Highway One Expansion Plan - First Open House, In Langley Feb 18th

Langley is having the first of many regional GVRD "Gateway Plan" open houses on Saturday February 18 from 10am to 1pm at the Walnut Grove Community center. Let’s make sure Langley’s opinions are clearly heard. Organize your neighbourhood and friends to take a position, whatever your position is, and make your opinions well heard. Remember that Langley’s strong voice was significant and overcame the dreaded car tax levy. This is our chance once again, let’s make Langley's needs clear.

This map shows the Gateway plan routes.
View the Vancouver Sun report here. The Sun reports that the new Port Mann Bridge will be built to accomodate "future light transit".

The Gateway Project information is available to be seen here on the CBC site with some informative document links. We at Langley Free Press strongly agree with the Gateway project, especially on twinning the Port Mann Bridge. We are still not convinced that it is fair to charge tolls, considering all the tax money we are paying to all levels for transportation. It seems to penalize us more so than other communities. The important item to be raised is that the Twining will help in the short term of perhaps 20 years or so and is desperately needed now.

We strongly feel that as part of this gateway plan a complementing time line & a commitment to provide an extension of sky train, light Rapid Train or similar rapid transit service to the Fraser Valley in the next 15 to 25 years is desperately required. Growth and gridlock is unavoidable south of the Fraser. We believe this makes eminent sense to plan and commit to now. We need the Gateway project in the short term but we equally have to marry it to a definite mid to long term rapid transit solution as well to the Fraser Valley. We need to plan for at least 50 years not 20 years at a time. It would also be the perfect time to look at the dramaticily increasing container train problems in the South Fraser. The Vancouver malcontent elitists will be somewhat placated with the twinning if they know that a complementary rapid public transit plan is also in the works. Combining long & very long term creative plans that incorporate container trains and perhaps commuter rapid transit now is desperately needed and could not be better timed. Anything less would be unfathomable.