The Broadway Subway – Eby Hasn’t A Clue, Nor Does The NDP
I just shake my head at this government, they just do not have a clue about transit.
After listening to NDP Minister of Housing and Attorney General, David Eby about housing, I was absolutely gobsmacked how ignorant he is about transit. If Eby is ignorant about transit, one can assume that the entire NDP government is as well!
Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer repeats in his column, Eby’s statement.
Eby stated:
Or take the case of the Broadway subway line.
The provincial and federal governments are covering most of the cost of the almost $3 billion cost of the SkyTrain extension and construction is underway. But Vancouver has yet to approve the plan to add “thousands and thousands of units” of rental housing along the route.
At this rate, says Eby, “the subway is going to be done before the Broadway corridor plan is approved.”
Memo to David Eby:
If you had cared to read the letter I sent you, A renewed call for a judicial inquiry on TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit, you would have had a working knowledge on subways. In other words Mr. Eby, you don’t know and you don’t care.
So, again:
SUBWAYS ARE NOT BUILT TO BENEFIT LAND SPECULATORS AND LAND DEVELOPERS, SUBWAYS ARE BUILT WHEN TRAFFIC FLOWS ON A TRANSIT ROUTE EXCEED 15,000 PERSONS PER HOUR PER DIRECTION ON A TRANSIT ROUTE.
Again, the peak hour traffic flows on Broadway are under 4,000 pphpd; the Broadway 99-B Line bus has only a maximum capacity of 2,000 pphpd!
I ask this question, tongue in cheek, but is closer to the reality than many would think.
How many people in $2,500 a month and up, condos along Broadway are going to take transit (subway) to work in the Tri-Cities (Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam)?
Not many. In fact, I predict the subway will force more people off transit than attract to transit. Not a car will be taken off the road.
The Broadway subway is being built for two reasons, with the first being politcal prestige and the second, Vision Vancouver’s (the NDP’s farm team in the city of Vancouver) gifting of a $3 billion subway to land land speculators and land developers for building high rise condos and towers for the overseas money laundering crowd to further launder illicit international drug money.
Remember, Premier Horgan’s chief advisor is a former Vision Vancouver Councillor and big, big subway booster.
One wonders who’s side the NDP are really on?
From our view from across the pond, we find the politicians quest for subways rather silly. Subways are a very expensive affair and only built if there is no other option. They certainly do not solve anything, just taking congestion on the surface and hiding it a tunnel.
The great subway craze in the 1960,70’s and 80’s here in Germany has lead to huge subsidies and very large mid life costs. Costs that nearly bankrupt the operating authority.
When we were bidding on the RAV project we tried to convince the powers that be that a subway would be the worst option but no one listened. No one listens when we planned a surface LRT connecting Steveston, Richmond to New Westminster, downtown Vancouver, the Olympic skating stadium and the airport. for less cost than the subway eventually built. Your loss and Lavalin’s gain I am afraid.