Westcoast Express, Commuter Rail Fail ?

Coquitlam city council candidate Harvey Su recently organized a rally at the Westcoast Express commuter rail station in Coquitlam. Mr. Su has formed the West Coast Express Expansion Association, an advocacy group which would like to see an expansion of the current system which he feels is sadly lacking. While most major cities throughout Canada enjoy commuter rail options that meet their needs, the Westcoast Express has not expanded since it's implementation in 1995. Five trains run between Mission and Vancouver, Monday to Friday in the morning and early evening. There is on mid afternoon, late night, or weekend service because the CPR, which owns the rail line, needs the track for it's own purposes. So while the population in Maple Ridge has grown from 56,000 to 91,000 between 1995 and now ( a growth of 60% ) and the Tri-Cities has seen a growth of 170,000 to 245,000 over the same period of time ( 45% growth ) we have seen no expansion of the commuter rail service to meet the needs of the population. The provincial and federal government have put a clear emphasis of getting people out of their cars to reduce our output of carbon gasses. Yet this service, which is clearly not meeting the current needs of the community, could be a big part of the solution if we were to invest in the infrastructure necessary to make better use of the existing tracks. During the 2010 Olympic Games, TransLink successfully negotiated with CPR to run the Westcoast Express seven days per week, with additional peak and mid-day trips. As a result, WCE ridership reached over 17,000 per day during the Games. Prior to the pandemic, WCE saw normal ridership of an average of 10,000 riders per day. Currently, each one-way trip on WCE along the 69-km-long, eight-station route between Waterfront and Mission takes about 70 minutes. Su says his initiative has the support of the mayors of Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Port Moody, as well as various city councillors of these jurisdictions and others, including Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and Mission.