The Editor:
Re: Does the Queensborough Bridge in New West need to be expanded or replaced? (Oct. 8, 2024)
Before we suggest the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) start a consultation process to replace the bridge, a project that will likely cost north of $1 billion, there's something else we need them to tackle first.
New Westminster has diligently helped speed up transit buses around the Highway 91A interchange, and it has more improvement projects coming.
MoTI needs to do this, too.
Before a new bridge is proposed, they first need to spend a few hundred thousand dollars to fix the incredible delay they impart on transit riders around the Queensborough Bridge.
No full bus carrying 50 people should be waiting nearly 10 minutes to get through a single traffic light like they do every morning along 6th Avenue westbound at 20th Street.
How do I know this happens? I sit on that bus with a stopwatch going.
The bridge and interchange area is one of TransLink's worst locations for delay.
It's also a corridor with some of the most intense transit ridership in the region: at times, it sees over 60 buses per hour per direction. It also sees up to 13,000 riders per day.
Is this type of high-transit-use environment one where buses should be neglected and riders relegated?
Before New West or MoTI think of embarking on a journey to replace the bridge, think of how we can improve the existing one... and how cheap it would be.
- Michael Hall, New Westminster
