'We were put on the backburner for 25 years': Could Langley line turn into another Evergreen Line?

Remember the nineties?

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart sure does and worriesthat when it comes to rapid transit, Langley is going down the same path of waiting for aSkyTrain extension that could take decades to arrive.

"We were put on the backburner for 25 years. We eventually got our line but it's not even the line that we asked for. It's a line that the province wanted to build," said Stewart.

"I don't want that to happen to the people of Surrey or the people of Langley."

Stewart made the comments on the eve of the TransLink Mayors' Council approval ofa plan that will likely see a SkyTrain extension built from King George Station to Fleetwood, a relatively suburban neighbourhood in east Surrey.

TransLink hopes to quickly find additional funding an estimated $1.5 billion so thefinal nine kilometres to Langley City Centre can be built shortly after, if not at the same time.

If it's a process that sounds familiar, it's because that's how the Millennium Line was built.

WATCH: How SkyTrain lines were being planned in 1999

Funding shortfall for SkyTrain plans

5 years ago

Duration 2:08

The B.C. government announced they were moving ahead with an ambitious new SkyTrain extension - but without money to extend it to Coquitlam or the west side of Vancouver.

First north Burnaby, then the Tri-Cities

Stewart said that when the original Expo Line was built in the 1980s, linking Vancouver with New Westminster, the plan was to build a line to Coquitlam next.

That got put on the backburner for a decade, but by the late 90s the NDP governmenthad settled on a plan one line going through northBurnaby before linking up to the Expo Line in New Westminster, and a "T-Line"that featured extensions to Coquitlam and the west side of Vancouver.

There was just one problem: TransLink said there wasn't enough money for the T-Line portion.

"Building this piece without putting in place the necessary funding for the rest of the line, would be worse than building nothing at all," said George Puil, the first chair of TransLink, in 1999.

But the provincial government had the final sayand decided to build the Millennium Line firstand get to the rest later.

"We believe in regional control of the bus company and TransLink, but at this stage of the game, I want to be clear to everyone: we're building this, and we're building this to Coquitlam," said then- premier Glen Clark.

That never came to be.

The NDP government reneged on a gas tax promise to fund TransLink and were then replaced by the B.C. Liberals. Higher levels of government then prioritized the Canada Line as the next major project, and it wasn't until 2008 that the Premier Gordon Campbell announced they would provide funding for the Evergreen Line overriding local mayors who preferred light-rapid transit.

WATCH: The 20-year path of getting funding for a SkyTrain to the Tri-Cities

20 years of Coquitlam delays

5 years ago

Duration 1:59

When the B.C. government announced funding for Evergreen Line in 2008, it only came after 20 years of broken promises.

Will the public demand more?

So, why should people be confident this phased SkyTrain extension will go differently?

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum who also led Surrey when priorities changed two decades ago didn't directly the answer the question when it was put to him on Thursday,but seemed to argue people would demand funding in a way they didn't in the past.

"I think the public are the ones to support the fact that we need to build these rapid transit lines. It's changed over the last 10 years, where people are now realizing 'let's build as many of these as we can, and then we'll get out of cars,'" McCallumsaid.

SkyTrain for Surrey founderDarryl Dela Cruzsays that unlike the Millennium Line which wentthrough underdeveloped shopping centres and industrial sites for its first decade a SkyTrain line to Fleetwood is a positive project by itself.

"There is a 60 per cent higher return on investment, even with a partial extension, than the previous light-rapid transit plan," Dela Cruz said.

"Even if you look at a partial extension, we can start moving some of those ideas in [car drivers] on to SkyTrain."

It may be the case. But Stewart knows that timelines, governments and priorities can change.

"My concern that if we get to Fleetwood, the business case then rests on which projectis next, and how do we get the Broadway line ... out to UBC?" he said.

"We'll be building two SkyTrain lines halfway to our destinations, and that's not necessarily the best way to approach these things."