cost assumptions for a SkyTrain extension along the King George Boulevard corridor, noting that they appeared to assume the project would mirror the full 19-km BRT route extending to South Surrey.

He pointed to TransLink’s previous preliminary studies that considered extending SkyTrain by nearly six km along King George Boulevard to reach 72 Avenue in Newton Centre. In 2019, shortly after the Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT was cancelled, TransLink estimated such a SkyTrain extension to Newton would cost about $1.4 billion and attract 60,000 riders per day by 2050, when combined with enhanced bus services between SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station and Guildford Town Centre.

Some of the comments made in last week’s Surrey City Council meeting suggest the precise approach for future rapid transit in the jurisdiction could become a major campaign issue in the October 2026 civic election.

Sitting city councillor Linda Annis, who is the Surrey First party’s mayoral candidate, has vowed to pursue street-level LRT instead of the King George Boulevard BRT project and further SkyTrain extensions. Her party spearheaded the previous Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT project.

As well, former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum is also looking to return to his mayoral seat in the upcoming election. Running under his Safe Surrey Coalition party, he issued a statement last week that outlined his four key platform promises, including extending SkyTrain to Newton. During the 2018 civic election campaign, he ran on the promise of cancelling Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT and advancing SkyTrain — something his party initiated soon after being elected.

Imagine Surrey party’s mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk — a former Surrey city councillor and former BC NDP MLA for the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale — wants to see a SkyTrain study performed for the King George Boulevard corridor between Surrey City Centre and South Surrey. Based on the understanding that BRT right-of-ways could be repurposed for permanent rail rapid transit infrastructure in the future, Starchuk’s party is supportive of the King George Boulevard BRT, and wants to see the designation of two additional BRT priority corridors: Scott Road/72nd Avenue — as an upgrade of the existing R6 Scott Road RapidBus — and 104th Avenue/152nd Street.

The current project of building the 16-km-long, eight-station Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line — a project that is 100 per cent elevated — will cost just under $6 billion, up from nearly $4 billion. It is expected to reach completion by late 2029.

As of now, about 90 per cent of the foundations for Surrey-Langley SkyTrain’s elevated guideway is complete, 75 per cent of the concrete columns supporting the elevated guideway are built, and over 30 per cent or five km of the concrete elevated guideway segments have been installed along the route. Moreover, the temporary precast concrete facility in Campbell Heights has now manufactured half of the segments of the concrete elevated guideway.

Additionally, the 16-km-long underground duct bank for SkyTrain’s electrical lines is now more than 75 per cent finished — about 12 km — and trackwork with the installation of rail on the elevated guideway first began in late April 2026.

Surrey-Langley SkyTrain construction, March 2026. (Government of BC)

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Surrey-Langley SkyTrain construction, March 2026. (Government of BC)

Surrey-Langley SkyTrain construction, February 2026. (Government of BC)

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