The recently announced $500,000 rapid transit study from Vancouver to the airport has more to do with MP Raymond Chan's re-election and selling more of the obsolete SkyTrain mini-metro (Bombardier, which owns SkyTrain, has close ties with the federal Liberal Party).

How can you plan an affordable transit if you do not include model or route in your study? Certainly a $15 million - $25 mill./km- LRT line from Vancouver, using the Arbutus Corridor, would be far cheaper yet carry the same ridership than a $75 million/ton elevated or $150 million/km million SkyTrain subway.

Portland is building an 8.8km extension of their extensive light rail network, to the international airport, costing under CAD $22 million/km, which is reasonable considering they have realistic expectations of attracting 2.7 million trips annually by the year 2015.

With Vancouver's downtown core only a 15 to 20-minute cab or Airporter bus trip away, with direct service to hotels, an airport rail link would take longer with at least one, if not two, transfers for customers. The most economic rail solution would be reinstating the interurban (light rail transit) from downtown Vancouver to Steveston and from Marpole to New Westminster, using the Arbutus Corridor and existing rail bridges and then build an inexpensive light rail link to the airport.

Until real transit experts, not bureaucrats and politicians with their favourite consultant, plan for sustainable transit options (certainly not the bunch doing this study) will the public get a transit system that works for them!