B.C. must invest in transit now: NDP leader

It's time for the B.C. government to stop stalling on traffic gridlock in the Lower Mainland and make a serious investment in transit,NDP Leader Carole James says.

James told the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver that Premier Gordon Campbell wants to wait until a new bridge is finished in eight years before doing anything about traffic congestion in the Lower Mainland.

"Commuters are sick and tired of sitting in traffic jams, and they need immediate action. That means a serious investment in transit," James said Thursday.

She called on the premier to immediately fund the Evergreen light-rail transit line to Coquitlam and —noting that half of British Columbians live in the Greater Vancouver Regional District on both sides of the Fraser River —to start planning a new transit line up the Fraser Valley.

James also said the government needs to provide more buses and SkyTrain cars, while increasing transit routes to serve the province's fastest-growing communities.

James said she's against the Liberal government's $3 billion Gateway transportation plan. The plan, announced by Campbell in January 2006, includes a new Pitt River bridge and the twinning of the Port Mann bridge,along with a new South Fraser bypass route to Highway 1 in Surrey from Deltaport.

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said Thursday he's been waiting for two years for James to take a position on the Gateway project, adding she will "rue the day she made the decision."

Falcon said the NDP government of the 1990s failed to live up to its promise to twin the Port Mann bridge.Now, he said,she's "arguing directly contrary to the position that her government took."

James later told reporters that while it might be necessary totwin the Port Mann Bridgesome day, investing in transit is the right way to help frustrated commuters in the short term.

Campbell was slated to speak to delegates at the convention on Friday.