There are renewed calls for the federal and provincial governments to fund a SkyTrain extension to the University of British Columbia’s Point Grey campus. Around 60,000 students, faculty and staff commute to the campus daily from across Metro Vancouver. Solomon Yi-Kieran, a third-year student and vice-president of the Alma Mater Society, said the need for rapid transit is urgent, as students face lengthy commutes and crowded buses. “I think a SkyTrain would just revolutionize the UBC experience for so many people,” Yi-Kieran said. Thousands sign petition The Alma Mater Society, the university’s student union, launched a petition that’s garnered more than 15,000 signatures to extend the SkyTrain to the university. “It would make sure that all of Vancouver basically is within 45 minutes commute to UBC,” Yi-Kieran said. Construction is currently underway on the Millenium SkyTrain line extension, which will stop at Broadway and Arbutus streets. Yi-Kieran said this means transit riders are still forced to take the bus if they want to get to UBC. “It’s just kind of kicking the can down the road,” Yi-Kieran said. “It’s not actually a solution that’s going to fix the problem of congestion.” The province and feds have had discussions in the past to fund a further extension, but nothing has come to fruition. “After 17 years of inaction, we don’t want that attention to go away,” Yi-Kieran said. “We want to make sure the government sees these demands and actually starts to act on them.” Councillors table motion On Wednesday, Vancouver City councillors Sean Orr and Lucy Maloney are tabling a joint motion asking higher levels of government to prioritize this initiative. If it passes, it requests Mayor Ken Sim to write to the premier, the prime minister, and other government officials to express council’s support for the SkyTrain line, and to ask them to commit to a timeline and funding. “When you’re an advocate for something important, you can’t just ask one time, then shrug your shoulders and give up,” said Maloney. “I know from my road safety advocacy that you have to ask again and again in different ways.” Orr said the long commute times are a barrier to education and added he believes the motion will be successful. “We think it’s something that the province wants and the federal government wants,” he said. “In the end, it’s just a matter of keeping up that pressure.”
