A letter To Rail for the Valley
Good Morning
I am an avid believer of a Ground LRT System for the lower mainland and the valley.
As a previous resident of Abbotsford I daily commuted to Surrey and Vancouver with frustration and impatience,that never seemed to end.
I have like many others sent e-mails to Ken Hardie (Trans Link spokes person),and while I am not naive,I resented the complacent,condescending,attitude in his replies.
I respectfully point out that(info you are already aware of ),that TransLink is financially bleeding taxpayer dollars,to the point that I believe that if this were a private venture,bankruptcy would be imminent.
They are terrified,of stating the obvious,that TRANS LINK AND CAMPBELL MADE SERIOUS INCOMPETENT ERRORS,re P3's and the Port Mann. It is obvious that as of this morning TransLink publicly announced it is reducing commuter fares on the Golden Ears Bridge in an attempt to increase rider use. TransLink can not allow public opinion to increase over too many more instances of paying another $33,000,000.00 in payments to the P3 owners,as they have in the past re the Golden Ears.
Hardie in following up this announcement,made the statement of possibly making this fare reduction a permanent one if it is successful,which we all know its a ruse in an attempt to increase low rider use.
They are anticipating that with the completion of the Port Mann bridge and its infrastructure that commuters will then be left with no alternative but to be forced to pay for two commuter fares,namely the Port Mann and the Golden Ears bridges,costing each commuter up to $16.00/day,from the Maple Ridge area alone.
This abusive waste of taxpayer hard earned dollars is ludicrous,and I predict that angry and fed up total of a 100,000 daily number of commuters will rebel in having to pay new $200 to $300.00 more per month for new bridge commuter fares.
Hardie according to his reply to me was the possibly of a commuter bus service,for the lower mainland.
With a bus commuter service the total cost is astronomical as :-
– there will be freeway lane restrictions,(with at least one freeway commuter bus lane designation in each direction of the freeway)
– Building costs of office buildings,maintenance facilities,purchase and expropriation of properties.
– required designated drop off and pick up of locations for commuters,along freeway in both directions.
– the high cost of a high number of diesel commuter buses required to be purchased to transport and provide the services for 100,000 commuters per day,would be astronomical.
– increasing cost of fuel and high fuel consumption,(dependant of current and projected costs per litre on world fuel purchase market),will be preordained to increase as (ferries,trucking,transportation of consumer goods etc)etc increase over years.
– heavy air pollution due to the increased number of diesel buses operating daily
-Short service life of commuter buses which are required to travel at least 200 mile each trip (Chilliwack to Vancouver terminals)
– with each bus making at least 6 – 10 anticipated trips per day/bus carrying 100,000 commuters per day = 1500 to 2000 km per day/bus based on a 5 day week = 10,000 km per week = 40,000 km per month travelled for each bus. With each bus capacity = aprox.60 commuters therefore the number of buses required is extremely high.
– the fuel consumption,ultimately the cost of this fuel for this distance travelled per each bus/times the number of buses for this service is and will always be a variable increasing cost that cannot be shunted aside as the cost of doing business.
-Bus life is substantially reduced as the distance travelled each year by each bus will be high.
– one bus travelling 6 trips per day at 200 miles per trip x trips for a 5 day period x 20 days per month x 12 months per year could possibly =1,440,000 miles per year.
5 years service life = 7,200,000 miles
-It obvious that Trans Links is desperate to justify their stance of keeping commuter buses in the picture,as a commuter bus system will be required to the Trans Link 'Gold Plated'Bridges and Freeways.
TransLink knows that it would have to answer for the expenditure of 3 plus billion of taxpayer dollars for a system that will become virtually barren and under utilized,as it is anticipated that 90 plus % of all daily commuters will turn to use an LRT rail line.
Sorry for the long dissertation,but future all politicians NDP,existing MLA'S and possible a new Conservative provincial party must and should be brought on side to embarrass Trans Links actions and incompetence for any and all future unnecessary commuter services.
Name supplied upon request.
Addendum:
The picture of the letter in this post, is a letter mailed via a tram in Germany – please note Strassenbahn on the frank mark.
