By Graham Cook

Fiscal concerns raised in business report

Following the sentiment of a recent business report, TransLink has decided to put a hold on the creation of the Burnaby Mountain gondola. The Gondola was slated to take passengers from the Production Way SkyTrain station to SFU’s Burnaby campus.

The firm found that the new project would save current riders 1.5 to 1.6 million hours annually of travel time with 26.1 to 29.2 million fewer vehicle kilometers travelled annually and a score of other benefits including lower auto operating costs, collision costs, and greenhouse gas emissions.  These benefits were valued at over $500 million dollars for a benefit-cost ratio of 3.6, indicating that benefits surpass the costs.

However, the estimated cost of the proposed gondola is $120 million with operating costs equating to about $3 to $3.5 million a year.  This totals to a 25-year combined cost of $157 million; $10 million more than what it is estimated that it would cost to maintain and expand the bus service.

Jeff Busby, TransLink’s manager of infrastructure planning spoke with The Peak and shared that “had the cost of the gondola been less expensive we could have considered in in our plans . . . we essentially could have used the savings from the bus service to offset the project within our existing plan but because the project requires more resources it would compete for resources with other projects and so it needs to be considered in a future plan.” This is due to the fact that if TransLink wants to provide a service that is more expensive than the services they currently provide they must create what is known as a supplemental plan. The most recent supplemental plan was called, “moving forward” and was concerned with building the Evergreen Line.

In an email release, SFSS president Jeff McCann said that “the student society has been in favour of the gondola for several years, and I think that the campus community could be enhanced by the gondola.” He added that he feels it will make the student experience at SFU better while being more sustainable both financially and environmentally.

Despite TransLink’s decision, SFSS at-large rep and SFU Community Trust board member Arry Dhillon remains optimistic about seeing a gondola at SFU in the near future. In an interview with The Peak, he stated that his best estimate for when the school would have a gondola would be within the next three to five years.

According to the business report, there are four routes being reviewed, including one from the Lake City station, two variations from the Production Way station, and one from the planned “Burquitlam” station that will exist on the Evergreen line.  “Route two”, which is one of the Production Way options, has emerged as a front-runner and would swap a 15-minute bus ride for seven-minute gondola trip.