Philip Parker’s letter “Turn Gateway into transit center” (Our Readers’ Views, April 11) makes a good case for a multi-modal transit hub at Vancouver’s waterfront development. It’s the logical place for a transit center, to include the MAX light rail, which must be brought to the Washington side of the Columbia River.
A large transit project needs to be backed by an influential political champion. Recently, Indiana’s Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb led his very conservative state in approving the West Lake Corridor rail transit line in Northwest Indiana, which is economically integrated with Chicago. If conservative Indiana can do it, Washington should be able to.
Our Gov. Jay Inslee, who has favored rail, is in a strong position to champion rail transit between Vancouver and Portland. The MAX will be one of the backbone links signifying that Vancouver, Portland and the surrounding areas have coalesced into one metropolitan region.
