McElhanney

New agreement advocates for Skytrain to UBC

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The City of Vancouver, the University of British Columbia and the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Development Corporation have signed an agreement to help extend TransLink’s SkyTrain light-rail transit network all the way to UBC’s local campus.

The unique partnership was struck late last year via a Memorandum of Understanding. The three organizations committed to jointly advocate for federal, provincial, and regional support and funding for the extension of the Broadway Millennium Line beyond the currently planned terminus at Arbutus St.

It’s the first MOU in Canada that brings together an academic institution, a First Nations development corporation, and a municipality to seek investment in major transit infrastructure.

“This agreement sets a new example for how city-building in the 21st Century should work,” said Mayor Kennedy Stewart. “Building SkyTrain all the way to UBC is a regional priority that will not only help connect academic and health sciences along Broadway with the rest of Metro, it will put Reconciliation into practice as we work in partnership with the MST Development Corporation.”

The three organizations are united in the pursuit of SkyTrain to UBC for its potential to achieve their shared aspirations of improved transit in the region, more affordable housing, better post-secondary accessibility, increased economic growth, and reduced GHG emissions.

The daytime population of UBC exceeds 80,000 people. It is the third largest employment centre in all of BC. Of the 55,000 UBC students, faculty, and staff who live off campus, about half of them pass through Vancouver on their way to work or school from other municipalities.

 

 

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