Regional Politicians Mull Political Oblivion

Well, here we go again!

“Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble“, the dreaded TransLink auto levy again has raised its ugly head. Here we have a largely incompetent transportation agency, which doesn’t run our transit system, which has absolutely no public scrutiny, and is in constant financial peril, demanding more taxpayer’s money. TransLink’s mission statements seems to be; “If it doesn’t work, let’s do it again and hope it works the nextAi??time.”Ai??and “To hell with the taxpayer“, either way I think it is time for TransLink to depart on the next train to oblivion because all these guys seem to do is want to plan forAi??very expensiveAi??SkyTrain, built in even more expensiveAi??subways and the organization seems unable to grasp the meaning of affordability.

There is aAi??general feelingAi??that the well paid bureaucrats whoAi??shuffle aroundAi??at TransLinkAi??think that everyone elseAi??is as well paid as they and fail to grasp the notion that many of the region’s taxpayers are maxed out. Economy just doe not exist in TransLink’s lexicon.

I have a message for TransLink:

“YOU HAVE BEEN SAT TO LONG HERE FOR ANY GOOD YOU HAVE BEEN DOING.Ai?? DEPART, I SAY, AND LET US HAVE DONE WITH YOU. IN THE NAME OF GOD, GO!.”

With the monies saved by the demise of TransLink, we could fund our regional transit system, though I doubt anyone is listening.

TransLink vehicle levy back on mayors’ agenda

By Jeff Nagel – Surrey North Delta Leader
Published: January 18, 2013

A yearly levy on each vehicle registered in Metro Vancouver is once again being pursued by area mayors as a short-term solution to TransLink’s financial challenges.

A car levy has been on the books as a legal option since TransLink was formed but the province has blocked its actual use three times ai??i?? once when the NDP was still in power in 2001 and twice more in the past four years under the BC Liberals.

Now mayors ai??i?? increasingly frustrated with Victoria and insistent that fares, gas taxes and property taxes can’t be raised any higher ai??i?? will try again.

“There’s only one thing not tapped out and that’s the vehicle levy,” said Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew.

“We have no other logical place to go,” said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who estimates TransLink is short about $150 to $175 million a year to sustain current service levels, let alone find billions more for projects like new rapid transit lines in Surrey and Vancouver.

“It’s the most easily implemented short-term option people can discern to get through the problems that we’ve got.”

Mayors emerged from a closed-door meeting Friday proclaiming their unity on key issues and their determination to press the provincial political parties to commit to a solution ahead of the May 15 provincial election.

The TransLink mayors’ council intends to spell out its position in a discussion paper within two weeks and press both the government and opposition parties to respond.

Drew chastised Transportation Minister Mary Polak for late last year directing mayors to first come up with a vision for future spending before new controversial funding sources might be considered.

“The vision’s well laid out,” he said, adding all mayors feel Polak’s aim was to “rag the puck until after the election.”

The province has long preferred to see TransLink make more use of property tax instead of any source that might anger drivers.

Drew noted TransLink is automatically permitted to raise an extra three per cent each year from property taxes, which average $230 per Metro home.

“We’ve already made a significant, ongoing, compounding commitment via property tax dollars.”

Mayors also remain committed to exploring road pricing as a long-term source.

“We don’t know what that will look like,” Corrigan said. “Whether it’s congestion taxes in the downtown or additional tolls on bridges or road tolls. We don’t know what’s going to make logical sense yet, but we need some sustainable long-term source.”

Road pricing is seen as a mechanism that is at least tied to transportation and that could help control congestion and encourage motorists to try alternatives to driving.

It’s also held up by some mayors as a necessary discussion now that tolls on the Port Mann Bridge are causing some drivers to divert to free crossings.

Corrigan said a share of the carbon tax ai??i?? as proposed by the NDP ai??i?? is another option, or perhaps the next government may make an altogether different source available.

Both Corrigan and Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender ai??i?? frequent adversaries on opposite ends of the political spectrum ai??i?? called it a productive meeting with strong agreement on the strategy.

“We need to keep the pressure on ourselves and the government and the opposition parties moving into the election campaign,” Fassbender said.

One precondition for any new deal with the province, both Fassbender and Corrigan said, is that it come with governance reform of TransLink that puts mayors back in charge of setting spending priorities, not just signing off on contentious tax hikes.

“We have very little to say in the governnace of TransLink and yet were told to go find funding options,” Pitt Meadows Mayor Deb Walters said. “Anytime we come up with options they get shot down. It’s extremely frustrating.”

A vehicle levy was last proposed ai??i?? and shot down ai??i?? in 2009.

It would have raised $150 million a year by charging an average of $120 per vehicle.

“You need to look at something you can implement quickly,” Fassbender said. “To me some sort of a vehicle charge starts to fall into that category.”

It could be replaced once a long-term source like road pricing arrives, he added.

http://www.surreyleader.com/news/187546471.html

Winter Tramway, Light Rail, LRT and ART reliability?

The Cardinal is confident that friends & colleagues in Vancouver will take satisfaction from knowing that European Light Rail & at-grade tramway systems are providing a faultless public service this winter.

Images of Croydon (London) Tramlink Ai??Ai??& Manchester Metrolink, are the evidence.

Ai??

Ai??A video of Croydon Tramlink services this weekend.

Ai??http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zzak2MHvN0

I hope TranLinkai??i??s SkyTrain system will come to the mark in 2013 and confirm that the technical problems experienced in previous winters have been solved.Ai??

Taking to task two commenterai??i??s on the Blog, Daryl Dela Ai??Cruz & Richard Campbell, the pair of you have unfortunately taken to posting spurious comments in order to debase Light Rail and Tramways;

Darylai??i??s post on the SkyTrain for Surrey Blog:

An LRT Risk: Accident causes 90-minute disruption of Calgary LRT during PMAi??rush

http://skytrainforsurrey.org/2013/01/16/accident-causes-90-minute-disruption-of-calgary-lrt-during-pm-rush/

shows a particular level of desperation.

How many minutes of disruption has SkyTrain notched up in the past week, month or year from different causes?

How many delay causing road traffic accidents occur in Calgary daily? The afore mentioned incident is a rare occurence Daryl, don’t try to prove otherwise.

Mainz’s Trams Climbing 9.5% Grades

Mainz, Germany has rebuilt its metre gauge tramway as modern LRT, with new low floor cars, etc.

Mainz’s LRT has three route with a total mileage of 20 km.

Please cue to 5:00 on the following U-Tube video of mainz’s trams climbing 9.5% grades with ease.

Mainz Germany

 

13.9% Grade in Lisbon – Impossible Claims the City of Vancouver!

Ever see a tram climbing a 13.9% grade?

Well now you have! A Lisbon tram climbing the famous 13.9% grade in the city.

Please don’t tell the City of Vancouver or its Engineering Department, because they will just just believe you.

TransLink’s Subway Fiscal Time Bomb

The SkyTrain/metro Lobby remain mute on the long term fiscal effects of operating subways, especially on routes that have low ridership, say less than 15,000 pphpd.

Building a subway is a very expensive proposition and many factors should be considered before embarking on such a costly investment. The first questionAi??any knowledgeable transit planner must ask is; “Is the traffic flow along the subway line enough to sustain it?”

Generally speaking, if average traffic flows are less than 15,000 pphpd, a subway is not needed , as a surface transit route would be more economic. If a subway is built on a route with low ridership, then the subway must be subsidized, with the lower the ridership, the higher the subsidy.

There are many other expensive problems associated with subways, but one that is seldom admitted to is the extremely high maintenance costs that come with a subway. Subways must be cleaned as the accumulated debris and dirt because the piston like action of every passing train acts like a sandblaster on signalling and power equipment. As a subway ages, the maintenance costs escalate. German cities that joined the subway mania in the 60’s and 70’s are now ruing the decision as onerous maintenance costs for the subways have all but bankrupted many transit companies.

It is sad that Vancouver City hall and TransLink are infected with the subway mania and our transit planning shows this as it is 40 to 50 years out of date!

The Broadway SkyTrain subway is a throwback to earlier days, where “mass transit” schemes were built to win votes, built at a time when money was thought ‘cheap’ to borrow and ; “hell anyways, it is just built for show as we must keep the road clear for cars.“

In 2013, politicians lose elections due to bad transit decisions; money is not cheap; there are way too many cars on the road, so much so that gridlock is a daily occurrence, and the European light rail Renaissance has not yet reached Vancouver.

 

The following is from a transit specialist from Germany.

When some light rail subway systems over here (Koeln, Bochum) converted some lines built for high-floor cars in the 60/70s to low-floor cars, they simply filled the trackbed in the stations with enough ballast to lift the rails up.

The operating and maintenance cost for all those escalators, lighting and ventilation of the tunnel stations (not to mention cleaning) etc. might kill such a project, however. Over here, the electricity bill just for all that tunnel-specific equipment is already typically higher than that for traction energy of the rolling stock.

Decades ago, they wanted to put the streetcars on grade-free tracks in order to reduce cost by running them driver-less.

Today, all transit operators that have buried their streetcars face serious financial problems due to the operating and maintenance cost of the grade-free
infrastructure. It’s those operators that did not follow the “tunnel-mania” that have the lowest operating cost today. Burying streetcars turned out as a huge mistake.

The Greer Report & Rapid Transitai??i?? A repost from 2009.

From 2009

Posted by zweisystem on Thursday, September 17, 2009 – With minor editing for 2013.

The London Underground: 150 Years in Culture

Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??

The first journey on the London Underground was made 150 years ago, on this day, 9 January 1863 from Praed Street (Paddington) to Farringdon; the line opening for public service on the 10^th of January . Since then, the iconic transport system and culture have crossed paths. We look at the artists, writers and zombies in culture who have taken over the Tube.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9789903/The-London-Underground-150-Years-In-Culture.html

Ai??150 years, 11 Lines totaling 402 km, 270 stations and a daily ridership of 3.6 million on, the Tube as London Underground is known is loved as much as it is reviled

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/09/150-years-of-london-underground-loved-as-much-as-it-is-reviled/

Ai??The London underground at 150 – a birthday journey

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/09/london-underground-150-years-birthday

Ai??There have been as number of attempts to show tube stations where they really are but this map by Andy Hudson-Smith of the Digital Urban blog goes one step further by rendering landmarks too!

Ai??

Ai??London Underground: 150 fascinating Tube facts

The Tube turns 150 today. Here is a nugget of knowledge for every year of its existence.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/london/9789966/London-Underground-150-fascinating-Tube-facts.html

Ai??Finally, after 150 years London Underground has its own disused station web site

http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/

Ai??& its own slightly irreverent Blog ai??i?? Going Underground

http://london-underground.blogspot.co.uk/

Ai??Ai??Imagine life without the London Undergroundai??i?? The iconic Tube has been transporting Londoners around Britainai??i??s capital for 150 years, and today 150,000 passengers use the Underground every hour.

This fascinating miscellany takes us on a round-trip through every aspect of the London Underground, from the history of its construction to its many appearances in books, films and popular music, giving a glimpse into the technical marvels beneath our feet and the many human stories that play out in its trains and tunnels every day.

1845: A pamphlet is published in which Charles Pearson, a London lawyer, pushes the idea of an underground railway to transport both passengers and goods to the city centre.

1863: On 10 January the Metropolitan Railway goes down in the history books when it opens the first subterranean railway in the world.

1998: A previously undiscovered breed of mosquito, adapted to life underground, is discovered living in the Tube network.

2012: Close to one million people use the Northern line alone, every day.

ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??ai??i??.. & Translink children, London Underground is aAi??150 year old heavy rail underground, surface & subsurface metro system and with that, it has little in common with SkyTrain; though no doubt one of you wretched individuals will try to argue white is black!

and there areAi??Ai??steam locomotives on the Underground!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i33KnnY6e24

Traffic congestion in Metro Vancouver as bad as Los Angeles. A report that TransLink will ignore!

Oh yes, TransLink is on the right path in providing an affordable public transit alternative – NOT!

Vancouver faces many transportation problems, but TransLink and its very unconventional transit planning must rank as number one.

As I have said before, “Transit is to move people and not money“, yet TransLink still bumbles along planning hugely expensive metro projects thatAi??are built toAi??subsidize major development (densification) along the route. It is thought (or hoped) that major densificationAi??will provide ridership for the very expensive metro line because the metro has done poorly in attracting the motorist from the car. In the end, densification increases auto use, creating more congestion and gridlock, which TransLink, municipal planners, and academics (particularly at SFU)Ai??do not have the wit to solve.

Densification may increase transit ridership, but it also increasesAi??private and commercial vehicle use, which in the end, despite investing billions of dollars on expensive light metro, little is achieved!

So after investing nearly $9 billion over the past 33 years, on three mini-metro routes alone, Metro Vancouver has achieved traffic congestion as bad as Los Angeles.

Traffic congestion in Metro Vancouver as bad as Los Angeles: report

By Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver SunJanuary 8, 2013

Vancouver’s traffic congestion is just as bad as Los Angeles and the worst inAi?? Canada, says the latest congestion report from TomTom, a company thatAi?? manufactures GPS devices.

The company, which released its third quarterly congestion index on Tuesday,Ai?? uses its own navigation technology to rate traffic congestion in 57 NorthAi?? American cities with a population of more than 950,000.

Metro Vancouver tied with L.A. as the top congested city, followed by SanAi?? Francisco, Honolulu, Seattle, Toronto and New Orleans.

Between July and September, Metro Vancouver’s congestion increased by one perAi?? cent to 34 per cent over the last quarterly index, said TomTom, making it equalAi?? with LA.

During that period, journey times were on average 34 per cent longer duringAi?? peak times than when traffic is flowing freely.

Put another way, Metro Vancouver motorists waited, on average, eight per centAi?? longer in the morning and evening rush times than their counterparts in greaterAi?? Toronto, and 10 per cent longer than those in Montreal and Chicago, according toAi?? TomTom.

The company uses real travel time data captured by vehicles to compare travelAi?? times at rush hour with travel at “low-flow” times.

However, a traffic consultant in Ottawa has cautioned that the index is aAi?? “pretty shallow analysis,” probably tied more to marketing GPS devices.

Barry Wellar, a former geography professor at the University of Ottawa, saysAi?? it’s nearly impossible to do a fair comparison of cities.

TomTom says its traffic database contains more than six trillion dataAi?? measurements and is growing by five billion measurements every day.

With files from Postmedia News

The top ten most congested North American cities between July and SeptemberAi?? 2012, according to TomTom, were:

1. Los Angeles (34%)

2. Vancouver (34%)

3. San Francisco (33%)

4. Honolulu (31%)

5. Seattle (27%)

6. Toronto (26%)

7. New Orleans (25%)

8. San Jose (25%)

9. Montreal (24%)

10. Chicago (24%)

Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Traffic+congestion+Metro+Vancouver+Angeles+report/7790031/story.html#ixzz2HPbmM5JN

SkyTrain is Obsolete, Why Then Doesn’t The SkyTrain Lobby & TransLink Get It?

Two letters in the North Delta/Surrey Leader, one from Daryl Cruz of “SkyTrain For Surrey” fame and a rebuttal from Malcolm Johnston, a contributor to this blog.

The assertions by Cruz that “building LRT will cost us billions and billions more than building SkyTrain”, is outright dishonest and comes from a profound ignorance about light rail and public transit.

One wonders who is feeding Cruz this nonsense and for what reason?

A part of the answer is that TransLink and the SkyTrain lobby are afraid of the truth because the truth is very inconvenient with the Evergreen Line now under construction and the Broadway SkyTrain subway on the horizon.

Light rail not right for Surrey or Vancouver

Published: December 31, 2012

The arguing of which transit technologies to use for Broadway and Surrey rapid transit has to stop.

The City of Vancouver is right in its touting that the option for Broadway rapid transit extension should be SkyTrain, and that there should be no contest. The City of Surrey should listen to Vancouver.

I find it remarkable how blind some Light Rapid Transit advocates can be. When it comes to discussing high-cost transit projects, a lot of people seem to be placing emphasis on capital costs exclusively.

What most of these advocates donai??i??t seem to understand is that there are greater economic and productivity benefits from a faster and far more reliable service.

Spending more money on better infrastructure is usually synonymous with earning more benefits to offset the cost, and going by that metric, building LRT will cost us billions and billions more than building SkyTrain.

Daryl Dela Cruz

skytrainforsurrey.org

And a reply from Rail for the Valley

SkyTrain obsolete for years

Published: January 07, 2013

I find I must reply to Mr. Daryl Cruzai??i??s most bizarre letter (ai???Light rail not right for Surrey or Vancouver,ai??? The Leader, Jan. 1.)

The fact of the matter is simple ai??i?? modern light rail made proprietary light-metro systems obsolete almost two decades ago. That many who support spending billions of dollars on SkyTrain extensions remain ignorant of this fact is telling.

LRT made SkyTrain obsolete in North America the early ai??i??80s, when a study by IBI Group for the Toronto Transit Commission found that SkyTrain ai???could cost anywhere up to ten times more to install than light rail, for about the same capacity.ai???

Why build with SkyTrain when you got a far bigger bang for your buck with LRT?

Though only seven SkyTrain-type systems have been built since the late 1970s, the proprietary mini-metro has gone through at least four official name changes, starting with Intermediate Capacity Transit System; then to Advanced Light Rail Transit; followed by Automatic Light Metro; and presently Advanced Rapid Transit.

During the same period, modern LRT has just remained light rail, and during the same period that SkyTrain has been on the market, over 160 new LRT systems have been built and a further 56 LRT systems are under construction or have been approved.

It is also interesting to note that not one of the seven SkyTrain tendering processes allowed light rail to compete.

It is this statement by Mr. Cruz that forced me to reply: ai???building LRT will cost us billions and billions more than building SkyTrain.ai??? The statement is beyond all reality and belongs in a world of fairies and pixie dust.

Yes, those supporting modern LRT are ai???blindai??? indeed.

Malcolm Johnston

Rail for the Valley

Delta

 

January 2013

The Cardinal sends greetings & fraternity to all for the new year.

The Cardinal concludes with conviction, that 2013 will mark a watershed forAi??@ grade Light Rail, Trams & Streetcars in Canada & BC in particular.

So, Mr Daryl Dela Cruz, LIM, Rico & Richard be afraid, be very afraid for the day of street level Light Rail has come.