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Bringing the celebration home
This week, Metro Vancouver is celebrating its 1 million transit riders through Go By Transit Week (September 29 to October 5), with grassroots organization Movement YVR setting up celebration stations across the region offering coffee, stickers, and a chance to share transit stories.
While those stations aren't making it out to Langley, our two mayors are perfectly positioned to fill that gap and bring the celebration home.
Here's the friendly challenge: We're calling on both Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward and City of Langley Mayor Nathan Pachal to post transit selfies before the week ends on Sunday.
Mayor Woodward and Mayor Pachal, when you post these selfies, please tag @movementyvr and use #GoByTransitWeekYVR to show our community that local leadership champions the transit system that Langley residents increasingly depend on!
Both mayors are perfectly positioned to lead
For Mayor Pachal, this should be a natural fit.
He's famously car-free, bikes everywhere, and regularly takes transit himself.
He's lived the overcrowding he wrote about in his recent blog post, remembering the "crush loads" on routes like the 502/503 back in 2019.
Now, with ridership returning to those record levels and the Langleys seeing the strongest growth in the entire region, Mayor Pachal knows firsthand how important transit is to our community.
Mayor Woodward has an equally compelling reason to participate. He's served as a TransLink Mayors' Council Designate to the Board since April 2024.
After a year and a half on the TransLink board, he should be intimately familiar with the system and the challenges facing riders.
This is his chance to demonstrate that connection publicly.
Why visible leadership matters now
Transit ridership across Metro Vancouver has bounced back to 2019 levels, with TransLink posting the third-highest bus ridership in Canada and the United States during 2024.
South of Fraser communities like Langley are leading that growth, with West Coast Express ridership jumping 20% between 2023 and 2024.
But success has brought strain. The system is overcrowded again, and the Mayors' Council just approved a 2025 Investment Plan that asks residents to pay more through an 8% transit property tax increase in 2025 (followed by another 22% in 2027), a 5% fare increase in 2026, and a parking tax bump from 24% to 29%.
That investment plan only solves half of TransLink's funding challenge, with another funding round needed in 2027.
After narrowly avoiding 50% service cuts last year, public support and political visibility matter more than ever.
That's exactly why visible leadership from our mayors matters.
In particular, Mayor Woodward sits on the Mayors' Council that approved these investments and advocated for this funding. They're asking Langley residents to pay more and ride more, all while the system struggles with overcrowding.
The least they can do is show they're in this with us.
How to get involved
So here's the simple ask: Before Sunday, October 5, Mayor Woodward and Mayor Pachal should each post a transit selfie.
Whether it's on a Langley bus route, the West Coast Express heading into Vancouver, or any transit service connecting our community, these photos would send a clear message: our local leaders champion the transit system they're asking us to support and fund.
Langley residents can amplify this challenge too!
Reach out to Mayor Woodward on Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit, and reach out to Mayor Pachal on Facebook or Instagram.
Ask them to post their transit selfies before the week ends.
If you're riding transit yourself this week, share your own experience with #GoByTransitWeekYVR and tag our mayors to show them what the system looks like from a rider's perspective.
Movement YVR has created this moment to celebrate transit and hear from the million people who rely on it daily.
Langley is a major part of that story, leading regional growth while grappling with overcrowded buses and asking residents to invest more in the system's future. Our mayors have the platform and the positioning to highlight that story.
Now they just need to show up, snap a selfie, and post it before Sunday!
References and Resources
Movement
Nathan Pachal
Nathan Pachal
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