Is it time to bring back the streetcar to Vancouver?
Both Stephen Rees http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/is-it-time-to-bring-back-the-streetcar-to-vancouver/
and Voony http://voony.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/is-it-time-to-bring-back-the-streetcar-to-vancouver/Ai??
The motion has been launchedAi??by Vancouver-based online consultation platform PlaceSpeak https://www.placespeak.com/topic/399/streetcar-city-2050/
Vancouver is currently exploring the use of streetcars as a key element of our transition to more sustainable transportation modes. But if streetcars are to be reintroduced in todayai??i??s economic climate it is important that they are planned in a thoughtful, evidence-based manner that includes public input. With this in mind, PlaceSpeak teamed up with Patrick Condon at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to gauge the publicai??i??s interest in restoring streetcarsai??i??and associated amenitiesai??i??to our city.
Historically, Vancouver began as a streetcar city with electric trams connecting neighbourhoods and the downtown core. By the 1920s, however, the introduction of the car proved so powerful that they quickly became the preferred mode of transportation. In fact, Vancouverai??i??s original streetcar grid left such a strong imprint that many arterial streets continue to thrive. Indeed, if you ask a resident where the heart of their neighbourhood is, they will likely name the former streetcar street at its center.
In recent years, B.C. citizens have been struggling to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air. In our province transportation produces more GHG than any other sector, and the bulk of that comes from the ordinary activity of residents travelling through the city each day.
In Vancouver, we have also been figuring out how to incorporate ai???livable densityai??i?? as we plan a sustainable, affordable, and livable future for our residents. Streetcars may be able to help with both. According to Condon, one part of the solution may be returning to our ai???routesai??i?? and reintroducing streetcars to Vancouver:
Vancouver is slowly on track to meet our 2050 goals for reducing GHGs. We walk more, bike more, use transit more, and our cars less and less. But to make the next big leap requires us to think now about electrifying the transit system. It wonai??i??t help if we all use buses if those buses belch diesel fumes. Streetcars are one solution; and for many streets the cheapest one available. Our city grew with the streetcar. It might grow more sustainable with it again.
ai???Density without transit is just denseai???, says PlaceSpeak CEO Colleen Hardwick:
For Vancouver to meet its environmental goals while accommodating forecasted population growth it is crucial that we diversify our transit options. Streetcars are the missing link in our transportation infrastructure.ai???
Surface LRT will “corrupt” rail system
In a letter to the Langley Advance, a spokesman for “SkyTrain for Surrey” says adding surface light rail to the Vancouver area rail transit system will “corrupt” the efficiency and cost recovery of the existing rapid transit system:
http://www.langleyadvance.com/TransLink+SkyTrain+boosting+profits/6672346/story.html
This is the link to the letter that, Daryl Dela Cruz ofAi??SkyTrain for Surrey objects to:
http://www.langleyadvance.com/TransLink+capital+mistake/6364277/story.html
Isn’t it about time TransLink admitted it has backed the wrong horse?
In 1986 when the first section of track was opened on Terminal (how fitting) Avenue for Expo 86, experts predicted a day would come that the SkyTrain system would never pay for itself.
Twenty-six years later TransLink is still trying to break even.
The quandary TransLink is in is obvious: raise fares to the amount necessary to recoup operating and capital costs through “user-pay,” and ridership will drop off dramatically and may, in fact, generate even less revenue.
This means the business/financial model used to justify adoption of the SkyTrain system was faulty out of the gate. Someone did a snow job on the people of Vancouver.
TransLink realizes it, and that is why it is trying every trick in the book to suck money out of Lower Mainland residents to try to make SkyTrain pay.
The truth is, it will never pay for itself. TransLink has admitted as much in its statement that, just to keep the system operating, never mind the Evergreen line costs, it needs to raise another $30 million.
It’s time to do what other cities in the world have done: abandon SkyTrain and move to surface transportation.
The Fraser Valley has a viable rail system for commuter traffic, not only to Vancouver but to other communities in the valley and all the way to the coast.
Super buses can be a part of the new transportation system, electrifying as much as possible and moving away from gas and diesel engines.
Decentralizing transfer points (they don’t have to feed SkyTrain anymore) so they spread the traffic, rather than concentrate it, will lead to increased ridership and decreased pollution.
Then TransLink can stop squeezing blood out of the stones that are already crumbling under the strain of added levies and taxes.
It’s time for someone at TransLink to have the stones to stand up and admit SkyTrain is a loser.
The Emperor has no Clothes and no Transit – First published in March 2011
Zwei has decided to reprint this post from March of last year.
In the ensuing year nothing has changed; the same oldAi??tired cast of characters trundling out the same old tired transit plans,Ai??desperately tryingAi??to convinceAi??the ever increasingly skeptical taxpayerAi??to ante up more and more tax money to fund transit improvements that everyone knows will fail to deliver what is promised.
The regional mayors, act as a collectiveAi??”ship of fools” pretending they want better transit, when most secretly want miles and miles of new blacktop in their municipalities so their political friends can develope ever diminishing ALR lands. The mainstream media,Ai?? desperate to retain advertising revenue form those in power and those who wield power, have acquiredAi??collective amnesia regarding transit and transit news and print, what they are told to print.
Herr Goebbels would be soAi??pleased.
The region has no transit plan and no transit.
The Emperor has no Clothes and no Transit
Posted by Cardinal Fang on Sunday, March 27, 2011
Vancouver is at first glance a beautiful city. It is surrounded by sweeping vistas and a dramatic skyline.
The climate is moderate but spend some time here and scratch the surface and it becomes far less attractive. It is a city that is divided politically; it is parochial, narrow minded and shallow. The people are characterless, flaky and disingenuous. Vancouver is the scam capital of North America, a skill set for which the local population is particularly adept.
There are times when I am certain that Vancouver is something straight out of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
It is a cold place, people in the same business do not interact of share information they do not network or help each other. There is an almost a Darwinian or Hobbesian social culture ai??i?? Vancouver is an empty void.
The political environment is polarized and doctrinaire. The left adheres to ideas that are at least a generation out of date. Vancouverites think that Naomi Klein is an intellectual when in reality she is a very silly charlatan. To Vancouverites the secret is a serious work of self help. The right is equally foolish in the banality of their free market ideology.
You don’t meet people of substance here. You meet flakes. The press is dominated by yellow journalism. Rarely if ever have I read a real piece of investigative journalism. You do not meet people who form their opinions based upon facts. When you encounter Vancouverites and engage them in the discussion of social issues the argument usually become circular and they end of talking only about themselves. There is a kind of deep insecurity that comes from profound feeling of self loathing that is hard wired into the political culture here. Narcissism is the dominate religion and worshipping at the Temple of Mammon ai??i?? real estate speculation is the Holy Grail.
People here (generally speaking of course) are stuck up, materialistic yuppies. The downtown scene used to have decent variety, now it’s full of “cookie-cutter” clubs and bars that cater to Armani clones.
Go east of here, or especially south of here, and you’ll find friendlier people that aren’t so consumed with cliques and materialism. If one hails from Harare, Timbuktu, Tripoli, or Darfur then yes, Vancouver appears pretty good, but “the most liveable city on Earth”?Not only is this pretentious, it’s just plain wrong.
No where is the contrast more apparent, than in Coquitlam and Port Moody; cities like Surrey, Delta and Langley, South of the Fraser River and east along the Valley to Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
Politicians, planners, decision makers, wealthy Vancouver suburbanites and the `movers & shakersai??i?? contemptuously dismiss the communities beyond downtown as the boondocks; the disdain for the citizens of the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Fraser Valley is illustrated in the attitude of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, BC Transit and TransLink, to public transport in these areas.
The Emperor has no Clothes and no Transit.
In December 2010;
the FRASER VALLEY TRANSIT STUDY http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/FraserValleyTransit/publications.htm
was released and condemned the communities of the Fraser Valley Regional District to a life of perpetuity with no more than a second-rate bus service as an alternative to the private car.
The Rail for the Valley movement has long campaigned against this inequity:
Whereai??i??s The Transit?
http://www.railforthevalley.com/latest-news/zweisystem/wheres-the-transit/
Transit Planning In Metro Vancouver ai??i?? Where Have We Gone Wrong?
Added costs for the Canada Line ai??i?? Has The Taxpayer Assumed Risk?
The truth is now beginning to be realised by the wider community; The Globe & Mail published the two following articles on March 25 & 26th.
Transit a hit-and-miss affair in B.C.ai??i??s Lower Mainland
Transit problems across Canada prompt calls for politicians to address issue
We can only hope that the National Election called on the 2nd May and the end to the ten years of ineptitude, inequality, corruption & nepotism in Gordon Campbell’s BC Liberal administration will improve the outlook; we can but hope and wish.
One should have some basis for comparison before showering such hyperbole on the overpriced, congested, and conceited squalor that is the most liveable city in the world. If any city (or province) is presumptuous enough to put “the best place on Earth” on its license plates; it’d better well be the case, because it’s citizens don’t uphold the credibility.
Vancouver is a poor-man’s version of Seattle that, ironically, costs five times at much. Unlike Seattle, however, Vancouver has a dearth of friendly (and English-speaking) people, good music, and reasonably-priced beer. The self-satisfied smugness Vancouverites have toward their neighbour city to the south (or any metropolis, for that matter) stems from an amalgamation of an inferiority complex coupled with an identity crisis. Canada is like the U.S. in every way, except not quite as good. Nowhere is this exemplified more than in Vancouver.
Eric Chris on the West Coast Express and TransLink Ridership in General
Eric Chris takes on TransLink’s appalling history of exaggerating ridership on Vancouver’s metro transit system.
Zwei has known since the mid 1980’s that BC Transit exaggerated ridership on the SkyTrain Expo Line to impress visiting transit types, but they were not fooled as they could see that the light loadings on the mini-metro did not match what they were told. Even Zwei had a personal experience when a BC Transit official told him that car counters were told to report 100 persons per car, regardless of actual capacity. At the time the MK.1 cars had a maximum capacity of 70 persons.
TransLink carries on the tradition, over-estimating ridership to put the transit system, especially on the metro system. One problem arising out of this is that receipts do not match reported ridership and thus the myth of massive fare evasion was born. The mainstream media, especially one local radio station has bitten in this kool-aide and has done a radio soap opera on the issue, doing TransLink a great service promoting the $171 million fare-gate installation because it is hoped it will stop fare evasion. Trouble with that, is that fare-gates, unless they are manned by attendants, will do little mitigating fare evasion and the cost of installation, maintenance and operation of the fare-gates will cost TransLink more than it was losing from fare evasion!
The TransLink saga continues…………………………………….
Eric Chris’s letter.
Apparently, the West Coast Express (WCE) only operates on weekdays (260 days per year) and the 3,077 daily ridership previously given for the WCE is a little low.Ai?? Still, ridership on the WCE is not 6,000 people, commuters or passengers daily as TransLink contends.
Ridership on the WCE is around 4,300 people daily (2.25 million trips per year / 260 operating days per year / 2 trips per person daily on average).Ai?? By not correcting the false ridership stated by TransLink in the Vancouver Sun and The Province, you are allowing TransLink to lie and get away with it.
This is to trick the average reader into thinking that transit by TransLink moves far more people than it really does.Ai?? It is to gain sympathy for more transit funding when TransLink already spends far more than any other transit organization in Canada (refer to Figure 4-9 on page 27 of the TransLink efficiency review by Shirocca Consulting completed for the TransLink Commissioner, Martin Crilly, March 2012):
http://translinkcommission.org/TransLink_Efficiency_Review_Mar_21-12_FINAL.pdf
TransLink is basket case and in a class of its own when it comes to spending per rider.Ai?? Yet, you and the rest of the reporters in Vancouver appear too scared to take on TransLink and do not seem interested in pointing how awful transit by TransLink is to your readers.Ai?? In fact, you bend over backwards for TransLink to write stories persuading readers to fund more SkyTrain transit which is the root cause of the poor efficiency of transit by TransLink.
Generally, TransLink reports two to three times the real number of people on buses and SkyTrain cars.Ai?? You have to take ridership figures presented by TransLink with a grain of salt.Ai?? Approximately 264,000 people ride transit on average throughout the week in Metro Vancouver (11% of the 2.4Ai?? million population in Metro Vancouver).
Incidentally, how many times a transit user boards transit is irrelevant, and the average transit user boards transit many times daily, just like the average driver gets into and out of his or her car many times daily.Ai?? Most serious and regular transit users have a transit pass.Ai?? If TransLink is able to say how many people hold transit passes, it will give you a very good idea of how many people truly use transit regularly, surely.Ai?? Hope this clarifies things for you.
ec
TramTrain Trial OK’ed in the UK
TramTrain is coming to South Yorkshire, in the UK.
If TramTrain passes muster with her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate, it would past muster in BC for operation in metro Vancouver.
The real question, of course, is why TransLink must be forced kicking and screaming to accept TramTrain as a 21st century transit mode?
From the LRTA website at www.lrta.org
Tram Train pilot to go ahead in South Yorkshire : Transport Minister Norman Baker today gave the green light to a GBP58m (CAD $93.7 million) Tram Train pilot scheme in South Yorkshire. New vehicles will operate from 2015 on Sheffieldai??i??s Supertram network and on part of the national rail network, which will be adapted to allow seamless travel from one to the other.
Tram Train can assist city economies by increasing capacity and releasing space at mainline stations for other commuters or improved long distance services. It can reinvigorate suburban rail routes and bring passengers right into city centre destinations, creating growth and cutting carbon.
Announcing the pilot, Norman Baker said:
The pilot will see the introduction from 2015 of new Tram Train vehicles capable of using both light and heavy rail infrastructure, so providing continuous travel from Sheffieldai??i??s Supertram network onto Network Railai??i??s national rail network, as well as providing more capacity on the Supertram system itself.
The new vehicles will provide three services an hour operating from Parkgate Retail Park in Rotherham, travelling through Rotherham Central Station and joining up to the existing Supertram network at Meadowhall where the services will then continue onwards to Sheffield City Centre. The project is also expected to create 25 new driver jobs locally, plus around 10 additional jobs in maintenance and revenue protection.
The full text of Norman Baker’s speech can be found on the DfT website as can the Dft Press release.
17 May 2012
Provincial Auditors Ignore SkyTrain – TransLink’s Financial Chaos Will Continue
What is interesting about this item in the Vancouver Sun, is that provincial auditors, looking for maintenace cost savings in TransLink, are ingoring the SkyTrain light-metro system and I wonder why?
“The report, which didnai??i??t examine maintenance costs for SkyTrain ai??i?? run by BC Rapid Transit Co. ai??i?? suggested TransLink must ai???re-evaluate maintenance services and modernize its approach given its high and increasing unit costs.ai???
The answer is simple, with TransLink and the provincial government are obsessed with SkyTrain andAi??its higher maintenace cost would prove embarrassing. SkyTrain costs about 40% more to maintain than modern light rail and reporting higher maitenace costs would prove to be embarrassing, especailly when construction onAi??the $1.4 billion Evergreen SkyTrain Line is soon to commence.
No one in TransLink or the provincial government will admit, that the major cause of TransLink’s financial problems is the very expensive SkyTrain and Canada line light metro systems. Until TransLink and the provincial government come clean on the true cost of the light metro network, TransLink will suffer continued major financial distress.
B.C. auditors to examine TransLink for more cost savings
Ai??Bus maintenance and community shuttle also under scanner
Ai??By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver SunMay 17, 2012TransLink is once again facing increased scrutiny ai??i?? this time by provincial auditors ai??i?? in a bid to find further cost savings at the beleaguered transportation authority.
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said provincial auditors will search for operating efficiencies across the board, including within the organizationai??i??s bus maintenance program and its subsidized community shuttles. Both were raised in a recent audit report by TransLink Commissioner Martin Crilly as areas where potential cost savings could be found.
In 2010, TransLinkai??i??s total direct maintenance expenditures for conventional bus and community shuttle services totalled $111.5 million and $5.3 million respectively.
The maintenance costs, which total more than service kilometres driven, were higher than other transit organizations across Canada, according to Crillyai??i??s report. They were also the second largest area of spending for TransLink, accounting for about 22.8 per cent of its total operating costs.
TransLinkai??i??s bus operations ai??i?? run by its subsidiary Coast Mountain Bus Co. ai??i?? are considered more expensive to maintain partly because thereAi?? is a mix of significant trolley, diesel-hybrid and compressed natural gas fleets. And unlike other transit cities, Coast Mountain includes some ai???non-wrench timeai??? ai??i?? obtaining parts, tools or documents ai??i?? in its internal labour rate charged to jobs, while offering the highest wage rates for both operators and mechanics.
Between 2006 and 2010, direct maintenance costs for trolley, natural gas and community shuttles experienced average increases for the fleets of 75.3 per cent, 130.3 per cent and 220 per cent respectively.
Direct costs spent on vehicle repairs and maintenance increased by 62 per cent over the five years, which is in excess of service expansion and labour cost growth over the period. Community shuttles were a big driver in the higher maintenance costs, by more than doubling over the five-year period.
ai???If these trends continue, it will be a challenge for CMBC to maintain these fleets within reasonable budget constraints and fleet life cycle costing will have to be revisited,ai??? the report said.
The report, which didnai??i??t examine maintenance costs for SkyTrain ai??i?? run by BC Rapid Transit Co. ai??i?? suggested TransLink must ai???re-evaluate maintenance services and modernize its approach given its high and increasing unit costs.ai???
TransLink officials declined to comment on the high maintenance costs or what was being done to reduce them because the provincial audit was underway.
Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender, vice-chairman of the Mayorsai??i?? Council on Regional Transportation, said the audit should help shed some light on what can be done to trim TransLinkai??i??s overspending. He noted TransLinkai??i??s board is challenging the transportation authority to also find efficiencies but noted there are implications involved because of union contracts.
The transportation authority has some tough decisions to make, he added. Community shuttles, for instance, are crucial to those who use them but are often criticized by people who see them going around the block only half full.
ai???We have to take a hard look at rationalization of routes … are their routes and services we have that are not cost-efficient?ai??? Fassbender said. ai???There are routes in Vancouver where they have pass-ups because the buses are full and they have other routes where the buses are a quarter full.
ai???The choice has to be made: do you cut it or do you subsidize it? Thatai??i??s a political decision and the mayorsai??i?? council wants to be more involved on that.ai???
The mayorsai??i?? council, which will meet with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom next week, has been pushing to have more control over how TransLink spends its money. Lekstrom has tabled legislation, which will allow Fassbender and mayorsai??i?? council chairman Richard Walton to sit at the board table, a move Fassbender says will allow them some weight in the decisions that are made.
Meanwhile, Snider said TransLink is also looking at all of Crillyai??i??s recommendations and will roll out improvements. Earlier this week, TransLink announced it would phase out its TaxiSaver program for HandyDart ai??i?? in which users can receive subsidized taxi services coupons ai??i?? in a bid to put the $1.1 million in savings each year back into the HandyDart program.
ksinoski@vancouversun.com
BC’s Forgotten Streetcar – Nelson’s Streetcar by The Lake!
BC has an almost forgotten heritage streetcar in operation and may be the only heritage streetcar in operation in the province if Vancouver’s heritage streetcar does not operate this year, and that is the charming Nelson streetcar.
Nelson Streetcar rolls out for 20th season on tracks
beginning Wednesday
by Nelson Daily staffStreetcar #23 is back for another season on the tracks ai??i?? the 20th campaign for the Nelson Electric Tramway Society.
Just in time for the May long weekend, the Trolley runs weekends until mid-June before switching to a seven-days-a-week operation.
The 2012 season is also a milestone as the society has been in operation for 20 years.
A strong group of volunteers with a train full of passion have been the driving force keeping the society alive and well.
The Society boasts 73 volunteers, motormen (nine of which are ladies), conductors, maintenance, a dispatcher and a secretary.
Ridership is approximately 16,000 passengers per year. Streetcar #23 starts at the Sufferdine Station at the Prestige Inn at 11 a.m. and continuing every half hour to 5 p.m.
Street Car No. 23 was built in 1906 by the Stephenson Car Company of New Jersey for the Forest City Railway in Cleveland Ohio.
This car was purchased by the City of Nelson in 1924 and serviced the City Uphill, main streets and Fairview until June 20,1949 when the City opted to diesel buses.
The entire street car equipment was sold for scrap.
Car No. 23 was used as a change house and later a dog kennel located at the Nasookin subdivision.
In 1982 the Nelson & District Chamber of Commerce, with the help of Selkirk College, Fortis BC, C.P. Rail, City of Nelson and many hours of volunteer labour, rebuilt the car. Mechanical and electrical equipment was brought in from as far away as Brussels and Melbourne.
In 1987 the Chamber relinquished the project to the Nelson Electric Tramway Society.
The only revenue to cover expenses is from in-car advertising and from passenger fares, sale of post cards & pins and donations. Adults pay $3, seniors & youths 6-12, $2, family rate is $8.
The Society has a hidden bonus that everyone should take advantage of, season passes, available for single riders for $30 and a family pass for $50.
The Trolley is also open to events and charters, for more information contact Rudy Boates 250-367-9564 or visit
Urban Compass – Subways wont win Rob Ford Votes
In a meeting room in Scarborough earlier this month, Mayor Rob Fordai??i??s grand plan to ride to re-election on subway promises drift further off track.
It happened deep in the heart of Ford Nation, with a few dozen people gathered in Agincourt for an information session put on by CodeRedTO, a non-partisan group thatai??i??s been active throughout this yearai??i??s transit debate. Theyai??i??ve supported light-rail lines in Torontoai??i??s suburbs over the mayorai??i??s wish for ai???subways, subways, subways.ai??? (He really likes the word ai???subways.ai???)
The mayor and his allies have said that Scarborough doesnai??i??t want the planned LRT lines, which recently won provincial support. But the reception from this Scarborough crowd wasnai??i??t all righteous anger and fury. They were there to learn.
http://metronews.ca/voices/urban-compass-toronto-2/222847/subways-wont-win-rob-ford-scarborough-votes/
CodeRedTO.com was started by three Toronto residents concerned about transit options and fiscal responsibility in transit expansion. There is no outside funding or direction on this group or this website whatsoever. We have not met with any City Councillor, any Transit agency, or any construction or design groups. We do not live along the path of any proposed light rail or subway lines. We work in technology, urban design, and market research
To see the TTC presentation and CodeRedTO’s presentation, visit www.coderedTO.com
Why LRT?
I want subways, not streetcars
http://coderedto.com/why-lrt/
From the BBC – Subways ‘share universal structure’, research suggests
Interesting item from the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18072627
Of course SkyTrain neither being a real subway, or a transit system built by coherent planning, probably would be outside the realms of this study – a one off so to speak.
Subways ‘share universal structure’, research suggests
A study of the world’s largest subway networks has revealed that they are remarkably mathematically similar.
The layouts seem to converge over time to a similar structure regardless of where or over how long they were built.
The study, in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, analysed 14 subway networks around the world. It found common distributions of stations within the networks, as well as
common proportions of the numbers of lines, stations, and total distances.In some senses, it is unsurprising that the study found that networks tended over time to comprise a dense core of central stations with a number of lines radiating outward from it.
By choosing the world’s largest networks, from Beijing to Barcelona, the results were bound to represent networks that serve city centres with a dense collection of stations and bring commuters inward from more distant stations.
But the analysis shows a number of less obvious similarities across all 14 networks.
It found the total number of stations was proportional to the square of the number of lines – that is, a four-fold increase in station number would result in a doubling of the number of lines.
The dense core of central stations all had the same average number of neighbours in the network, and in all cases, about half the total number of stations were found outside the core.
In addition, the length of any one branch from the core’s centre was about the same as twice the diameter of the core, and the number of stations at a given distance from the centre was proportional to the square of that distance.
The authors analysed how the networks grew and added lines and stations, finding that they all converged over time to these similar structures.
They authors point out that the similarities exist regardless of where the networks were, when they were begun, or how quickly they reached their current layout.
“Although these (networks) might appear to be planned in some centralised manner, it is our contention here that subway systems like many other features of city systems evolve and self-organise themselves as the product of a stream of rational but usually uncoordinated decisions taking place through time,” they wrote.
The authors say that the systems do not appear to be “fractal”. Fractal systems follow mathematical patterns that seem equivalent in a number of physical and social systems ranging from the movements of planets to the movements of depressed people, but they may or may not reflect a deeper, more universal organisational principle.
Nevertheless, the team wrote that some underlying rule is likely to be driving the way subway systems end up worldwide.
“The existence of unique long-time limit topological and spatial features is a universal signature that fundamental mechanisms, independent of historical and geographical differences, contribute to the evolution of these transportation networks,” they wrote.
Eric Chris on Fare Evasion and Opens A Pandoras Box
It seems from TransLink’s ownAi??numbers that it will be extremely difficult if not impossible
for TransLink to reach ridership goals set for 2020.
Eric Chris, has done some very good research on the fare evasion issue and heAi??brings up some very important points.
Focusing on the light-metro network, is TransLink doing a good job moving people? Is the SkyTrain network actually catering to the passenger loads that we the public are lead to beleive?
According to TransLink’s figures, the actual number of peopleAi??using by the Canada Line in 2011Ai??wasAi??38,758, Ai??just 30,398 persons less than the rest of the SkyTrain Expo and Millennium Lines combined! If true, it means that ridership on the SkyTrain light-metro system is far less than TransLink would have us think! In fact, theAi??actual number of persons carried by theAi??the SkyTrain light-metro just doesn’t meet the number to justify such expensive light-metro construction. If true, no wonder TransLink has financial problems.
The actual number of persons carried by both the Canada, Expo and Millennium Lines in 2011 is a mere 107,914 persons. Put another way, the taxpayer has spent well over $8 billion to date to carry 107,914 people in 2011! For added insult, just over 80,000 people first tookAi??the bus and transfered to the light-metro system, as TransLink has admitted that over 80% of SkyTrain’s ridership first take a bus the transfer to the metro!
There is something drastically wrong with TransLink’s calculationsAi??and if these figures are to be beleived, Translink is in very serious trouble and will be in the future, as we just do not have the ridership to sustain the current level of servcieAi??on the SkyTrain and Canada line light-metro systems. Yet we plan and build more with the Evergreen Line and the UBC subway!
BC’s Auditor General must step in and do a complete audit of TransLink, West coast Mountain Bus, the three light-metro lines, Handy DartAi??and Seabus, to give a clear and honest picture of the financial viability of TransLink.
Kim,
It is comical for TransLink to make such a spectacle of fare evasion.Ai?? Many fare evaders are bums or teenagers who either ride for free or donai??i??t ride at all.Ai?? So, TransLink might be losing a seat on transit but it isnai??i??t losing much money:
After TransLink hires a collection agency to go after bums and teenagers, rest assured, fare evaders will end up costing taxpayers more than the $170 million for the fare gates and up to $15 million annually to administer the fare gates.Ai?? Mayor Corrigan thinks that TransLink is deceiving the public about fare losses:
Now if you want to report on something substantial andAi?? serious, how about reporting on the fact that TransLink collected $1,382 millionAi?? in revenue to move 317,635 people in 2011?Ai??Ai?? After subtracting $38Ai?? million for toll revenue and $115 million for road, bridge and bicycleAi?? expenditures – transit revenues were about $1,229 million and the administrativeAi?? cost attributed to the deadbeats running TransLink was about $332Ai?? million.Moreover, it cost TransLink $10.60 ($1,229 million / 365 daysAi?? / 317,635 people) to put someone onto transit for one day in 2011.Ai??Ai?? Gulp!How about reporting on the drop in ridership on the CanadaAi?? Line, SeaBus and WCE in 2011?Ai?? See attached ridership which is highlyAi?? inflated for buses in 2011 due to the almost free bus passes handed out toAi?? students in 2011.Ai?? Donai??i??t expect ridership increases of any significance inAi?? 2012.Ai?? TransLink has exhausted all its gimmicks used to inflate ridership – recycling riders and counting them twice when they transfer to the SkyTrain fromAi?? buses, for instance.Ai?? How about reporting on the exploding vehicle useAi?? since the formation of TransLink?Ai?? Transit use is lagging the populationAi?? growth in Metro Vancouver, see attached.ec
Recent Comments