The Evergreen Line – Will Finacial Reality Take Hold?

The problem with the Evergreen Line has always been about expense, what kind of bang will you get out of $1.4 Billion? Not much by all accounts and the lack lustre performance by the Canada Line is now sending financial shivers up TransLink’s spine as bureacratsAi??need oodles of property tax monies to subsidise the Evergreen Line because the ridership prospects are poor indeed.

Contrary to the hype and hoopla by the SkyTrain lobby about the Canada Line (which isn’t really SkyTrain at all), ridership is made up mainly of former bus riders, heavily subsidized students using U-Passes; pensioners using cheap concession tickets and YVR employees riding free on Sea Island, with many riding the line several times a day, inflating boarding numbers! The actual number of people using the Canada line amounts to just over 30,000 to 35,000 a day or about the same number of people that would be needed to justify a much cheaper, at least $1.5 billion cheaperAi??light rail line! Short trains and long headways give the illusion of overcrowding, sadly though there is no financial illusion and TransLink is now canceling rush hour buses that service South DeltaAi??and South SurreyAi??as the expected throngs of new ridership did not materialize.

Beware of those who keep repeating the mantra that the Canada line is a success. A lie repeated many times tends to be viewed as fact.

BC’s Transportation Minister, Shirley Bond, like her many predecessors, is absolutely clueless about public transit, transit modes, and just about everything else concerning regional transportation and the TransLink Board of experts, is nothing more than a bunch of amateurs who do not have the where to understand the concept of affordable public transportation, as they are nothing more than political toadies feeding off the public trough. This sad state of affairs has brought us a largely disfunctional public transit system, which far too expensive to operate and has done little in providing an attractive alternative to the car.

What to do; what must be done?

Let the Evergreen line die a natural death and at the same time, let TransLink follow the Evergreen line to the grave and start afresh. What the region needs is an independent review of ‘rail‘ transportation in the region and the role of public transit. For too long has the mini-metro system has been built to promote high rise densification along its routes and not providing an affordable public transit mode. Our transit modal is based solely on this densification mantra!Ai??Nowhere else in North America isAi??SkyTrain built for regional rail transportation; nowhere else is ‘rail‘ transportation built solely to inflate property values by allowing massive high rise style of densification!

Why does TransLink continue planning with expensive SkyTrain? Gerald Fox, American transit expert gives us a hint; “Vancouver will need to adopt lower-cost LRT in its lesser corridors, or limit theAi??extent ofAi??its rail system. And that makes some TransLink people very nervous.” Could it be that TransLink doesn’t want cheaper LRT or very much cheaper TramTrain, because they just do not have the expertise or the desire to buildAi??with cheaper light-rail? It seems with Translink, cou can’t teach an old dog new tricks and it is time to put it out of its misery.
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Editorial ai??i?? Time for second act

Arrogant, uninformed or disinterested? Which is it for Transportation Minister Shirley Bond, who is now blaming Metro Vancouver mayors for Evergreen Line delays and funding troubles?

Her ministry has complete control over the project and has known for more than a year that the mayors oppose using property taxes to fund it, and yet she and her government have failed to come up with any solutions more creative than simply extending the deadline for TransLink to ante up its share of the $1.4 billion project.

Sheai??i??s quick to criticize but she bears some responsibility for the current impasse. Why, for example, has there been no progress on the memorandum of agreement signed this fall by regional mayors and the ministry? That was supposed to be the forum in which to discuss alternative funding, such as taxing rising property values around SkyTrain stations or giving some carbon tax revenues to TransLink.

Instead, there is nothing on the table but property taxes. But that well has run dry. It would be better to initiate a vehicle levy ai??i?? which is also unpopular ai??i?? but at least it ties car use to transportation infrastructure. Where is Bondai??i??s commitment to providing a mechanism for collecting a vehicle levy? That was an olive branch that would have got the mayors to the table and solved the funding impasse.

The provincial government canai??i??t have it both ways. It created TransLink and decided a professional board and a mayorsai??i?? council were the way to balance regional politics with objective decision-making. If the province made sure it was funded adequately, there would be less criticism.

The province also ran roughshod over TransLink when it chose to build the Canada Line ahead of the Evergreen Line, which was a TransLink priority. It canai??i??t now simply throw in the towel and walk away.

Having hired the actors and written the play, itai??i??s time for Bond and the province to lift the curtain on the second act of the Evergreen Line.

ai??i??Tri-City News

(Black Press)

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/langleytimes/opinion/111859519.html