Surrey mayoral candidates offer competing SkyTrain, BRT and LRT plans

Surrey’s leading mayoral candidates are pitching different approaches to the city’s next rapid transit investments: more SkyTrain, additional Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), or a renewed push for street-level Light Rail Transit (LRT). The sharpest differences concern the King George Boulevard corridor and how to connect Surrey City Centre, Newton and South Surrey. The main voting day for civic elections across British Columbia is Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026.

Incumbent Mayor Brenda Locke, of Surrey Connect, supports advancing TransLink’s proposed King George Boulevard BRT alongside the Surrey–Langley SkyTrain extension. Her council endorsed the BRT line’s preliminary design concept earlier this year. The Surrey–Langley Expo Line extension is under major construction along Fraser Highway, from the existing King George Station to Langley City Centre. The 16-kilometre project, with eight stations and a $6-billion cost, is expected to open in late 2029.

TransLink is proposing a 19-kilometre King George Boulevard BRT line from Surrey Central Station on the Expo Line to Semiahmoo Town Centre in South Surrey, which would also serve White Rock. The approximately $700-million project would have 12 stations, dedicated bus lanes along much of the route and traffic-signal priority for buses. It is intended to provide a higher level of service than the existing R1 King George Boulevard RapidBus it would replace. The end-to-end trip is expected to take about 40 minutes during busy periods, making it Metro Vancouver’s first BRT line. TransLink has said construction and implementation could take three to five years once all funding is secured. No funding has yet been committed to its other proposed BRT lines, from Metrotown to the North Shore and from Langley to Haney Place.

Earlier this week, BC NDP Leader David Eby announced that his government would pledge $250 million toward the King George Boulevard BRT’s construction costs, assuming the project could secure additional federal funding. The announcement came as part of his re-election campaign in the separate provincial general election on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Doug McCallum, a former longtime mayor and Safe Surrey Coalition candidate, has made extending SkyTrain south from Surrey City Centre to Newton along King George Boulevard a central campaign promise. His campaign points to his successful effort during the 2018 civic election to cancel Surrey First’s Surrey Newton–Guildford LRT project in favour of advancing the Surrey–Langley SkyTrain extension as evidence he can deliver major transit projects. Cancelling the unpopular LRT in favour of SkyTrain on the Fraser Highway corridor was one of two central issues in that election; the other was the transition from the Surrey RCMP to the municipally controlled Surrey Police Service. McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition-led council cancelled the LRT in late 2018, among its first decisions. TransLink and the provincial government supported the shift to SkyTrain soon afterward, in 2019. Major construction, led by the provincial government, began in November 2024.

Linda Annis, a Surrey First mayoral candidate and sitting councillor, is calling for TransLink’s current BRT proposal to be reconsidered. She wants street-level LRT from the outset, effectively reviving the cancelled Surrey Newton–Guildford project, which Surrey First had led and advocated for since the early 2010s, when it controlled council. Annis has questioned spending hundreds of millions of dollars on bus infrastructure if the corridor might eventually be converted to rail. She argues a larger initial investment in LRT would offer more capacity and room for future growth. Surrey First’s platform explicitly backs street-level LRT connecting neighbourhoods across the city. It also calls for better bus service through the reassignment of vehicles and drivers freed up as the Millennium Line Broadway extension and Expo Line Surrey–Langley extension open in coming years.

Mike Starchuk, an Imagine Surrey candidate, former councillor and former BC NDP MLA for Surrey–Cloverdale, proposes expanding BRT while beginning the planning needed for a future SkyTrain extension. The party wants three new BRT lines by the end of its first term in 2030: one from Scott Road Station to Newton along Scott Road and 72 Avenue, replacing the R6 Scott Road RapidBus; one on 152nd Street from Guildford Town Centre to South Surrey; and TransLink’s proposed King George Boulevard line.

Starchuk is calling for a feasibility study and business-case planning for a SkyTrain extension along King George Boulevard from Surrey City Centre to Semiahmoo Town Centre. That would go farther south than McCallum’s proposal to extend SkyTrain to Newton. Imagine Surrey also envisions a commuter rail line using part of the former interurban railway corridor between Scott Road Station and Langley City Centre.

Honveer Singh Randhawa, the Conservative Party of Surrey’s mayoral candidate, also proposes extending the Expo Line south from King George Station through Newton to the South Surrey Park & Ride. His platform calls for stations at 88th Avenue and Newton Exchange, with a southern terminus serving the Highway 99 corridor. Randhawa proposes presenting a business case to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council, seeking provincial and federal contributions, and funding the local share with revenue from development around stations.