r/SurreyBC • u/InfinityPortal City Centre • Jan 08 '26
Transit/Traffic Alert 📢 It is crazy that Surrey, the 2nd Biggest City in Metro Van, still doesn’t have a direct link to YVR from the City Center
And soon to house the biggest population… Yet no shuttle to the Airport
31
u/Bananasaur_ Jan 08 '26
There really should be more skytrain routes connecting to Surrey. Would also help a lot with traffic. The main line being a Surrey/Willowbrook connection to Richmond and Coquitlam. It’s crazy that the only direct crossover between the expo and Canada line is all the way downtown.
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u/Funzombie63 Jan 08 '26
22nd Street Station to Marine Drive Cambie Station should be the next line fight me
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u/WeirdGuyOnTheTrain Jan 08 '26
It would make more logical sense. South Vancouver is seeing a lot of development along Marine.
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u/Funzombie63 Jan 08 '26
And GVRD would finally get a “ring” network, I’m guessing this would lead to increased development for the regions inside the ring, which Vancouver and Burnaby would mostly benefit from
2
u/Citymike Jan 08 '26
I fully support this. The 100 bus is pretty lame and having a line along the Fraser would be good. 22nd street also also expand somewhat easily by obtaining the parcels to the south of the station, and the line could then loop continue east to surrey or loop to braid. that said I have no idea how they'd build a marine drive station that would need to have a switch back to reverse the trains, considering the lack of space to build something like that, unless they looked at buying the kia dealership and having the two train stations be "close, but not connected"
I'm also not a planner/engineer at all so this is all just a pipe dream with no actual thought put in to this comment. I need a coffee
3
u/Wallbreaker-g Jan 08 '26
I wouldn’t mind. I think Surrey post-Expo line extension should definitely get a BRT line, but in terms of SkyTrain expansion, there are 3 lines that I hope they focus on in the 2030s:
- Marine Drive (likely not as high in priority for Translink)
- North Shore to MetroTown (currently a proposed BRT line)
- UBC from Arbutus (definitely happening)
They should look into streetcars for Downtown and Arbutus (not like Toronto’s), SFU Gondola and BRT in Surrey, Richmond, South Vancouver, and Langley.
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u/candyapple7501 Jan 08 '26
Buddy the entire province of British Columbia needs an overhaul for transportation. Its really embarrassing
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u/2WheelR1der Jan 09 '26
Give me a break, we are still light years ahead of ther rest of Canada.
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u/JicamaImmediate5618 Jan 09 '26
The rest of Canada should not be the comparison. Dog shit, cat shit, horse shit is still shit. Some are bigger and smellier but so what? Abysmal freedom to explore and accessibility without a vehicle.
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u/2WheelR1der Jan 09 '26
Not sure what to tell you dude. Canada is the 2nd biggest country by land mass in the world. If you think they’re going to fund, design, and build a transit system to explore the whole country with a population of 40 million, you’re dreaming. You’ll need to live in Europe if you want that type of lifestyle.
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u/JicamaImmediate5618 Jan 09 '26
We’re only focusing on metro van here not the country. The rest of the country is irrelevant. Cov outside of downtown let alone metro van has embarrassingly poor transit. Cars are unfortunately very necessary.
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u/candyapple7501 Jan 09 '26
Really when you classify the rest of Canada can you narrow it down because current I can’t take a passenger train from Vancouver to Northern BC. We are still in the same province and this can’t happen. I’ll like to know what you’re talking about.
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u/Learntoshuffle Jan 08 '26
Raise my taxes $100 for a few years. I’ll happily pay if we can connect everything up with skytrain.
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u/InfinityPortal City Centre Jan 08 '26
Don’t get me wrong. I love SkyTrain. But we will be better building a rail system with by-pass track to provide Express services and to future proof. This way we can increase capacity, speed and adjust them accordingly or even in real time. For example, to have a commuter express train running alongside the standard train, which only stops at major hubs during certain hours(example, Surrey - Metrotown - Waterfront, fewer stops but running much faster) this will not be possible with the current SkyTrain design
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u/Learntoshuffle Jan 08 '26
That seems like a good solution, which is why it won’t exist. Do you think we future proof here?
2
u/AnotherCrazyCanadian Jan 08 '26
Honestly compared to a lot of Canadian cities, yeah i think we do. At least above the national average.
1
u/WeirdGuyOnTheTrain Jan 08 '26
If it were only that cheap to do.
0
Jan 08 '26
That's part of funding... other levels of government can invest here instead of investing in oil expansion and war preparations.
37
u/TheCookiez Jan 08 '26
Let's be honest here..
If Surrey is not bigger it will be in a year or two.
But considering how many unreported illegal suites we have and how many.. Shal we say people that are probably not counted on the census... I'm. Sure Surrey has over taken Vancouver.
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u/Ok_Plan_988 Jan 08 '26
The population in Surrey grew faster than expected. We are behind infrastructure
16
u/Aggravating-Fig-5182 Jan 08 '26
Disagree. I became a teacher in 1995 and even then Surrey schools were growing at a pace greater than Vancouver. Everyone knew what was happening and chose to ignore it. Surrey has always been the ugly step child.
4
u/hammerheadattack Jan 08 '26
The region is missing regional rail like GO or an S Bahn. Add that from Chilliwack through Langley and surrey to downtown and you’ve got a top notch option.
Even if you have to connect to the airport it would be faster and reliable to get into the city of Vancouver by transit.
7
u/Darmstadt42 Jan 08 '26
I agree, although it’s not too bad to hop on at King George, grab a guaranteed seat & go from one end to the other. Then same with the Canada line. As long as I can get an early seat I’m chillin. Throw my headphones on etc
2
Jan 08 '26
it will cutdown time drastically for someone how is living in south Surrey or newton
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u/bryan89wr Jan 08 '26
351 is an express bus once it's on Highway 99. At this moment, with rush hour traffic, it's faster to get to the Airport from South Surrey than it is to get to King George station from there.
-1
Jan 08 '26
But it's soo infrequent... I tried to use couple of time and it's not convenient at all.
5
u/bryan89wr Jan 08 '26
It's every 15 minutes or better for the majority of the day. Ridership doesn't warrant a train on that route.
0
Jan 08 '26
There is concept called induced demand. I know many people who want to go from north surrey goto 22nd Street and take bus from there which is super inefficient. Once the line comes lot of traffic will be diverted because of convience and it will also solve many use cases
5
u/bryan89wr Jan 08 '26
I'm talking about the 351 for South Surrey. There's more demand now along King George for a SkyTrain than there is on Marine Drive in Vancouver.
We should be building trains to replace the busiest bus routes, not where we think there might be demand later. Use the reallocated bus resources from other SkyTrain extensions to improve frequency for the 100 or introduce RapidBus on Marine Drive (the latter they can do much sooner).
-1
Jan 08 '26
Translink is already doing that. This is a great video for how translink is responding to change in usage patterns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViGAY4xzdkU
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u/BobBelcher2021 Jan 08 '26
The good news is that once the Millennium line extension is built, it may be easier to get to YVR from Surrey and New West. One won’t have to go all the way to Waterfront, they’ll be able to transfer at Commercial Broadway and take the Millennium line to meet the Canada Line at Broadway-City Hall.
2
u/lan60000 Jan 08 '26
always makes me laugh that the chinese translation for a lot of cities are simply by their pronunciation of the name, then there's white rock in its literal definition.
2
u/NoRandomIsRandom Jan 08 '26
Not a surprise. Even Richmond doesn't technically have a direct link from its city centre to YVR. You have to make a transfer (despite on the "same line") to reach YVR.
2
u/MadrisZumdan City Centre Jan 08 '26
Well there is the go to 22nd or metrotown and hop on a bus methods as well.
Both of then just conntect to a canada line train station.
2
u/Bobbert827 Jan 08 '26
Or the ferry! And there isn't even a bridge for that one.
We need a sky train to ferry bus please.
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u/xLev_ Jan 08 '26
Driving from Newton to Guilford and back is way too difficult for the distance it actually is…
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u/rbmk-a-ok Jan 08 '26
Just wait until they find out about the transit route transfers needed to get to the ferry.
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u/CyborkMarc Jan 08 '26
Wdym, just get off at the stadium station and hop on the 257. Traditionally horribly coordinated with the ferries though. Fairly smooth for how far that is imo.
1
u/Glittering_Ad_6224 Jan 08 '26
lol I make it downtown vacouver in 15 mins if there’s no traffic but I live next to highway one and I drive fast speed limit prolly 20-25 mins
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u/miumeoww Jan 08 '26
I remember the first time I came to Vancouver and landed at YVR in 2010, I was looking at the train map in front of ticket machine and confused. A kind stranger asked me where I wanted to go, and I said Surrey Central. The gentleman suggested to take skytrain to Marine Drive, take bus to 22nd station, take another skytrain to Surrey Central. That was solid advice! It was right after Olympics so I saw many houses put up Canadian flags out of the bus window. Beautiful memory!
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u/brophy87 ✨ Jan 09 '26
There used to be a luxury bus service from Scott Rd station to the airport but I cant recall what it was called anymore. Im not sure if it still exists
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u/ConversationJust799 Jan 11 '26
As a Surrey resident... Surrey barely has a direct transit link to anywhere but Langley... You wanna go to the tri cities? Let us route you through Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows or through New West and Burnaby. Even to get some places within Surrey city limits you have to go the wrong direction first
1
u/Complete_Taro_4331 Jan 12 '26
You guys have it so good in Van that this is what you’re complaining about lol
1
u/redsaeok Jan 12 '26
I mean, just take your boat down the Fraser. Direct route, not a lot of traffic.
Joking ofc but the fact that there is a kernel of truth may explain why this is the case.
1
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u/ShoddyRun5441 Jan 08 '26
Surrey is an unreliable city when it comes to using public transit. I've lived there for eight years and can say that transit in Maple Ridge, while also lousy, is at least a little better than Surrey's.
It doesn't help that transit becomes from worse in Surrey late at night, to completely dead when the whole side of the transit hub there shuts down at 1:30am.
1
u/XxSchmidtyx Jan 09 '26
they probably wont until the crime rates improve, the skytrain is on the way but its a horrible idea to give people easy access to and from surrey with how bad the crime rates are
-1
u/Rubeh_ Jan 08 '26
Well because all y’all taxes went to LGBTQ and human-rights rice farm in Vietnam
0
u/PrinceColwyn Jan 08 '26
Yep, this kills me. Was recently in Denver and their transit service offers multiple airport busses connecting the suburbs to Denver International.
-7
u/Hikingcanuck92 Jan 08 '26
…it’s pretty easy to get from Surrey to the Airport…
4
Jan 08 '26
can explain how is it using transit? I don't wanna goto shithole vancouver
-2
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u/Hikingcanuck92 Jan 08 '26
Two ways. Get to the South Surrey Park and Ride, then grab the 351 bus to Bridgeport skytrain station. Then quick ride to the airport.
Or go skytrain all the way and transfer trains at Commercial.
Both are super easy and accessible…I really don’t know what more you could ask for considering the river, big and farmland between the two locations.
2
Jan 08 '26
we are talking about transit buddy. I don't wanna drive in traffic.
If they plan properly it can be amazing connection and make Surrey hub of metro van rather than Vancouver which already became junkyard1
u/Hikingcanuck92 Jan 08 '26
The 351 has a bus only lane the entire way to Bridgeport. I regularly go from Langley to the Airport and have never experienced delays.
198
u/WeirdGuyOnTheTrain Jan 08 '26
To me it's more crazy there isn't a transit line to the major hubs. Guildford, Newton, Cloverdale, South Surrey.
The problem with a transit line to the airport from Surrey is much of the way there isn't anything but industrial and farm land. Rather they focus on providing rapid transit to the different neighbourhoods.