This is a major problem for Metro Vancouver, Bombardier Inc. doesn’t give a damn about its rail products and this should make Metro Vancouver mayors and TransLink very worried.
Why?
Bombardier is the sole suppliers of the Innovia metro car used on the Expo and Millennium/Evergreen lines and if Bombardier were to stop production, new cars must be sourced elsewhere, driving up the cost of an already expensive vehicle. As the Innovia LIM powered metro car is a proprietary product, any new car would have to be designed, tested and safety cased before entering in revenue operation and this is very expensive.
This is the genius of a proprietary railway, you are stuck with only one supplier.
Bombardier just does not care about its rail product, late and defective deliveries to Toronto is a good indication that Bombardier Inc. just does not give a damn about its customer’s, as long as federal money keeps pouring into the company. For TransLink, Bombardier Inc. could cease Innovia production with little notice, leaving TransLink without a supplier and that would prove extremely costly for the BC taxpayer.
Most new TTC streetcars to be recalled to fix welding defect, Bombardier says
In a stunning setback for the TTC’s problem-plagued streetcar order, Bombardier now says most of the vehicles it has already delivered to the transit agency will have to be taken out of service and shipped to Quebec to correct a serious welding defect.
The Star has learned that after a lengthy investigation into long-standing welding problems with the vehicles, Bombardier has concluded the first 67 of the 89 cars it has supplied need to be fixed, or they could fail prematurely.
A TTC streetcar along Queens Quay. The Star has learned that after a long investigation, Bombardier has decided the first 67 streetcars it shipped to the city need to be fixed. (Randy Risling / Toronto Star)
The cars will be sent to Bombardier’s plant in La Pocatière, Que., and according to the company will each take 19 weeks to fix. The repairs to all 67 cars are expected to take until at least 2022 to complete.
A spokesperson for the company stressed the welding problem, which originated at Bombardier’s plant in Sahagun, Mexico, poses no safety risk to the public. Eric Prud’Homme described the work as “preventative maintenance” and said Bombardier made the decision to take the vehicles out of service for repairs because without the work they may not last their contractual 30-year service life.
Prud’Homme said such problems are “not uncommon in the industry.”
“The question you have to ask is how is it handled. The way Bombardier is handling it is fair, is transparent, and of course we’re assuming responsibility,” he said.
Prud’Homme couldn’t say how much the repairs will cost, but Bombardier has agreed to pick up the bill.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, Mayor John Tory expressed “extreme frustration” with the streetcar deal, which he noted “was signed by a previous city council back in 2009,” and criticized “Bombardier’s slow progress in actually delivering the vehicles bought and paid for by Toronto taxpayers.”
Tory added that he had asked acting TTC CEO Rick Leary to ensure Bombardier would compensate the transit agency if the repairs inconvenience transit riders.
Although the company says it has been meeting a revised schedule in the first half of this year, the TTC says the delivery delays have caused a shortage that has forced it to keep older streetcars in service past their intended lifespan, and replace some of its streetcar service with buses.
TTC spokesperson Brad Ross called the latest problem “incredibly disappointing.”
“We need these cars in service,” he said.
Ross vowed the agency “will ensure that there is little to any impact on our customers” by sending only a few cars for repairs at a time. He said the first car to be taken out of service would likely be sent to La Pocatière sometime in the fall.
According to Bombardier, the company first discovered the welding problem in 2015, but it took an 18-month investigation to discover the extent and the cause.
Company representatives said the problem is a “lack of fusion” in some of the welds on the car’s skeleton, particularly around bogie structures and the articulated portals where different sections of the articulated vehicle are joined. The company says it brought the issue “under control” last June and it won’t be repeated in future deliveries.
Ross said the TTC became aware last October the repairs would be required, but decided to accept the vehicles anyway on the assurance that Bombardier would perform the necessary maintenance.
“It was more important to us to have those cars available for service for our customers” than refuse cars with defects, Ross said.
He said the transit agency hadn’t made the issue public before now because it was working with Bombardier on a repair plan and “we needed to have as many details as possible before advising the public.”
Both the TTC and Bombardier said the problem shouldn’t affect the company’s ability to deliver the entire fleet of 204 cars by the end of 2019, as originally scheduled. In order to do so, the company will have to ramp up production to far exceed the rate it has accomplished to date. The company is opening a second production facility in Kingston, Ont. later this year to complement the factory in Thunder Bay, where the cars are currently assembled.
Even though the weld repairs will continue for years past the delivery deadline, the TTC believes there will be “no contractual impacts” to Bombardier as long as the company supplies the full fleet by the end of next year.
Something TransLink and the Mayors Council on Transit likes to keep hidden.
The cost of subway construction in Toronto is pegged at $580 million per km.
By comparison, the cost for LRT (not in BC mind) is pegged at $35 million to $50 million per km.
We can build 10 or more km of LRT for every km of subway built and LRT, at present, has a higher capacity than SkyTrain!
Or put another way, just two km. of the Broadway subway could fund a 30 minute Vancouver to Chilliwack diesel LRT service via the old BC Electric route and probably attract far more new customers to transit than the proposed Broadway subway!
Please tell Premier Horgan, no more FastFerry style transit projects and do what the rest of the world does, build with light rail.
Memo to Premier Horgan: A $580 million per km FastFerry style transit project, will trump a billion dollar or more Casino scandal any day in BC!
The modern Tram; today's transit choice by transit planners around the world.
Toronto: There’s a Ford in their future……..again !! The last one wasn’t enough. They had to elect another one.
Jeff Marinoff
LORINC: Breaking down Doug Ford’s impossible, ridiculous, scandalous subway to Pickering
Because we here in Spacing’s bustling newsroom like to provide informative and constructive analysis to politicians of all stripes, we felt it would be helpful to cost out the new premier’s plan to extend subway service to Pickering.
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I will assume, for the purposes of Spacing’s initial feasibility study, that the Ford Extension™ will run from Scarborough Town Centre to Pickering Town Centre, which, truth be told, is really the only place for a subway to go in that part of the 905. According to Google maps, the distance between the two regional mall/mobility hubs is about 17.1 km, assuming the crow flies over Highway 401.
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The route is traversed by no fewer than three of the GTA’s river/ravine systems – Highland Creek, the Rouge River and Duffins Creek, and would obviously have to dip under the 401 at some point. In short, it will have to run in an extraordinarily deep tunnel, just like the Scarborough Subway Extension does.
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Speaking of which, the going rate for a kilometer of subway is about $580 million, which is based, of course, on the amount we’ll be spending in virtual perpetuity for the 6.2 km Scarborough line. Taxpayers have been repeatedly assured — by Mayor John Tory and others — that this monumentally wasteful boondoggle will cost $3.5 billion (although no one really believes that figure). The number would be higher if there were stations, but let’s not get into that.
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If we round up to $600 million, that means a mostly stop-free straight-shot subway between STC and Pickering would cost about $10 billion, but that’s in 2014 dollars, which is when the extension funding was secured. In 2021 dollars, or whenever Doug Ford needs to remind voters in the east end of the GTA that he’s brung home the electoral bacon, the number will be, well… Don’t even bother.
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It’s hardly worth mentioning, but I shall do it anyway, that GO currently offers express bus service from STC to Pickering Town Centre. It runs every 20 minutes. The cost is probably a gazillionth of what the subway will require, but the good people of Pickering deserve a subway, and so they shall have one.
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Another point scarcely worth noting is that the outlay for the Ford Express™ would be about twice the amount the premier-designate claims he’ll cut from the province’s $150 billion+ budget. Anyway, I’ll leave it you to do the math.
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Perhaps in the way that Donald Trump has emboldened racists and thugs, Ford will encourage more ridiculous transportation ideas to emerge from their richly-deserved hiding places. How else to account for the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s pitch to deck the busiest sections of Highway 401 – a proposal (see page 14) that caused John McGrath, my colleague at TVO’s The Agenda, to express a desire to end it all.
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Packaged as one of three “bold” ideas to address bottlenecks and cargo movement around Pearson, the TRBOT document claims that, based on an elevated section of a highway in Texas, we could add six tolled lanes in the air above the 401 for somewhere between C$4 billion and $10 billion for 20 to 50 km.
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The report is more than a little misleading. The Texas project – one in Austin, based on another in Dallas – envisions a three-level highway mainly through a relatively short stretch running through the downtown, with tolls at the lower levels. TRBOT neglects to mention that the I-35 through Austin is merely a six-lane highway with plenty of land on either side, whereas the 401 around Pearson is anywhere from 12 to 16 lanes across, with not much right of way left over at the edges. Decking it poses a far more formidable engineering and logistical feat, resulting in a gigantic object that would likely cost at least twice as much as what the State of Texas intends to ram through downtown Austin.
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The blindingly obvious question is this: does Ontario really need to be taking its transportation planning cues from a jurisdiction that barely does land use planning, operates not a single kilometre of subway and venerates its highways?
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To be honest, I shouldn’t even waste pixels writing about such matters, except to point out that previous schemes to add layers to various highways around the city have inevitably floundered because they make no sense, financially or structurally.
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Senator Jerry Grafstein, for a while, shilled for a crazy private scheme to run a tolled tunnel under the Gardiner/Lakeshore corridor. And in the early days of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., there was a more developed public plan to bury the Gardiner in a tunnel through the central core. Inevitably, these ideas died a deserving death because the sheer space and cost required to shift fast-moving vehicles up or down a level is so onerous as to render the whole scheme unworkable.
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Then, four or five decades after it is completed, the damn thing begins to crumble like so much stale feta, just like the Gardiner did, except there will be a lot more salt-soaked rubble raining down on a far busier stretch of road.
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Why TRBOT reached for this particular solution is totally beyond me, unless the organization — which in the recent past offered cogent and important advocacy on transportation planning — has been seized with an overwhelming desire to be ridiculed. Sure, it’s a bold idea. Mostly, though, it’s a bad idea.
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Here’s a better idea: more transit! In recent weeks, I had to travel regularly down to the Distillery District for a project: the St Clair West streetcar in its right of way to the subway; the subway to King; a wonderfully speedy streetcar ride east along the freshly de-congested King, then jogging south on the new Cherry Street loop now serving the West Donlands. All excellently synchronized, in new vehicles with multi-door access, and transfers smoothed by Presto cards. For the first time in my life, I felt like transit in Toronto had become positively European in its seamlessness.
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Oh yes, and at no point along this journey could I detect evidence that the sky had (as so many naysayers boldly predicted) fallen.
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Imagine.
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My wish is that when politicians, planners, advocacy groups and citizens talk about moving about in a city encumbered with world-beating congestion, they’ll focus on cost-effective solutions that have been thoroughly tried and tested in all those places in the world that no longer have world-beating congestion. My fear is that we will, instead, waste the next four years debating dumb ideas that burn through vast reserves of civic energy before finally exploding on the launching pad.
FastFerry fiascos tend to be common in BC, where politicians play the part of transit experts and squander the taxpayer’s money on prestige projects, that are great for ribbon cutting photo-ops, but little more.
That Translink’s American CEO applauds this only shows the Mayor’s Council on Transit picked nothing more than a “Useful Idiot” to oversee their grossly negligent transit planning that is nothing more than hugely expensive gift to political friends, the land speculators and land developers.
This transit plan is solely to move money, not transit customers.
Kiss good transit planning good bye as the region will suffer decades of congestion and say hello to an ever increasing tax bill to fund the gross incompetence associated with this plan. Also say hello to new highway construction in he region, which must happen, if there is no regional transit.
Better transit for the region, not going to happen, simply because there is no money to make it happen and this includes the Rail for the Valley’s TramTrain, linking Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Cloverdale to Vancouver.
Memo to Premier John Horgan: Stop this runaway money train; dissolve TransLink and start over again, because the Broadway subway and ill planned Surrey LRT will sink the NDP, like the Fast Ferry’s did almost two decades ago.
TransLink mayors, board to vote on $7b Metro Vancouver transit plan
TransLink’s Mayors Council and board of directors will meet Thursday to decide whether to approve the ambitious $7.3-billion second phase of a 10-year transportation plan for the region.
If the council and board vote in favour of the plan, then procurement for and implementation of the plan’s projects can begin as early as next month.
Projects include construction of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension and the first stage of the South of Fraser rapid transit in Surrey, more bus and HandyDart service, upgrades to the existing SkyTrain system, improvements to road, pedestrian and cycling networks, and planning for a proposed gondola on Burnaby Mountain.
The two major rail projects, with a combined cost of almost $4.5 billion, are expected to account for almost half of the total Phase 2 investment.
The federal government has committed to paying up to 40 per cent of the capital costs for major projects, and the province has agreed to pay for 40 per cent of all projects.
Regional funding sources include a two-per-cent transit fare hike, three-per-cent parking-tax increase, a property-tax increase of $5.50 for the average household and a development-cost charge on new development.
“I think this has been a long road for the Mayors Council to get approval and a funding arrangement for the mayors’ 10-year vision, and it’s been a difficult process over the past four years,” said New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Coté.
Coté said he can’t speak for other mayors on the council, but he plans to vote in favour of the Phase 2 plan.
“I have for years advocated for the need for us to take that next step and move on to investing in transportation infrastructure, and I can speak for myself that I feel comfortable the appropriate next step is to approve the plan and move us beyond the decade-long conversation about funding and actually start having conversations about implementing transport infrastructure in the region,” he said.
A recent public consultation on Phase 2 of the plan highlighted some concerns about individual funding sources, such as property taxes, and components of the plan, but Coté said he believes the public is generally supportive.
“I think that people are ready for us to stop debating investments into transportation and actually move on to getting on to building and investing in transportation infrastructure in the region,” he said.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, who is also co-chair of the council and the board’s joint-finance committee, said he has supported the plan throughout the process and expects to continue to support it Thursday.
He said he hasn’t canvassed his colleagues, but guesses the council will approve the plan, seeing as it has expressed its support for Phase 2 on numerous occasions.
“I think that the federal government, the provincial government, the region are coming together to support a transportation plan — they’re coming together in an unprecedented way and I think the beneficiaries of the common approach will be the people of the region,” Brodie said.
The Mayors Council will also vote on the fare increase proposed in the funding formula for Phase 2. The council received an application from TransLink for the increase on April 20 and must make a decision by July 19.
Zwei has a habit of making people mad and the list is long.
So, in an effort to even more people mad, I will recall a conversation I had a week or so back with a former NDP politician.
The former NDP politician wishes to remain anonymous as the person does not want to get harassing phone calls from the now premier’s Office.
There will be no Vancouver to Chilliwack rail service, because those in the NDP’s hierarchy do not want it and will invest only in official SkyTrain projects. As the former politico said joking; ” so please stop comparing the Broadway SkyTrain subway to a FastFerry project, even though it is.”
Why does the former NDP politico say this?
Past NDP/Liberal politicians and hanger-ons would be horribly embarrassed by any form of light rail operating anywhere in BC, as it would contradict preconceived notions based on previous private deals made to SNC Lavalin and Bombardier, holders of the proprietary SkyTrain light-metro’s patents. This includes the grand economies of the truth about cost, speed, capacity and safety.
University types would also be embarrassed by LRT, simply because it would refute the density quest for rapid transit theory they so favour, which are designed mainly to up-zone properties along the metro, for sales to overseas money launderers and handsome profits for land speculators.
The mainstream media would also be exposed for publishing almost 40 years of incompetent, non factual, anti LRT rhetoric.
There is so much professional misconduct associated by current transit planning, that many jobs would be in jeopardy. It is just too simple to continue to encourage the SkyTrain Lobby and the SkyTrain sheep to keep bleating SkyTrain good; light-rail bad routine.
On June 28, the Metro Vancouver’s mayor’s Council will rubber-stamp both the $3 billion Broadway SkyTrain subway and the $2.5 billion Surrey LRT, before a possible change in government and a change of transit policy.
Both projects have been planned by rank amateurs, with little or no rail background, abetted by land developers and land speculators, rubbing their hands gleefully at massive profits soon to be made with subway and light rail construction. Both projects, will run over budget; both projects will fail to attract new ridership.
The results of this foolish investment in prestige rail projects will not come into the fore until those making the inept decision, will be enjoying handsome retirement packages and perks.
I am saddened to say, unless an election hinges around a Valley rail service or returning a light DMU service to the E&N, Horgan and the NDP, just like Wilkinson and the BC Liberals, will happily spend billions on FastFerry style transit projects, designed to enrich politcal friends and insiders and to hell with the transit customer.
Update: TransLink say the switch problem plaguing Expo Line service this morning has been and normal service is resuming.
A switch issue at Nanaimo Station is causing significant delays for people traveling on Expo Line during rush hour this morning.
TransLink says Expo Line trains are single tracking between Nanaimo and Stadium Station using Eastbound platforms.
Passengers are being told they can expect a minimum 45-minute delay.
TransLink says they are working on a bus bridge to help with passenger loads between Nanaimo and Stadium Stations. The bus bridge is for westbound travelers only.
“Due to a switch problem near Commercial-Broadway Stn, single tracking is in effect. This means trains are traveling in both directions alternating through on one side of the guideway. Service is still available, but trains are much less frequent than normal,” TransLink said in a release.
Millennium and Canada Line service is not impacted.
MORE TO COME
PEOPLE NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS
Be thankful you don’t work for on the transit authority’s social media team this morning, because @TransLink is getting hammered on Twitter.
In Europe, transportation needs are designed to meet the needs of transit customers.
In BC, transportation needs are designed to further political careers and money laundering.
Example: The $3 billion Broadway SkyTrain subway, being built on a transit route which has peak hour traffic flows under 4,000 pphpd!
Who is the subway being built for?
Politicians to cut ribbons at election time?
Land developers and land speculators who are assembling properties so council will up-zone them to higher densities?
Overseas criminal gangs who want to invest their casino laundered drug money in Vancouver’s housing market, via the Vancouver Model?
We can build very affordable rail transit on many routes in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, the Okanagan, and Vancouver Island, but it seems both the BC Liberal party and the NDP just don’t give a dam, as they just want to cut ribbons.
Modern light diesel rail-cars in operation on a lightly used line in Germany
Reopening of two Franco-German cross-border lines proposed
Written byA� Keith Fender
The bridge over the Rhine at Wintersdorf was converted for road and rail use, but trains no longer use it. Keith Fender
STUDIES are to commence soon on reopening two cross-border lines between southwestern Germany and eastern France. The lines would support new services as well as increase operating flexibility in the event of disruption on the one side of the border, as happened at Rastatt, Germany, last year.
The Pamina Euro-district, which brings together several German local authorities in both Rheinland Pfalz and Baden WA?rttemberg plus the Grand Est Region, DA�partement Bas-Rhin and town of Hagenau in France, has agreed to undertake a feasibility study into the re-opening of the railway between Rastatt, Germany, and Hagenau, France. The line could be used by a new SaarbrA?cken – Hagenau – Rastatt – Karlsruhe passenger service as well as a diversionary route for freight traffic.The 7km section from Rastatt to Wintersdorf, beside the Rhine, still exists and is owned by Karlsruhe area tram-train operator AVG. In France a short section remains in use to serve industrial sidings near the Rhine at Beinheim, but the 21.8km RA�schwoog – Hagenau section is disused and would need to be completely rebuilt. The old railway bridge across the Rhine is still in use as a road bridge, for cars and light vans. Two options are possible: reconstruction for rail use or construction of a new bridge.Pamina also wants to reopen the Freiburg – Breisach – Colmar line around 100km to the south. While there are lines on both side of the Rhine, the cross-border section no longer exists so a new river crossing would be required.
Pamina plans to seek funding for the studies from the European Uniona��s Interreg programme which exists to stimulate cross-border cooperation and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
A rural German passenger rail line, not unlike the Fraser Valley or the E&N.
Mobility pricing, TransLink’s desperate ploy to hide their inept planning to date.
TransLink happily spends twice or three times more for “rail” transit than they should. TransLink also spends at least 60% more operation “rail” transit than they should.
The result, large deficits operating the transit system, requiring large subsidies to pay for the large deficits.
The dishonesty of TransLink and its CEO knows no bounds as recently, Kevin Desmond, repeated the old saw that “SkyTrain pays its operating costs”.
Newsflash Mr. Desmond, the GVRD in 1992, blew that myth out of the water by releasing the annual subsidy for SkyTrain Expo Line, a massive $157 million annually. Put another way, just the Expo Line cost taxpayers more to operate than the combined diesel and electric buses!
Also it should be of note, that TransLink, like BC Transit before did not apportion fares from bus and SkyTrain, which is important as over 80% of SkyTrain customers first take the bus!
This dishonesty by TransLink and its CEO has kept the public in the dark about the true costs of SkyTrain and as new lines are built, the subsidies increases with each new transit line built. Today, including the fake P-3 Canada Line which costs TransLink around $110 million annually, the total subsidy to operate SkyTrain light metro system exceeds $400 million annually!
TransLink can no longer hide this hemorrhage of cash and with the $3 billion Broadway subway, with its added $40 million annual operating costs (and not including debt servicing costs) TransLink either goes bankrupt or engages into a new revenue source.
Mobility pricing is TransLink’s desperate gamble to once again hide the real costs of the SkyTrain mini-metro from the public.
Metro Vancouver mobility pricing could cost up to $8 per day per family: report
Drivers could end up paying an average of between $3 and $8 per day to get around Metro Vancouver if decongestion charging is introduced in the region.
The cost estimates were in a report presented by the Mobility Pricing Independent Commission to a joint meeting of TransLinkai??i??s Mayorsai??i?? Council and board of directors on Thursday.
The report caused concern for a number of the regionai??i??s mayors, who called it a good start and agreed the conversation needs to take place, but worried that mobility pricing would not be fair or affordable for residents.
ai???Going through the report, definitely some of the charges that are talked about here are definitely up there and certainly are going to catch peopleai??i??s attention,ai??? said New Westminster Mayor Jonathan CotAi??, who described mobility pricing as a difficult, complex and controversial issue.
Itai??i??s been proposed that mobility pricing could pay for transit and transportation improvements in the region, replace the declining gas tax and deal with traffic gridlock.
The commission looked at two options for decongestion charging, both of which could reduce congestion by 20 to 25 per cent.
One option is congestion point charges, where drivers are charged when they pass a certain location ai??i?? including bridges ai??i?? and complemented by further charges at locations on the Burrard Peninsula.
Based on early analysis, a regional congestion point charge would cost the average driving household $5 to $8 per day, or $1,800 to $2,700 per year. This option would see the regional gas tax, which is 17 cents per litre, remain in place so that people who donai??i??t cross tolled points would still contribute to paying for transportation.
The capital cost to establish congestion point charges would be in the $150 million to $300 million range, with annual operating costs of $110 million to $200 million. Itai??i??s estimated it could bring in annual net revenues in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion.
The other decongestion pricing option is distance-based charges that vary by time and location, meaning drivers would be charged for each kilometre they drive, but the amount would vary depending on where they go and at what time.
The analysis shows that a multi-zone distance-based charge could cost the average driving household $3 to $5 per day, or $1,000 to $1,700 per year. Fuel tax could be eliminated under this option.
The exact number and boundaries of zones are still to be determined, but for the purpose of analysis eight zones were identified.
Capital costs ai??i?? which include on-board units for all Metro Vancouver vehicles ai??i?? could be in the range of $400 million to $700 million, with annual operating costs between $300 million and $500 million. If capital costs are annualized over 7.5 years, itai??i??s expected that annual net revenue would be in the range of $1 billion to $1.6 billion.
The report priced out some typical trips within the region.
For instance, travelling between South Surrey and Coquitlam would cost between $3.54 and $5.30 under cost-point charges at peak time, and 75 cents to $1.11 off peak. The same trip under distance-based charging would cost $5.20 to $7.48 at peak or 64 to 96 cents off peak.
In comparison, when the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges were tolled, a person commuting from Surrey to Coquitlam paid $6.30 per day if they crossed the Port Mann Bridge twice.
Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read pointed out that there is a problem with equitable access to transit in some parts of Metro Vancouver, and that should be dealt with before mobility pricing.
ai???I think thereai??i??s a long way to go and, for me, I really need to use this opportunity to exercise a lot of caution because for people in the eastern part of the region this is a really, really concerning next conversation that we have to have,ai??? she said.
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said she was also concerned about commuters ai???on the outer fringes of this region.ai???
ai???I know the commission has looked at this aspect of fairness and equity and I think we have to continue to look at that,ai??? Jackson said.
Kris Sims, B.C. director for the Canadian Federation of Taxpayers, called decongestion pricing ai???a non-starterai??? for the regionai??i??s residents.
ai???They just actually donai??i??t have the money for this,ai??? Sims said. ai???I was encouraged to see some of the mayors throwing cold water on this idea.ai???
Sims said she was skeptical that other taxes, such as the gas tax, would be eliminated or reduced with the introduction of mobility pricing.
CotAi?? said there does need to be more work done in the area of tax shifting.
ai???The commissionai??i??s report highlights a real need to talk about the elimination of the gas tax if this is something that we are going to be considering, and a whole host of other taxes that may not be as directly related to transportation that could ultimately be replaced,ai??? he said.
The report also put forward 13 principles for guiding mobility pricing policy around congestion, fairness, how transportation investment is supported, and other considerations.
The Mayorsai??i?? Council and board voted to share the report with the federal and provincial governments and referred it to staff for more research and follow up on the commissionai??i??s work.
They also asked TransLink to continue consulting the public and stakeholders on the proposal.
However, itai??i??s not anticipated that mobility pricing is imminent. The report itself states that it will take four to seven years to implement, if it makes it that far.
The political will to pursue mobility pricing may be difficult to find.
ai???It is not for the faint of heart politically, and we recognize that,ai??? said Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner. ai???I think that the better educated we can be both at local government and with our provincial government partners ai??i?? and even at the federal level ai??i?? the easier whatever transition to mobility pricing becomes.ai???
On Twitter, B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson said that while he appreciated the work the commission did, ai???This proposal is unaffordable and the wrong direction for British Columbians. I canai??i??t support this and I hope (Premier John Horgan) wonai??i??t either.ai???
In a statement, B.C. Green party spokesperson for transportation Adam Olsen said that because it a political minefield, there needs to be provincial leadership on the issue.
ai???Our team is closely analyzing this report and will continue to engage with local governments and British Columbians to determine the best path forward,ai??? he said. ai???We will keep pressure on government and continue to work collaboratively with them to fulfil our shared commitments on transit, climate and affordability.
Litmus Test: a test in which a single factor (such as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive.
Premier Horgan’s recent announcement, killing LRT On Vancouver Island all but sentencing the E&N to death, was the NDP’s Litmus test of their commitment on regional transit in the province.
The answer, the NDP has none and do not even want to consider one.
The E&N railway, in the Premier’s back door has demonstrated that the NDP continue not to understand public and regional transit and in fact, reuse to deal with major transit issues.
This is political cowardice in the extreme.
Zwei’s last post has angered many people, especially those who think that by some magic, the NDP will board the regional passenger train, but it is not going to happen.
Under $50 million would see the refurbishment of the tracks from Victoria to Nanaimo and for another $50 million, a demonstration light DMU servcie could be instituted.
$100 million is not chump change,but when the cost of a 5.5 km $3 billion extension the Millennium Line via a subway under Broadway or the over $2.5 billion for a horribly planned Surrey LRT, $100 million seems a bargain investment for regional transit.
As Zwei has said so often, “no transit system is a system unto itself, it is part of the whole“, the Premier’s coarse comments on the E&N reverberate across the Salish Sea to the Fraser Valley and Rail for the Valley’s project, the reenlistment of a Vancouver to Chilliwack passenger service, via light DMU or TramTrain.
The NDP, always decades behind when it comes to transit have demonstrated that have not and will not learn from previous fiascos.
What seems so right to do at a cost that is affordable, is rejected for expensive, FastFerry style transit projects that are built strictly for politcal prestige at best, or criminal money laundering at worst.
The NDP have now failed the Litmus Test on transit.
What was turning out to be a breathe of fresh air in BC politics, Premier Horgan and his puppet master, former Vision(less) Vancouver Councillor and now Horgan’s chief advisor, Geoff Meggs, have killed the idea for LRT on the E&N and you can damn well betAi?? the same is true about the Rail for the Valley project.
Horgan was desperate before the election for a transportation solution for the Fraser Valley, but once elected all that has vanished.
Horgan’s Chief of Staff, Geoff Meggs is anti LRT and as a former Vision(less) Vancouver Councilor, he learned the fine art of intimidating people wanting light rail; with the premier, it is just Meggs whispering sweet nothings in Horgan’s ear and LRT is dead.
What Meggs is afraid of is that modern LRT could provide a better servcie than the proposed $3 billion subway under Broadway and that proprietary SkyTrain subway is very important as it is the use rapid transit that is causing land speculators and land developers great delight in assembling lands adjacent to rapid transit stations and having Vancouver council up-zone the properties to allow high rise condos for off shore sales.
And why is that?
Simple, it is part of the money laundering process which has enriched local governments,Ai?? via casinos and land developments. AndAi?? not forgetting of course the criminals that launder the money.
With light rail there is no impetus to build high rise condos and freshly laundered money goes elsewhere to further cleanse it of criminal activity.
SkyTrain is indeed the money train.
Light rail operating in BC would give an “apples to apples” comparison with the now obsolete and expensive SkyTrain proprietary light-metro and a tram-train version, with costs around $10 million/km, would certainly look good when compared to a $500 million/km plus subway under Broadway.
This is why Surrey’s LRT is so heavily gold-plated, as it is being built to fail!
Meggs could not stand for successful LRT and told Horgan not to stand for it either.
Sadly, the NDP have very short memories, as almost the same thing happened with former Premier Glenn Clark and Joy McPhail, with the former Broadway-Lougheed light rail project, which after inducements from Bombardier and SNC Lavalin, flip-flopped from LRT to SkyTrain. To many people were burned by this and sat out the next election, leaving the NDP with a two seat rump in 2001.
History is again repeating itself.
A Tram Train solution would be a perfect solution for the E&N, a real winner. Sadly the NDP back losers.
Premier John Horgan not only dashed the hopes of light-rail transit fans in the capital region on Tuesday, he got a nice round of applause for doing so.
Addressing the 400-member massed forces of all the local chambers of commerce, Horgan parked the light-rail dream in short order.
ai???The business case doesnai??i??t seem to be there.ai???
He signalled his government is vastly more interested in bus lanes. Watch for plans to extend them much farther than the construction thatai??i??s already underway.
Itai??i??s a bit of an about-face. The NDP in opposition made some polite remarks over the years about the potential for rapid transit on the abandoned E&N Railway line. It came with the job of nagging government to do more of everything when it came to transportation. But dithering over that potential has occupied dreamers for years.
Now that theyai??i??re in power, Horgan said, he has been talking to leaders about using the corridor for its purpose, ai???which is not necessarily a train, but moving people from the west into the city and back again.ai???
Referring to the never-ending talk of light rail, he said: ai???Iai??i??m not prepared to wait any longer. We shouldnai??i??t have a corridor like that designated for just growing Scotch broom.ai???
The ramshackle Dayliner passenger service that formerly used the line was mothballed seven years ago, and the rail line has been rotting ever since, while a bustling bike path occupies part of the right-of-way.
Horgan wasnai??i??t specific, but insisted the corridor should be used to move people. ai???Iai??i??m committed to doing that, and that will happen.ai???
People are wasting time in congestion, and Horgan said his government is keen to build a transportation plan for the south Island.
Bus lanes are an ai???immediate and efficientai??? solution to gridlock.
It went over well with the crowd packed into Crystal Garden.
But the elephant in the room was the employer health tax. Business leaders have concentrated attention on the downside of eliminating Medical Services Plan premiums ever since the move was made in the February budget.
Its partial replacement is a phased-in payroll tax that imposes new costs on employers, particularly those that didnai??i??t cover employeesai??i?? MSP premiums.
And those who do will sustain a double hit next year, paying one more year of their workersai??i?? premiums in addition to the new tax.
Horgan reminded them that he campaigned against the MSP, although the replacement came to light only in the budget. ai???We said were going to do it and we are doing it.ai???
He said he knows the replacement is a significant concern. ai???We understand. We feel your pain.ai???
He pointed to upcoming cuts to the sales tax on electricity bills as a partial offset.
But the first question after his speech was a plea to reassess the impact of the tax, given how it hits municipal employers, as well, and that impact compounds on business property taxes.
To paraphrase, the answer was: No.
The Finance Ministry is scrambling to soften the impact on some sectors, such as non-profits and school districts. But municipalities and businesses arenai??i??t on the list and wonai??i??t be any time soon.
Horgan said the property-tax impact of municipalities passing their tax costs on to property owners is ai???infinitesimalai??? compared to the savings for individuals (assuming their premiums werenai??i??t covered by their employers).
Horgan said the NDPai??i??s payroll tax will be the lowest in the country, is being phased in, and makes B.C. the last place in Canada to abandon the flat-rate premiums.
ai???This is what rest of the country is doing. This is catching up to the rest of the country.ai???
It wasnai??i??t what they wanted to hear, but Horgan held his own, overall.
The antipathy over the tax is partly offset by the sheer novelty of having a premier from the capital, with a select handful of cabinet misters from the ai??i??hood as well.
The crowd is counting on a bump in provincial spending locally as an offshoot of that representation.
If Horgan can hold the employer health tax anger to a simmer, rather than a boil, he can count that as a win.
Huge costs for what is basically an on-street/at-grade tram is staggering and it seems TransLink has pulled out the stops to gold-plate this project, which has now become a road project, rather than a LRT project.
That no one with real experience in building with LRT has been involved, tells the tale; TransLink has designed Surrey’s LRT as a poor man’s SkyTrain, costing huge sums to build, but with little befits from the investment.
No wonder TransLink has an American CEO, as I think a Canadian CEO would be asking important questions and not pander to the SkyTrain crowd, as the present chap is doing.
Always with TransLink, zero steps forward and two steps back!
Rendering of a planned Surrey light rail train. (Photo: surrey.ca)
New federal agreement unlocks $2.2B in TransLink cash to help pay for projects like Surrey light rail
SURREY ai??i?? Mayor Linda Hepner says a $4.1-billion funding deal between Ottawa and B.C. is ai???the step we were hoping for.ai???
The 10-year agreement, announced Monday, unlocked the $2.2 billion in federal money that TransLink needs to complete the next phase of its vision to improve transportation in the region ai??i?? including 27 kilometres of light rail transit in Surrey.
Ottawa had previously promised to cover 40 per cent of project costs for phase two of the 10-year vision, which includes Surrey light rail.
B.C. had pledged to cover another 40 per cent, while TransLink and the regionai??i??s mayors would come up with 20 per cent.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2018/07/03/most-new-ttc-streetcars-to-be-shipped-to-quebec-to-fix-welding-defect-bombardier-says/streetcar.jpg)
The bridge over the Rhine at Wintersdorf was converted for road and rail use, but trains no longer use it. Keith Fender
Also it should be of note, that TransLink, like BC Transit before did not apportion fares from bus and SkyTrain, which is important as over 80% of SkyTrain customers first take the bus!
Jennifer Saltman
Rendering of a planned Surrey light rail train. (Photo: surrey.ca)
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