More Misleading TransLink Numbers – So What Esle is New?

A letter from a Mr. Rob Kwon certainly shreds TransLink’s CEO, Ian Jervis’s claim that the cost per revenue passenger is a$3.98 is based on questionable book keeping. Well so what else is new!

The Canada line was supposed to cost a mere $1.3 billion, yet it’s final cost exceeds $2.5 billion. Translink never includes the now $250 million annual subsidy from the provincial government that is paid to the three metro lines.

If TransLink were a private company and presented such books to the stock holders, the police would be called.

One wishes TransLink be honest with the regional taxpayers, but after 11 years of operation, TransLink has lost all credibility.

It is time to ditch Translink?

Re: TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis’s letter

Jarvis misleads the public with false numbers. His claim is that the cost per revenue passenger is $3.98. What he fails to tell you is that TransLink does not include security, administration, interest, and capital amortization costs in their numbers.

According to TransLink, revenue from fares was $413 million in 2010. Total expenditures were $1.36 billion.

There are other operations that TransLink oversees but for each dollar generated by fares, there is nearly a $2 subsidy.

This is just another game a publicservice bureaucracy plays. Don’t spell out the facts and let the public be ignorant and in the dark.

Rob Kwon, Vancouver

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/math/5177708/story.html#ixzz1TVLmxJdb