Surrey City Council narrowly approves BRT concept, reignites SkyTrain debate | Daily Hive

Surrey City Council narrowly approves King George Boulevard BRT concept, reignites SkyTrain and LRT debate

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

Voting along party lines in a 5-4 decision, Surrey City Council approved the preliminary design concept for the new King George Boulevard Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line, clearing the way for TransLink to proceed into the project’s detailed design phase.

The narrow vote of approval led by mayor Brenda Locke’s Surrey Connect party followed a debate that renewed old divisions in Surrey’s municipal governance on how rapid transit should be expanded in the jurisdiction, with some city councillors arguing the focus should exclusively be on extending SkyTrain south along King George Boulevard from Surrey City Centre to at least Newton, while others insisted BRT would provide rapid transit improvements in a more timely manner.

TransLink’s proposed King George Boulevard BRT would span 19 km with 12 stations, running along King George Boulevard between SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station in Surrey City Centre and Semiahmoo Town Centre in South Surrey.

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The public transit authority asserts that compared to the existing R1 King George Boulevard RapidBus service, BRT would offer higher capacities, improved reliability, and greater travel speeds, and more competitive travel times — made possible by the construction of bus-only lanes along most of the route, as well as other bus-priority measures such as traffic signal priority at intersections. The BRT stations would also resemble street-level LRT stations, with passenger amenities such as extensive weather protection and real-time, next-bus digital displays.

Broadly, two general vehicle travel lanes in each direction would be maintained along the entire route, even with the extensive space needed for the bus-only lanes and BRT stations.

king george boulevard brt surrey april 2026

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

Mayor Locke strongly supported the project, framing BRT as a practical response to improving public transit and the very challenging fiscal realities of TransLink and the Government of British Columbia.

“I think we all know the fiscal reality this province faces, the fiscal reality we all face,” said Locke. “And BRT is a very positive thing we can do in our community.”

Locke added that the project would improve mobility across Surrey, particularly connecting Newton and South Surrey, while delivering transit improvements years earlier than a potential SkyTrain extension.

“We need to do things that help move people. We need public transit,” said the mayor. “And so absolutely, if we can get this done and working within literally a couple of years, it makes full-on sense.”

Some of the sharpest opposition to BRT came from Safe Surrey Coalition city councillors Doug Elford and Mandeep Nagra.

Elford said he was willing to keep an open mind to “nurture” this BRT proposal up to this very point of consideration. Over the past half year, he says, he has become increasingly convinced that the King George Boulevard corridor is in need of fully grade-separated rapid transit, specifically SkyTrain with its elevated guideway.

“It took me an hour to get to Newton, to City Hall today. And every time I tried a different route up 132nd or 128th, it was just equally as busy. Elevation is the way to go, and that’s why I will not be endorsing this,” said Elford.

“I think the only solution connecting to Newton on King George is SkyTrain,” Nagra told Council. “And that’s the only sort of a way of transportation that I will support.”

SkyTrain Expo Line near King George Station in Surrey City Centre. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Surrey First city councillor Linda Annis, who is running for mayor in the October 2026 civic election, also voted against moving forward with BRT without a confirmed construction budget from TransLink, but emphasized her strong preference for street-level LRT instead of BRT or SkyTrain.

Her party, Surrey First, has historically been the key proponent for developing a street-level LRT network in Surrey, with their previous push for the Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT project intended to be the first of a number of LRT lines within the city.

“So I think without a cost, and I think that we need to be thinking bigger,” said Annis. “We should be looking at LRT as we have in the past.”

Annis later pressed City of Surrey staff on whether funding was already secured by TransLink for the construction of the project. City staff confirmed TransLink currently only has funding for the detailed design phase, with construction funding expected to be considered as part of TransLink’s 2027 Investment plan.

The public transit authority previously indicated BRT will cost about $20 million per km, which puts the potential cost of the King George Boulevard BRT at roughly $400 million. A finer cost estimate will be provided after the detailed design work is finished in 2027.

TransLink previously noted that BRT could have a construction and implementation timeline of three to five years, after funding is secured — something the provincial and federal governments have yet to provide.

Supporters of the BRT proposal argued that Surrey cannot afford to wait another decade or more for higher-order rail rapid transit and that the right-of-way created for BRT could be repurposed for LRT or SkyTrain in the future.

Surrey Connect city councillor Harry Bains said transportation pressures demand immediate action.

“I don’t know anybody who’s going to disagree that SkyTrain would be an amazing option, but we need transit today. The hour that it took you to get to work today, Councillor Elford, is it going to be solved by waiting 15, 20 years for SkyTrain?” said Bains.

Nagra argued that a SkyTrain extension could be achieved more quickly than some supporters of BRT suggested, highlighting that it was his party that cancelled the Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT project shortly after forming government in the 2018 civic election and then pivoted the City’s support for the current $6-billion, 16-km-long Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line along Fraser Highway between King George Station and Langley City Centre.

Based on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain’s current construction progress, on target to reach completion and open by late 2029, he says, “it won’t take 20 years [to achieve SkyTrain]. I mean, if we all work together, we can make it happen.”

surrey langley skytrain construction march 2026 1

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

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

Bains also defended the proposed roadway configuration for BRT, disputing claims that general vehicle travel lanes would be removed for the buses.

“I don’t know where this removes a lane, because I’m looking at the design,” he said. “It’s four lanes now, two lanes each way, and the design incorporates the exact same thing, two lanes each way.”

Surrey Connect city councillor Gordon Hepner echoed that argument, saying rapid transit improvements are urgently needed.

“We need it today, not tomorrow,” said Hepner. “SkyTrain would be lovely if the provincial government had billions and billions of surplus.”

Surrey Connect city councillor Rob Stutt similarly argued that BRT represented the only realistic near-term option available to Surrey residents.

“I think the best and the only recourse we have now is to proceed with something that we know and something that is underway and something that will be quicker,” said Stutt.

City Council heard that BRT remains substantially less expensive than either LRT or SkyTrain construction.

“A rule of thumb, LRT is four to five times the price of BRT,” said City staff when asked during the meeting. “SkyTrain is about eight to 10 times the price of BRT.”

Surrey Connect city councillor Pardeep Kooner argued that those cost differences make BRT the only realistic short-term option for extending rapid transit farther south.

“I believe if we get this BRT going, it will be completed by 2030,” said Kooner. “And that’s a hell of a lot quicker than waiting a decade.”

Kooner also said TransLink staff had informed them that a potential King George Boulevard SkyTrain extension project would come only after the future project of extending SkyTrain’s Millennium Line from Arbutus Station to the University of British Columbia.

In 2019, in lieu of the Surrey Newton-Guildford LRT, TransLink estimated a southward SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line along King George Boulevard from the vicinity of King George Station to 72 Avenue in Newton — paired with a short BRT route along 104 Avenue between Surrey Central Station and Guildford Town Centre — would cost between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. This figure is certainly now substantially higher, following years of escalation in the market prices for construction labour, equipment, and materials. Such a SkyTrain extension would also see the highest ridership potential.

During the same meeting, City Council also approved City staff’s recommendation endorsing SkyTrain’s King George Station’s southbound bus bay on King George Boulevard as the preferred location for a pilot BRT station installation.

The discussion that played out during the meeting likely hints at and sets the stage for how rapid transit should be in Surrey to be a key issue in the forthcoming civic election campaign.

The debate that unfolded during the meeting likely offers an early glimpse into how rapid transit in Surrey could emerge as a key issue over the coming months during the civic election campaign.

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

translink bus rapid transit brt stop station f

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

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