TransLink’s Executives Slurpin’ At The Public Trough
I don’t know why Transportation Minister BlairAi??Leckstrom is so upset aboutAi??TransLink executives getting expensive bonusesAi??as it was his own government thatAi??laid the foundation forAi??TransLink as it is today. The TransLink of old had mediocre public oversight at best with regional mayors, many of whom with little or no knowledge of public transit, running the show. The public were all but cut out of any meaningful input as our regional politicians, as always,Ai??knew best.
Then BC Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon,Ai??was so enraged (or should I say his boss, Gordon Campbell, was so enraged) over TransLink’s refusal to fund building the Premier’s pet P-3 (Ponzi?) Canada Line rapid transit system because of highAi??cost for little return, rearranged TransLink and taking away the mayors role overseeing the ponderous bureaucracy and gave that role to a grossly inept and badly named, “Board of Experts“, who have been noticeable in being “experts at nothing” and not surprisingly do nothing,Ai??except collectingAi??overly largeAi??stipends for their efforts.
TransLink’s career bureaucrats saw that the time was ripe to greatly increase their personal incomes with grossly inflated wages and bonuses, while at the same time doing nothing but providing dated planning revolving around the obsolete SkyTrain (the governments favourite) or BRT, which in the end will do little to improve regional transit while at the same time greatly increase taxes for the common folk. Of course, everyone knows the common folk have deep pockets and just love to feed the black-hole, known as TransLink.
Transit planning has become a great ponzi scheme under the Liberals and those who work for the organization do as little as possible for the greatest incomes as possible.
Mr. Leckstrom and his governmentAi??have createdAi??the problem for letting TransLink wallow out of control and now the taxpayer is paying a massive price forAi??his and his government’s grossAi??incompetence.
Just change the ship’s name to TransLink and you have got the picture!
TransLink executive bonuses criticized by transportation minister
By Cassidy Olivier, The Province April 3, 2012
Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom on Tuesday called a TransLink proposal to award nine of its senior executives hefty performance bonuses ai???inappropriateai??? given the financially-troubled agency is struggling to fill funding gaps.
According to TransLink, eight senior executives and CEO Ian Jarvis are eligible for the bonuses, which are part of TransLinkai??i??s incentives plan.
If approved, the senior executives would receive a bonus equal to 15 per cent of their base salary. Jarvis would be handed a bonus equal to about 20 per cent of his base salary, which is around $300,000.
The program has been in place since 2006, but the optics of the current review of bonuses couldnai??i??t be any worse.
Late last month, the government called for an audit of TransLink to help find money to cover an estimated $30 million shortfall the transportation authority needs for system upgrades.
And on Sunday, Metro Vancouver began paying an extra two cents per litre at the pump to help fund TransLinkai??i??s long-awaited Evergreen Line.
ai???As minister of transportation, I think it is inappropriate to award bonuses at a time when TransLink is seeking to fill significant funding shortfalls,ai??? said Lekstrom in a statement to The Province.
ai???I intend to share my concerns with TransLink at the earliest opportunity.ai???
In an email to The Province, Jarvis said the plan consists of a ai???rigorous process to determine award incentives.ai??? He said each personai??i??s performance is tied to ai???corporate goals,ai??? including budget management and customer satisfaction.
ai???If these goals are not achieved, no incentive is paid,ai??? he said, adding the 2012 program is being reviewed.
Transportation critic Harry Bains agreed the timing of the potential bonuses is ai???terrible.ai??? And he also questioned whether employees of government agencies, such as TransLink, should be awarded bonuses at all.
ai???You would think they had a full commitment to the job and that all of those targets are to be met, and that is part of their job,ai??? he said. ai???So why set artificial targets and then try to meet them and then get bonuses? I think itai??i??s the wrong philosophy.ai???
Bains called on the government to investigate if there is a way to stop the bonuses from being awarded without incurring any penalties.
A dollar value for the total amount of bonuses currently on the table was not made available to The Province, but a TransLink spokesperson confirmed that last year the agency paid out an estimated $325,000 in bonuses to its executives.
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Province
Florida East Coast Industries Announces Ambitious Plan For Private Passenger Rail Service
Informative article and one worth reading.
Zwei has always felt that if TramTrain service is to be revived in the Fraser Valley, that the Southern Railway of BC should operate the service and not TransLink.
Florida East Coast Industries Announces Ambitious Plan For Private Passenger Rail Service
By STEPHEN SMITH: Subscribe to Stephen’s RSS feed March 29, 2012 12:33 PM EDTPrivate companies used to dominate American railroading, but the industry faced rough times as the twentieth century wore on. Private freight rail was eventually revived around 1980 through a series of deregulatory measures, but passenger service hasn’t been profitable in half a century. Amtrak and a bevy of commuter railroads picked up some of the slack, but with mounting pressure from Republicans to staunch deep losses, U.S. passenger rail is in dire straits.
But that narrative might be changing, as Florida East Coast Industries, owner of the storied Florida East Coast Railway, announced plans for “All Aboard Florida” last Thursday. The private, intercity service would initially connect passengers in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, with possible future extensions further west to Tampa, and north to Jacksonville. With a substantial right-of-way and a well-run freight railroad that could be adapted to passenger service more easily than most, the major question that remains is that of funding.
Like us on Facebook 53k Send Like
The announcement at first sounded almost fanciful ai??i?? public transit authorities are hemorrhaging cash, and passenger rail in the U.S. has so far mostly avoided the liberalization that has occurred in Europe and East Asia. But the Florida East Coast (FEC) is no newcomer to the market: From Henry Flagler’s first investments in South Florida in the late 19th century to the violent strikes of the 1960s, the FEC has been at the forefront of Florida railroading for over a century.
The hiring of Eugene Skoropowski also helped. A respected transit veteran who led California’s Capitol Corridor service to record ridership before turning his attention to the private sector, Skoropowski will presumably lead the project as senior vice president for passenger service development, a position created for him by Florida East Coast Industries earlier this month.
Of the 240 miles of track needed to bring Florida East Coast trains from Miami to Orlando, the company’s main line already covers the 200 miles along state’s eastern coast, from Miami to the Space Coast city of Cocoa. Florida East Coast will need to acquire land and build tracks along the last 40 miles to Orlando, with All Aboard Florida spokeswoman Christine Barney saying on Monday, “We expect that it’ll be land that’s already in public use.” Some have speculated that the company could build new tracks in the median of the Bee Line Expressway.
No matter how the Florida East Coast gets passengers to Orlando, freight would surely follow. CSX currently has a monopoly on freight rail in Central Florida, but the FEC is no doubt eager to gain a foothold in Florida’s third-largest metropolitan area. The railroad has made significant investments in South Florida ports in anticipation of the latest Panama canal expansion, which would be made more valuable by a higher capacity double-tracked main line and direct access to Orlando and Tampa.
Florida East Coast Industries emphasizes that the passenger service will be “owned, operated, and maintained” privately with no risk to Florida taxpayers, perhaps seeking to distance itself from Florida’s recently-canceled public high speed rail proposal. The project was championed by the Obama administration and had already won federal funding, but Florida’s newly-elected Republican Governor Rick Scott axed the line after saying he was afraid that state taxpayers would be liable for operating costs.
The project’s backers are less specific about construction costs. Barney said that the “vast majority” of the costs, which the company estimates at $1 billion, will be covered privately, but left open the possibility that the company would seek subsidies or financing for construction.
Randal O’Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, speculated that the company might look for a loan from the federal government, emulating the strategy of DesertXpress, a privately held company whose $4.9 billion federal loan application decision is due by mid-year. The firm, which envisions building high-speed rail from Las Vegas to Victorville, Calif., has sought a loan from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Program, which finances public passenger proposals along with projects by non-Class I freight carriers. (The FEC was the smallest Class I railroad until 1992, when a change in the upper bound for annual revenue changed it to a Class II.)
The Florida East Coast is a much smaller railroad than the well-known Class I carriers like CSX and BNSF, but it has a number of attributes that make it uniquely suited for passenger rail. The railway hauls a large amount of time-sensitive multimodal freight ai??i?? that is, goods that are transferred to and from trucks and ships ai??i?? which is operated more like passenger service than the slower bulk freight that dominates the interior of the country.
As a result, the Florida East Coast has some of the most sophisticated signaling of any freight railroad in the United States, allowing cargo to travel at up to 60 miles per hour. Most of the track is currently rated for passenger speeds of up to 80 miles per hour, but further upgrades will be needed to bring the line up to the 110 miles per hour maximum speed touted in All Aboard Florida’s press release.
The railroad also has a history of tough labor relations, which may presage conflict again as the company seeks to profit where labor-heavy American public passenger railroads have not. Beginning in 1963, the railroad was the scene of one of the longest and most violent strikes in modern history, dragging on for more than a decade. Management sought to do away with seniority restrictions and what it considered to be wasteful “featherbedding,” or make-work rules, and strikers responded to the FEC’s use of scab labor by bombing and shooting at freight trains. The FEC eventually prevailed, and the labor savings kept it in business and gave it the ability to invest the capital needed to bring it to up its current “prime” state.
The days of dynamiting and derailments are behind the Florida East Coast, but some in organized labor have reservations about FEC’s plans. Frank Wilner, national spokesman for the United Transportation Union, which represents many FEC workers, warned that “the new operation may be contracted out, and the private contractor may attempt to use non-union labor.” Because the Florida East Coast operates only within the state, Wilner said, it could try to avoid participating in a number of federal railroad worker programs, including the Railroad Retirement Board, the Railway Labor Act, and Federal Employers Liability Act.
He did, however, emphasize the distance between labor relations today and relations in the days of Ed Ball, who owned the company during the strikes. “No one can really draw any similarities between what happened in the 1960s and what’s happening today,” Wilner said. “Ownership is different, all of the players are different, and the UTU and all the other unions have a very cordial relationship with the FEC.”
The announcement of passenger service on the Florida East Coast will also affect existing public transportation throughout Florida. South Florida commuter railroad Tri-Rail has considered shifting its trains from its current line, which the Florida Department of Transportation bought from CSX in 1989, to the the parallel FEC main line, which runs through more densely populated coastal areas. Amtrak has also been eyeing the FEC main line for intercity service all the way up the coast from Miami to Jacksonville, and late last week settled liability issues related to the planned service, though funding does not appear to be forthcoming.
Christine Barney said that the Amtrak and FEC plans, which would run the same route, are “not exclusive,” and that the company “would not see any problem with the line’s capacity,” but that “at this time our project is not involved in any way.”
Steven Abrams, a Palm Beach County Commissioner and vice-chair of Tri-Rail’s governing board, called the proposal “complementary to our commuter service” and said he wished FEC well, pointing out that All Aboard Florida would be a regional service, while Tri-Rail serves a commuter market. Abrams said that he was notified of the plan before the announcement by an executive at the Florida East Coast, but that they were not working in coordination on the new passenger service.
Fellow board member Bruno Barreiro, a Miami-Dade County Commissioner, expressed similar hopes. “I personally believe in some areas, especially going downtown, [the FEC] should have elevated rail,” he added in a phone interview on Friday. “When you have 250 street crossings [in the tri-county area] and you’re putting through a substantial amount of trains, it starts to have a huge impact on the roads.”
In a transit feasibility study done in 2006 on the southernmost 100 miles of FEC’s track, researchers counted an average of two and a half at-grade crossings per mile, with one segment in West Palm Beach having ten crossings in under a mile. Beyond impacts on traffic, grade crossings annoy local residents, who have to endure Federal Railroad Administration-mandated horn blowing at each intersection.
And of the real estate around the railroad that could benefit from passenger service, only one such parcel remains in the hands of FEC shareholders. The property portfolio of the modern-day Flagler Development Company, named after the Florida East Coast founder who turned down the opportunity to name the city of Miami after himself, is concentrated instead in outlying commercial and industrial areas. (Flagler Development was spun off of from the railroad as a real estate investment trust by Fortress Investment Group soon after it purchased the railroad and its land in 2007.)
The only piece of real estate that could benefit from passenger service, Christine Barney said, is a 9-acre strip of land in Miami’s fast-growing historic downtown, which has 2,500,000 square feet of entitled development rights ai??i?? about the same size as the new 1 World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
Florida East Coast Industries’ passenger proposal is still in its infancy, and much remains to be done before the first passenger tickets are taken. Many of the details are a bit ambitious ai??i?? from the 2014 opening date, to the $1 billion price tag, to the “about three hour” Miami-Orlando travel time ai??i?? and it remains to be seen if the company can come up with financing. But if any freight railroad in the United States can bring profits to passenger rail, it’s hard to think of a better candidate than the Florida East Coast.
B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink. Two important questions
B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink, but will it be the right sort of audit?
Will the BC Auditor General do the Audit?
Will it be a value for money audit?
Two important questions that must be answered before anyAi??credenceAi??is given to Premier Clark’s call for an audit of TransLink.
TransLink is auditedAi??on an annual basis, butAi??this is merely to see if moneyAi??collected forAi??TransLink is spent correctly and gives no indication of actual performance. TransLink’s auditor, does not independently checkAi??ridership, nor does it do a value for service audit, but just insures that TransLink’s numbers add up.
What is needs to be audited is:
- An independent auditAi??of ridership.
- An audit of ridership on each an every transit route.
- An audit of the U-Pass program
- An audit of the West Coast Express, Seabus, and the SkyTrain/Canada Line metro system, giving the real cost of building and operating to the taxpayer.
If the Premier’s proposed audit, is nothing more than a 2 + 2 = 4 type of audit, it will be an expensive nonevent and nothing more than a publicity stunt.
B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink
A budget shortfall spurs the call for tranportation auditBy ANDREA WOO, Vancouver SunMarch 22, 2012
B.C. Premier Christy Clark is calling for an audit of TransLink.
Photograph by: Vancouver Sun, Handout
VANCOUVER — Premier Christy Clark has ordered an audit of TransLink to address a shortfall in funding for the transportation authority.
Clark made the announcement on Thursday at the end of a Port Moody news conference supporting Liberal candidate Dennis Marsden in the April 19 Port Moody-Coquitlam byelection.
The premier had referenced a $30 million shortfall for the Evergreen Line, however it is believed she misspoke.
ai???There is still a funding gap for the Evergreen Line ai??i?? $30 million ai??i?? and we are going to find that through an audit of TransLink,ai??? Clark said.
ai???We are not going to find it through a vehicle levy or other sources; we are going to find it within TransLink.ai???
North Vancouver district Mayor Richard Walton, who chairs the mayorsai??i?? council for regional transportation, said funds for the Evergreen Line are already covered.
ai???The two cent gas tax fully funded the requirements for the Evergreen Line to go ahead, but there were a whole series of other much-needed capital improvements right away throughout the Metro Vancouver region,ai??? he said.
ai???That was the additional $30 million, for the next two years, that was going to be funded through property tax unless we can find an alternative funding source for it.ai???
Those improvement projects include a rapid bus over the Port Mann bridge and a B-Line along King George.
Metro Vancouver mayors had renewed their calls for an audit last month, saying they refuse to raise any more taxes or tolls for transit projects such as the Evergreen Line and buses south of the Fraser River until the transportation authority proves it is running efficiently.
That came after TransLink offered to give $100 to charity for every 170 stakeholders who filled out a survey on how the transportation authority communicates.
ai???When weai??i??re trying to turn over every leaf and every rock for funds … this just flies in the face of what weai??i??re trying to do,ai??? Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said at the time.
Walton said he is looking forward to connecting with the Ministry of Transportation and the Premierai??i??s office to discuss details of the audit.
ai???The challenge is, weai??i??ve got the clock ticking,ai??? he said. ai???We would be very pleased if those efficiencies could be found within TransLink, so we donai??i??t have to find the $30 million of revenue somewhere.
Clark said the province found ai???very significant savings for taxpayersai??? in an audit of BC Hydro and she expects the same for TransLink.
ai???Whenever youai??i??re looking at a big organization that spends $1 billion a year, you can find savings,ai??? she said.
There is no set date for the audit yet, but Clark said she is hopeful it will begin soon.
The $1.4 billion Evergreen Line, which will connect Coquitlam to Vancouver via Port Moody and Burnaby, is scheduled for completion in 2016.
A bad week for Clarkai??i??s fading B.C. Liberals
Another Canadian politico, deep in the doodoo
the sad fact is SkyTrain, the Canada Line and now the the Evergreen SkyTrain Line are big contributors to TransLink’s financial woes. building more SkyTrain only exacerbates the situation.
by Gary Mason – Globe & Mail
It should have been so simple and straightforward ai??i?? a premier announcing two by-elections.
And yet by the time B.C. Premier Christy Clark finished a news conference called on Thursday to reveal the date for by-elections to fill vacancies in the ridings of Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope, she had angered Metro Vancouver mayors, mistakenly thrown into doubt the near-term future of a planned rapid transit extension and made her partyai??i??s already uphill odds of winning either vote even more remote.
Today, many B.C. Liberals are wondering if they should just wave the white flag now ai??i?? not just in the two by-elections but the general election that will be called in a yearai??i??s time. It does not look good for the governing Liberals. Hopes that the sunny populist stylings of Ms. Clark might temporarily dazzle an electorate that seems ready to throw her party out of office have long begun to fade.
The by-election call was another example of why.
In the news conference, the Premier was asked about $30-million in funding that Metro Vancouver mayors want to complete a raft of transit-related initiatives. The mayors had said that unless the province passed legislation allowing them to raise that money through means such as a vehicle levy, they would have to raise property taxes
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 Downfall of Rob Ford’s Subway Vision
A rather clever sendup of Canadian Transport Planning & PoliticsA fan of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford takes the news of his failure to extend the Sheppard Subway rather poorly.
Clip from the film ‘Downfall’ aka “Der Untergang” Copyright Ai?? 2004 Constantin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7BrsbAVNrIU
Brillliant!
also TTC: Rob Ford & Transit City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLHNj3SULS8&feature=related
TTC chief: Subway expansion for downtown relief line has to be discussed ai???right nowai??i??
National Post
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/subway-or-lrt-downtown-toronto-needs-a-relief-line-ttc-chief-andy-byford/
The real issue for Ford isn’t subways, it’s keeping the roads LRT-free for cars. He’d rather have no transit whatsoever than build light-rail.
This mayor is all about catering to the single-occupant motorist.
All that SUBWAAAYS bluster was fake.
This man has ZERO respect for the decision of our ELECTED City Council, and continues to behave like a Third World despot intent on getting his childish ways. Ask him to give solids answers about funding, and his only answer is a parroted “SUBWAY”, like a not too bright child in grade three. He and his spoiled brat millionaire brother should pack their bags and get out of City Hall.
It’s time forAi??Ford to do the honourable thing, and step away.
we had a vote, and he lost – Ai??period.
when the leaf’s don’t make the playoffs they go home, they don’t show up and insist they can keep playing.
hopefully Ford will learn from this experience that adults want proper documentation
before they fork over billions of tax payer dollars- which you pledged would not be used to begin with.
do the right thing and move on
Torontoai??i??s Mayor Ford vows to ai???lead the chargeai??i?? in halting light-rail transit
Mayor Rob Ford is pledging to do ai???everything in his powerai??? to stop light-rail lines from running at street level on Eglinton and Sheppard Avenues in Scarborough.
One day after losing the fight to save his subway plan at council, the mayor said he is prepared to ai???lead the charge,ai??? for the taxpayers he says would rather have no new transit than an above-ground line.
the Globe & Mail
by Elizabeth ChurchAi??&Ai??Kelly Grant
Rob Fordai??i??s subway dream dead
The Toronto Star hates Mayor Ford and everything he wants to do. The Star is Liberal and the mayor is conservative. It has never said anything nice about him. The mayor before him ran on an election promise not to build a bridge to the island airport. No wonder the rest of Canada calls it ai???Hog Townai???.
Under Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, the right is wrong
Ai??http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1150572–under-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-the-right-is-wrong
Why does the right always get it so wrong? Since winning the 2010 Toronto electoral war decisively, Mayor Rob Ford has lost every subsequent battle miserably.
City councilai??i??s crushing rejection of his Sheppard subway pipedream on Thursday was the latest nail in the chief magistrateai??i??s coffin. Little wonder thereai??i??s talk of a ai???leadership vacuumai??? in Toronto. At this point one canai??i??t help but wonder how long the ugly fat bastard can last (sic); not only has he lost control of the transit file, he has been abandoned by council and much of the city.
Even fellow conservatives are breaking ranks with the mayor and his noisome brother, Doug Ford, who never fails to get it wrong.
Who will forget the spectacle of the Fordsai??i?? appointed budget chief, Mike Del Grande, publically extolling the virtues of a parking levy. According to him, imposing a $100 tax on non-residential parking spots would bring in $100 million annually.
Under more normal circumstances, the chances this sort of utterance passing the lips of Del Grande would be about the same as Rob Ford riding a bike to work.
But transit, like politics, makes for strange bedfellows. And this bunch of recent tax-and-spend converts is nothing if not strange.
Played out against a backdrop of this bizarre winter-turned-summer, the two-day debate felt as unreal and worrisome as the weather, but in its own way, it was just as enjoyable. If you could overlook the fact that in both cases the future is the issue, councilai??i??s antics were hugely entertaining, or would have been anywhere but here.
Between the two of them, Doug Ford and Giorgio Mammoliti, both classic examples of incompetents too incompetent to realize their incompetence, the conservatives proved themselves not simply inept, but comically so.
At this point, their arguments have become so transparently silly thereai??i??s no need to debunk them. Whatai??i??s more interesting, however, was the rightai??i??s willingness to sell itself out to get what its leader wants ai??i??subways under Sheppard, not light rail transit on Sheppard.
With Del Grande doing the heavy drifting, conservatives ditched the dogma by which they live and die ai??i?? less tax, less government, less deficit ai??i?? to embrace the sort of cash grab that until now they hated.
Still, itai??i??s heartening to watch as councilai??i??s most lead-footed dinosaurs come to a more nuanced understanding of the role taxes play. Ironic, though, that the light should go on as the conservatives struggle to implement a scheme against which the big criticism is expense.
In its rush to take transit off Torontoai??i??s streets, which naturally belong to car and driver, the right wing has discredited itself, and worse still, made itself look foolish. From zealots to zombies to zeroes.
The most glaring deficit in Toronto these days isnai??i??t economic; itai??i??s the absence of leadership at City Hall. The mayor has yet to figure out what his job is let alone how to go about doing it. Though Ford has yet to grasp it, politics begins where slogans end. At this point, his failureai??i??s all but complete. His credibility is in tatters; his policies have been picked apart and discarded.
So what was left for Ford but to launch his permanent re-election campaign? ai???Obviously the campaign starts now,ai??? he declared after his defeat, ai???and Iai??i??m willing to take anyone on, streetcars against subways in the next election. I canai??i??t wait for that.ai???
Alas, he will have to. The vote wonai??i??t be held until 2014, by which time the LRT should be well under way.
For the price of *one* subway you can get *seventeen* tramlines. And a rather different city.
Council vote on Sheppard LRT
Here is a geographical look at how city councillors voted on Glenn De Baeremaeker’s motion confirming that Light Rail Transit (LRT) is the preferred rapid transit mode for Sheppard Ave. E. March 22, 2012.
Green is a ‘Yes’ vote supporting the motion. Red is no. Two councillors were absent (Yellow).
Mayor Rob Ford voted No. The motion was carried 24-19. Click here for motion detail.
You can zoom into or turn off individual wards or council groups with the folders and check boxes, below left.
http://www.thestar.com/news/transportation/article/1150280–will-toronto-s-transit-fight-be-won-today
With Rob Fordai??i??s Sheppard subway dream officially crushed, the increasingly isolated mayor is vowing to carry the fight for underground transit into the next election ai??i?? immediately.
Fordai??i??s leadership has come under increasing scrutiny, even from his council allies in the run-up to Thursdayai??i??s 24-19 council vote approving light rail rather than a subway extension for Sheppard Ave. E.
In the wake of the most recent defeat on his transit agenda, Ford immediately told reporters he will urge Premier Dalton McGuinty not to fund ai???streetcars.ai???
VIDEO: Ford urges province not to fund LRT
ai???Iai??i??m not going to support the LRTs, Iai??i??ll tell you that right now. Iai??i??m going to do everything in my power to try to stop it,ai??? he said.
ai???This is an election issue. Obviously the campaign starts now. Iai??i??m willing to take anyone to fight streetcars against subways in the next election, and I canai??i??t wait for that.ai???
But TTC chair Karen Stintz, who led the support for LRT, said itai??i??s time to get on with spending the $8.4 billion Queenai??i??s Park has pledged to Toronto transit expansion ai??i?? including about $6.5 billion for the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT. The remaining money would be split between the LRT on Finch Ave. W. and Sheppard East.
ai???Weai??i??ve come to a solution about how to bring transit to the suburbs,ai??? she said. ai???We do need to send a message to the province that the majority of council supports the plan ai??i?? in fact a majority of Scarborough councillors whose wards will be impacted by the LRT.ai???
At the end of the tense, two-day council meeting, city staff were also directed city staff to report back by the fall on a long-term funding strategy for transit expansion. Councillors also voted to continue pressing senior governments for funding.
Click here to see how each councillor voted
But a motion to implement a $100 million non-residential parking tax, introduced Wednesday by budget chief Michael Del Grande, was not approved.
The last-minute attempt to win subway support, dismissed as ai???desperateai??? by some councillors, wasnai??i??t enough to persuade a majority that the mayor had a viable subway plan and Ford did not speak up to support Del Grandeai??i??s motion.
But many councillors, including Stintz, said it was the beginning of an important conversation about the need to find new funding sources to build transit.
Meantime, ai???We felt it was only responsible to go with the funding plan we have to make sure that we deliver transit to the city,ai??? said Stintz, who was labeled a ai???backstabberai??? and criticized for her ai???lack of leadershipai??? by Councillor Doug Ford, the mayorai??i??s brother.
VIDEO: Doug Ford lashes out at Karen Stintz
But even some of the mayorai??i??s disappointed key supporters said they will respect councilai??i??s decision.
ai???I have fought the fight within my area of jurisdiction. Council has pronounced itself on that. It now goes to the MPPs to decide. All my arguments are out on the table, everything that I could bring to the debate I have already done,ai??? said disappointed Councillor Norm Kelly (Scarborough-Agincourt).
Councillor Paul Ainslie (Scarborough East) said he wonai??i??t argue to undo councilai??i??s decision but would continue to talk up the need for subways.
ai???Iai??i??m going to continue to advocate for subways but also for a regional transportation system,ai??? he said.
While Kelly referred to LRT ai???second-class transit,ai??? other Scarborough councillors said their constituents have come out winners.
ai???We voted overwhelmingly today to invest $4 billion in Scarborough. Weai??i??ve got the biggest transit investment ever in the history of Scarborough. This is spectacular news,ai??? said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre).
Ford said residents in Scarborough would prefer no new transit rather than streetcars in the middle of their streets.
Earlier Thursday, the mayor launched into a furious attack on streetcars.
You just couldn’t make it up!!
TTC defies Mayor Rob Ford in favour of Light Rail
TorontoAi??LRT/subway tussle continues
The Toronto City Council Wednesday, in defiance of Mayor Rob Ford, readied a vote to advance light rail transit above ground along Sheppard Ave. and not a subway option.
So what price for the dogma of so many Canadian politicians, from East to West, Ontario, Toronto, Waterloo, Surrey, Vancouver & Victoria.
BC politicians, Translink & their Skytrain followers should heed the painful Ai??lessons being learnt in Toronto
Railway Age March 21st
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/light-rail/toronto-lrt-subway-tussle-continues.html?channel=
Late Wednesday evening, in an effort to head off a defeat,Ai??Mayor Ford and council supporters employed a filibuster Wednesday, suspending the debate.
Ford earlier had said that council action favouring light rail transit, and not subway construction, would prompt him to curtail rail transit expansion of any kind within Canada’s largest city.
As the meeting began Wednesday, allies of the mayor supporting subway construction unveiledAi??a call for new taxes to help pay for the option, though Mayor Ford has not said he would adjust his position on taxes to address the issue.
Ontario province has allotted C$8.4 million toward expanding rail transit in Toronto, but is waiting for a final political decision before disbursing any funds.
Mayor Ford was elected mayor in October 2010. His campaign in part included a pledge to end an alleged “war on cars,” which he said included placing streetcars and LRT on city streets at the expense of automotive traffic.
The Toronto City Council already has voted in favor of adding LRT at grade along Elington Ave. and Fitch Ave.
Councillor Josh Matlow was philosophical about the delay.Ai??ai???Itai??i??s going to be the same vote tomorrow as it was today,ai??? he said Wednesday evening.
Vehicle registration fee eyed to generate cash for transit services
They just don’t get it.
The lower mainland’s regional mayors just haven’t a clue about transit and just keeps the money pumping into the bloated TransLink bureaucracy, which has achieved very little since its inception over a decade ago, except that is, for giving Vancouver the hugely expensive Canada line subway, because Vancouver’s politicians did not want light rail down the Arbutus Corridor.
It is TransLink’s (and BC Transit before) legacy of only planning for extremely expensive light metro for ‘rail’ transit in the region that has gotten Translink mired in a financial mess. Light metro, especially when built asAi??a subway costs tens times as much or more to build than light rail, but our transit planners will have none of this, as they continue to plan for pie in the SkyTrain for future rail transit. TransLink has deluded themselves and regional politicians with unreachable goals, funded by tax monies not yet collected.
Regional mayors, many goose-stepping in line with the tax and spend provincial Liberal party want to burden the taxpayer with even more onerous user auto fees, to protect the wealthy in Vancouver types who benefit from three light metro lines, an expensive trolleybus system, and TransLink’s upkeep on expensive bridges, from higher property taxes.
How long is this farce going to be allowed to continue?
With the likes of mayor Walton and Fassbender at the helm, forever it seems.
If TransLink’s planners spent as much time in planning affordable transit solutions for the regions transportation problems, as they do in dreaming up more ways to shake down the taxpayer, there would be no need for this ongoing financial crisis. Affordable is just not in TransLink’s lexicon, nor is it in Mayor Walton’s and Fassbender’s as well.
The utter stupidity that passes for regional transit planning is breathtaking, but the greater stupidity of regional mayors falling for Translink gross ineptitude, is just unimaginable.
It is just like Lemmings jumping off a cliff, one follows the other, without thought or care.
Vehicle registration fee eyed to generate cash for transit services
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun March 19, 2012
Ai??Photograph by: Ward Perrin, PNGMetro Vancouver mayors are calling on the B.C. government to allow them to slap drivers with a vehicle registration fee as early as next year in hopes of generating $30 million annually for transit services without having to raise property taxes.
Metro Vancouver drivers face a potential vehicle registration fee next year as mayors look to generate $30 million for TransLink projects in the short term without raising property taxes.
The Mayorsai??i?? Council on Regional Transportation has sent a letter to B.C. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom asking him to introduce legislation for a possible vehicle levy or a regional carbon tax, which were cited as ai???short-termai??? funding options to generate money for transit projects, such as the Evergreen Line and rapid bus projects south of the Fraser.
The mayors argue there is ai???relative urgencyai??? in introducing the new legislation this spring in order to avoid a property tax increase in 2013 that would levy an average $27 on Metro homeowners. The mayors have already approved a two-cents-a-litre boost in the gas tax, which is expected to raise $40 million annually for the transit projects.
ai???At the end of the day, no matter what, it seems a user-pay philosophy is the right way to go as long as itai??i??s fair and equitable across the region,ai??? said Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender.
Fassbender, vice-chairman of the mayorsai??i?? council, said a vehicle levy is already enshrined in legislation but the mayors require enabling legislation to allow the Insurance Corp. of B.C. to collect the fees on their behalf. Itai??i??s not known how much revenue the levy would generate, but the letter suggests it would be based on engine size, fuel consumption or emissions rating and would apply to both commercial and passenger vehicles.
Fassbender said the fee could also be ai???graduatedai??? across the region, meaning drivers in municipalities under-served by transit, like Surrey and Langley, would pay less than those in Vancouver.
ai???The easiest way is a flat fee on every vehicle but weai??i??re not sure thatai??i??s the fairest way,ai??? he said.
A vehicle levy was first proposed in the late 1990s as a way to finance the transportation authority when the agency was created by the provincial government. But it was scrapped by the New Democrats as a result of a huge public outcry. TransLink also tried unsuccessfully to introduce vehicle tax in 2009.
Lekstrom wasnai??i??t available for comment Monday but is expected to meet with the mayors next month.
The mayors are also asking the province to authorize more long-term permanent funding sources, such as a comprehensive system of road pricing ai??i?? which could see tolls on all bridges, roads and tunnels throughout Metro Vancouver, or drivers charged per distance driven in the region. Long-term funding options also include a vehicle fee or regional carbon tax, or a share of restructured revenue from the existing carbon tax, and higher gas taxes.
Fassbender acknowledged the mayors ai???might not get what we wantai??? but said they want to see what tools the government is willing to give them as it will take a few years to develop the permanent funding sources.
ai???We want to sit down and look at a whole suite of long-term issues so we donai??i??t have to talk about this every couple of years,ai??? he said.
The letter to Lekstrom also calls for the province to allow the mayorsai??i?? council to approve both TransLinkai??i??s base and supplementary budgets, and a review of TransLink by the provincial auditor-general or the new auditor-general for local government. The mayors have pressed for ongoing and independent reviews of TransLink.
ksinoski@vancouversun.com
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Recent Comments