A Letter To Zweisystem

From time to time, Zwei gets letters that actually do not libel, nor threaten me and they deserved to be printed.

Much thought has been put into this letter by the author and though I agree with him on many points, there are some slight quibbles or additions which I would like to make and they will be in italics and highlighted.

Letter for zweisystem

I've been meaning to comment on your postings for quite sometime now, and my thoughts are now too long for a comment on the blog. Let me start by saying I agree with you for the need for a TramTrain or similar service into the Fraser Valley, I agree we've wasted far too much money on SkyTrain, and I agree that TransLink is often completely incompetent. This is just a bit of a rant on who should be most commonly be in the cross hairs of your blog posts.

First, how did we end up with SkyTrain to begin with? Well, as you know, it was the province's choice (mostly) to build it in 1986 (we can blame the feds too). At the time it might have seemed like 'the way of the future', so whatever, we'll let that one go. Some of the early extensions might have also made sense, at the time. One thing that was really stupid was building it down the old interurban corridor, which for one was nicely separated from traffic already and was much more suited to an LRT type system. The other problem with this corridor is a lot of it is in sketchy industrial areas in Burnaby, so we got off to a nice start by building poorly lit stations in the middle of nowhere requiring passengers to bus to convenient crime hotspots. But, as I say, we'll let this one slide.

The main reason for the then Social Credit Government for buying SkyTrain was that it also got access the then famous Ontario governments' "Blue Machine", in the deal. The Blue Machine  successfully used computer tracking during elections and was deemed the main reason for the Ontario Conservatives gaining power.

Then came the millennium line. I'm not sure who was supporting what in the case of early talks of the BCIT / UBC transit line, a Hastings line, or a Lougheed LRT, but all these plans ended when the NDP decided to build the millennium line instead. They basically built an incredibly expensive line through half empty industrial lots and suburban sprawl – an area that wouldn't even have had enough ridership to support an express bus. Then, to make good and sure an NDP project wouldn't succeed, the BC liberals canceled the extensions at both ends of the line when they came into power, making it the line 'from nowhere to nowhere). This appears to have begun the province's favourite habit of messing with TransLink, and to me shows who should shoulder most of the blame for our SkyTrain obsession.

The NDP built SkyTrain for the Evergreen Line when Bombardier Inc. promised to build a fabrication plant in Burnaby to assemble Mk.2 cars. The spin was more tech jobs for BC and the plant would build SkyTrain cars for Asia.

This may be a good spot for me to do an aside and talk about SkyTrain ridership. The millennium line has remarkable ridership given where it goes. It's amazing how the City of Burnaby and TransLink (yes, TransLink) have managed to get a line that was never extended to either of it's original endpoints and that runs through almost entirely low density sprawl to be so busy. I used the millennium line to go to SFU and 4-car (mark II) and 6-car (mark 1) trains were arriving every 5 minutes completely FULL. While they're not the capacity of most metro systems, it's still impressive. Yes, TransLink was forced to make commuters transfer from buses onto the line to boost ridership, but what else could they do given that, thanks to the province, they had a 'gold-plated metro' in the middle of nowhere? The U-pass also helped a lot too (more on that later). Burnaby allowed high-rises all along the line. While, not the best form of housing in my opinion, they made a huge difference in boosting ridership. To me it looks like most of the unfavourable things you list of about SkyTrain are examples of work done to make what could have been a completely disastrous project be almost a success – it was all a response to a problem created by the province.

It gets even better… I remember when the TransLink board rejected the RAV line – twice! They weren't sold on Cambie and they weren't sold on SkyTrain. It was then that the province stepped in and said 'build SkyTrain (or more accurately a cheaper knock-off) as a P3 under Cambie or you loose your funding'. On the third vote RAV passed. It was Gordon Campbell and Kevin Falcon who wanted a shiny new line to the airport for the Olympics. Ridership is high on the 'poor mans metro', but I don't think it's entirely false numbers. See it is Vancouver's only somewhat 'urban' line. I think for the Broadway – Waterfront area we can actually support a 'metro-like' system – it just shouldn't have been a priority. There is a lot of legit users commuting to downtown on the Canada Line, we could have just gotten a lot more bang for our buck if the province hadn't crammed the most expensive option down our thoughts. To me it's not that the Canada line wasn't needed, its more that it would have better to get it, as an LRT, and have a bunch of money for LRT lines elsewhere leftover.

We have a general agreement but I have been told by a source within TransLink that because of having several Universities and colleges along the line, a large number of U-Pass holding students are using the metro several times a day (up to 8 times), this gives the appearance of heavy use but at the same time the metro is not generating income. As TransLink has no way of determining how many U-Pass holders are using the metro thus the monies earmarked for the buses are paid to the Canada Line, as TransLink uses each boarding as a new passenger. What the high U-Pass usage on the Canada Line is doing is robbing monies from the bus system. We also have to contend with the large amount of free ridership on Sea Island where employees drive to YVR, park their cars in the large parking lots and take the Canada Line for free one or two stations down the line. Indeed, they are counted as boardings and used in TransLink's ridership/funding formula for the Canada Line.

Added to the U-Pass woes is that it has been reported that many unused U-Passes are being sold to other parties, thus creating more funding chaos for TransLink.

Back to U-pass users. They ride SkyTrain a lot. You call it 'highly subsidized'. Well it wasn't, initially, at least not by tax-payers. The initial price for the U-pass was calculated to be revenue neutral. Because it is mandatory the subsidy would come from those paying for the U-pass, but not using it. TransLink would only cover the cost of running the extra transit, most of which was at the time expected to be just filling excess capacity. Of course, the program proved so popular TransLink ended up needing to increase service more than expected, but if you look at the numbers, it wasn't actually costing them that much (given how they cram students into buses). The pass was mostly paid for as it was about half the price ($34/month) of a normal pass ($69 month – one OR TWO zones for students with a transit sticker) and only half the students were expected to actually use it. Again, it was the province that came in and demanded universal $30/month U-passes at all schools, regardless of how expensive it is to service them. Transit costs less per person the more people use it, so the U-pass was intended to increase the efficiency of the system, it's just now unafforadble to TransLink.

Just a note: The U-Pass was conceived to put student "bums" on empty seats on mandated bus services in the USA, I don't think there has been an empty seat on Broadway bus for years!

Back to SkyTrain. The Evergreen line was supposed to be an LRT. TransLink planned that and sometimes the oblivious media still uses drawings of the Evergreen Line as an LRT. Kevin Falcon wanted SkyTrain and thus, we're now (supposedly) building SkyTrain. The LRT was going to be expensive for light rail, but the need for a tunnel to avoid the steep hill was real. Other routes were off the table mostly because of stupid decisions made in the past. It was entirely the province that forced SkyTrain for the Evergreen line, there is enough money available that the LRT plan is actually funded. Kind of seems like Falcon hates transit. I feel Falcon is a bit like Rob Ford (from Toronto). He likes cars, and his concession for transit users is a few expensive subway lines (instead of many LRT lines) because it keeps transit users out of his way. I feel it is mostly those heavy into car-culture that push subway and SkyTrain type projects.

Now, the UBC and Surrey extensions. TransLink planned for light rail, the province said 'no, you're building SkyTrain'. TransLink planners seem to be trying to at least partially avoid this with their 'alternatives' featuring light rail in public consultation. Gordon Campbell then, cluelessly, said they needed to get started 'building SkyTrain to Langley'. Campbell showed he was unaware of the actual plan, and that he didn't really care what people were saying, it was going to be SkyTrain.

So, in summary, while I often like to blame TransLink for stuff, I really thing it is the province that should be blamed for forcing SkyTrain on the region. While TransLink consistently demonstrates its incompetence, I think there may be a few good planners buried down in the organization somewhere, they just aren't allowed to actually plan anything sensible.

I agree, I just wished that some senior planners had the backbone to resign because of Provincial Government meddling with transit!

Moving forward, we have SkyTrain now. We paid way too much for what we got, but it's there. As is outlined on Human Transit there are some benefits to the automated system, such as the high frequencies we get at night (up to every 2-3 minutes on the combined section of service, unlike the 15 minute service on LRT lines in Calgary and Edmonton at night). The benefits of SkyTrain, to me, don't out weigh the insane cost, but now it's built we might as well take advantage of it. Instead of just ripping apart SkyTrain, I think it makes sense to think of it as a 'backbone' of our system. We should move forward planning light rail extensions from the end of SkyTrain lines (like the TramTrain to Chilliwack). We can continue with other light rail lines, such as from the Canada Line to the ferry, from the Millennium line to Maple Ridge, etc. We can then 'fill-in' the gaps in urban areas with streetcar lines running on corridors not served by SkyTrain. We should take advantage of the high-frequency backbone of SkyTrain we already have for future transit projects.

First, modern LRT can too, operate at 2 to 3 minute headways, in fact in Europe trams operate on 30 second headways on many routes during rush hour, something that the chap from Human Transit, will not acknowledge. LRT extensions from SkyTrain is a very bad mistake as it will not generate ridership, in fact forced transfers hamstrings public transit development. If LRT is built, it must be independent from SkyTrain and operate as a mode unto itself. Of course we will have transfer points, but to operate LRT as a poor cousin of SkyTrain is a very bad mistake and is why it is so important that we cut the SkyTrain apron strings now and go with light rail. If the Valley TramTrain connected directly to downtown Vancouver, ridership could be 4 to 5 times higher than a TramTrain stopping at Scott Road! Please remember the lessons of Karlsruhe, take away one transfer and ridership increases over 450%!

It is a mistake to depend on one line as a backbone, for if the bone breaks, the transit system is in chaos. It is better having a network of lines operating in a city to give the customer options and if a delay happens, there are other alternatives to continue ones journey. With our "SkyTrain is the backbone" philosophy, when SkyTrain goes down, a major transit crisis looms; bus bridges are made; spreading the inconvenience system wide. This is not a good way to operate the transit product.

That being said, I feel I have to admit there might be one place where a 'last SkyTrain ever' should be built. I think the millennium like needs to be extended from VCC-clark to Cambie. This big 'gap' should be closed and forcing an extra transfer to LRT doesn't make sense (see Human Transit). Just something that shows sometimes we're stuck following through on bad ideas from the past.

For the cost of this little subway, we can build a BCIT to UBC LRT/tram line, providing much better transportation alternatives for customers.

Hope my little rant leads to some interesting postings in the future.

H.

P.S. human transit articles I referenced.
http://www.humantransit.org/2010/04/vancouvers-broadway-corridor-options-announced.html
http://www.humantransit.org/2010/04/vancouver-a-cheap-fix-for-the-network-gap.html
http://www.humantransit.org/2010/02/vancouver-the-broadway-debate-and-the-dangers-of-interrupted-grids.html