The following article demonstrates our current problem in metro Vancouver, a complete and utter lack of understanding public transit and the role of public transit.
Again, for public transit to be successful, it must be user friendly, if not, people will avoid it and they do in droves in Metro Vancouver.
Buses are a hard sell for transit in the best of times, but for any express bus service to be successful in the region, it must provide a better than user-friendly service for the customer.
The following three examples underline the importance of having a Royal Commission on Regional Transportation.
Example #1: TransLink’s bad habit of forcing bus customers to transfer to SkyTrain, especially the extremely user-unfriendly Canada Line, instead of providing a seamless journey into Vancouver.
Example #2: Translink’s planning of a $3 billion SkyTrain subway under Broadway, yet traffic flows on the route are less than a third of what would demand subway construction.
Example #3: The majority of Surrey’s LRT funding will actually be spent to facilitate Utilities for Massive Speculative Development alongside LRT – all this under the guise of public funding of LRT (at a ratio of 2/3 development and 1/3 LRT).
What is needed is a complete rethink on how we plan and provide transit in Metro Vancouver, before another nickle is spent.
It is called a Royal Commission and the region should have a Royal Commission on public transportation.
When Dave Barrett led the NDP to victory and became premier in September 1972, Vancouver was in the midst of a freeway revolt. East Vancouver and Chinatown residents had united against the planned downtown freeway and third crossing to the North Shore. Today, NDP Premier John Horgan faces a similar controversy over the proposal to replace the Massey Tunnel with a 10-lane bridge.
Barrett could have gone for half-measures and tried to sell a more modest freeway into the downtown, combined with modest transit improvements. And the incentive to build for cars was strong; back then climate change wasnai??i??t on anyoneai??i??s political radar and many people thought that a new strip of asphalt was the surest sign of human progress.
He and his cabinet heard the shouts that ai???something has to be doneai??i?? for commuters crossing from the North Shore to Vancouver. So they created the SeaBus, still one of the best-loved parts of Greater Vancouverai??i??s transit system. Freeways never flattened Chinatown or cut off the West End from the waterfront, and only a few think a third road crossing to the North Shore should be a priority. And Barrettai??i??s SeaBus was very inexpensive compared with a freeway bridge or tunnel.
Barrett, and his allies, won in downtown Vancouver. But he also boldly decided to build a region-wide network of rapid-transit lines, instead of building and expanding suburban freeways. To keep costs down and allow a rapid build-out, these light-rail lines would use the old interurban railway right-of-ways and would mostly be at ground level. His vision even extended to considering a single-track light-rail tunnel beside the Massey Tunnel to serve South Delta and Tsawwassen.
He didnai??i??t win re-election, so his ambitious rapid-transit plans were largely forgotten as freeway building became the default response to congestion outside of the downtown core. Even the NDP governments of the 1990s took only half-measures to prioritize transit.
In the ai??i??70s, Barrettai??i??s transit over freeways position was radical. Today, itai??i??s mainstream. Only one mayor supports defeated premier Christy Clarkai??i??s multibillion-dollar plan to build a 10-lane freeway bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel. Horgan sides with the other 20 Metro Vancouver mayors who oppose the Massey Bridge, and favour funding the rapid-transit lines in the regional transportation plan instead.
A key lesson Horgan should learn from Barrett is that cost-effective transit improvements can successfully replace freeway proposals like the third crossing and the Massey Bridge. There is nothing very fancy or expensive about the SeaBus. The name says it all, a bus that runs on water.
Interestingly, the B.C. Liberals once proposed to replace their Massey Tunnel freeway expansion plan with bus lanes and rapid bus. In 2009, then-Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon told the Richmond Review that the bus lanes and tunnel upgrades would be sufficient ai???for easily another 50 years.ai??? The B.C. Liberals built some of the bus lanes, but cut back on bus service through the tunnel instead of providing the frequent, rapid-bus service they promised.
The first step for the B.C. NDP should be to help TransLink and the mayors provide what the B.C. Liberals promised, a major increase in bus service through the Massey Tunnel. Completing the bus lanes to the Canada Line in Richmond is also essential to provide a desirable alternative to the Massey Bridge proposal. Rail transit to Ladner and Tsawwassen, and to the North Shore, may be worthwhile next steps ai??i?? but buses and SeaBuses work.
The much bigger step Horgan needs to take is to reorient transportation priorities across B.C. to reduce the climate pollution that is fuelling ever more destructive wildfires and floods. The B.C. NDP promises to slash greenhouse gas pollution from transportation by 30 per cent in only 13 years, and the federal-provincial Climate Framework commits B.C. to shift infrastructure spending from road expansion to transit to fulfil Canadaai??i??s Paris climate commitments.
To hold the Green-NDP alliance together, the NDP must move decisively on these commitments. And that means urban highway expansion must be the last resort, not the default option.
Eric Doherty is a Victoria-based transportation planning consultant and a member of the Council of Canadians Victoria chapter.
Once the urban freeway was unmistakably part of a vision of the future, one in which personal automobiles zipped through neighborhoods without having to stop or interact with the streets above or below. But over the past two decades, many cities have found that running highways through dense areas has done more harm than goodai??i??and theyai??i??re increasingly opting to tear them down.
Late last month, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) released its latest edition of ai???Freeways Without Futures,ai??? a report on efforts to remove parts of underused highways in ten American cities. The study underscores the role locals are playing in the replacement movement and also outlines the many benefits of having fewer highways running through dense urban areas.
The report contends that the cores of American cities have seen a massive hollowing out since the passing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956. ai???As highways were built through existing communities,ai??? the report begins, ai???residents were cut off from social and economic centers, key resources and services, and the nearby destinations of their daily lives.ai???
Today, many of those highways are reaching the end of their design life and cities are facing what CNU calls a ai???watershed moment.ai??? Instead of rebuilding and repairing old highways, the report suggests cities should replace them with infrastructure that is pedestrian friendly, density prone, and extremely profitable. ai???Cities are waking up to a simple solution: remove instead of replace.ai???
CNU highlights the replace movements in ten cities across the country, many of them driven by everyday citizens who donai??i??t want to see certain highways expanded or repaired. Suggesting alternatives to expansion isnai??i??t easy. In many cases, activists must conduct their own research, design a replacement plan, and recruit local officials. Then begins the lengthy process of securing funding and ironing out implementation logistics.
Each city included in the report is at a different stage of removal. While activists in Oakland and Dallas are pushing steadily through the research phase, efforts in Detroit are stuck for a lack of funding. Meanwhile, fill-in construction on the Inner Loop in Rochester started last 2014 and should be completed by the end of this year.
Each city included also faces a unique set of challenges. In Denver, citizens are battling their state Department of Transportation to prevent an expansion of I-70. Theyai??i??ve proposed an alternative thatai??i??unlike the cityai??i??s planai??i??would not involve expanding the derelict highway (at a cost of $1.8 billion) or destroying dozens of houses and businesses in one of the cityai??i??s poorest neighborhoods. But the city is fighting back, arguing that the highway is essential for commuters. In Buffalo, efforts have been more successful. The citizen-led initiative to redesign parts of the Scajaquada Expressway earned the attention and financial support of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who directed $30 million towards the effort last March, telling local press it was time to ai???undo a mistake.ai???
Tearing out a highway is costly on many levels. Coordinating various agencies requires political flexibility. Fiscally, replacement proposals cost millions of dollars and require an ability to focus on long-term over short-term gains. Culturally, they require a shift in design priorities: fewer cars on the street, more people. The report explores these struggles, yet also emphasizes the many benefits of replacement.
First, thereai??i??s the potential of significant economic gain. In Dallas, researchers found that replacing parts of I-345 would generate $4 billion for the city over fifteen years and bring 22,550 jobs to the area. In Trenton, if efforts to replace Route 29 with a riverwalk are successful, the cityai??i??s downtown could attract up to $2.25 billion of investment. Replacing highways could also make possible more mixed-use development and affordable housing, desperately needed in places like San Francisco. It could also improve neighborhood safety and decrease pollution.
CNU also suggests that replacing underused highways could be a chance to undo the damage they have wrought upon ai???the physical and economic health of low-income and minority residents.ai??? But while reconciliation is indeed a possibility, so also is displacement. Sam Warlick, the communications director at CNU, acknowledged this possibility. ai???Any kind of positive change in a neighborhood (also) runs the risk of cultural and economic displacement,ai??? he said. Communities that embrace replacement, he explained, could prevent drastic displacement by pairing their infrastructure investment with community investment. ai???We would hope that anti-displacement efforts and initiatives to share the prosperity would be baked into the process from the beginning.ai???
Tiffany Owens, a journalist currently based in Providence, R.I, is a New Yorker at heart.
The Stadler product is gaining traction in North America and now has a manufacturing plant in North America.
Unlike Bombardier, which relies on the government to secure train orders for them in North America, Stadler had to fight hard to sell its product on this side of the pond.
There is a dichotomy between Stadler and Bombardier Inc., Stadler has to please its customers and Bombardier does not and if one has has any doubts on this point, just ask the TTC in Toronto and their very late tram deliveries.
For the Valley TramTrain project, I believe the Stadler option would best suit the Valley TramTrain needs!
Stadler completes first TEX Rail DMU
03 Aug 2017
USA: Stadler has completed the first Flirt multiple-unit to be assembled in the USA at its plant at North Salt Lake in Utah. The DMU for the TEX Rail project will be officially unveiled at the ATPA Expo in Atlanta in October.
In 2015 the Fort Worth Transportation Authority signed a $100m contract with Stadler for the supply of eight DMUs. This was Stadlerai??i??s first contract to include federal funding and was thus subject to Buy America regulations requiring 60% of the contract value to be sourced in the USA. The bodyshells and bogies are being produced in Switzerland, with final assembly taking place in Utah.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for the TEX Rail commuter route were held in August 2016. Due to open in 2018, the 43Ai??km line would link central Fort Worth with Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Around half of the $1bn cost, which includes rolling stock, is being met from federal sources.
As LRT planning spreads across Canada, transportation planners are beginning to understand the flexibility of the mode.
Commuter rail, using unwieldy commuter passenger cars are yesterdays transit solution, while TramTrain is a 21st century transit solution.
Just to think, if Metro Vancouver had built the Leewood/Rail for the Valley, Vancouver to Chilliwack TramTrain, we could have been selling our expertise elsewhere, in stead of trying to flog a dead horse transit system like SkyTrain, that no one wants!
Group proposes light-rail transit system for Halifax
WATCH: A group wants Halifax to exploring installing a type of transit system many other cities around the world use. Globalai??i??s Steve Silva reports.
Ai??A group is pushing for consideration to be given to potentially starting up a light-rail transit (LRT) system in Halifax to make public transit more efficient and tackle the challenges of a growing municipality.
ai???We need to start looking outside the box at alternatives,ai??? said Ben Macleod, one of the creators of theAi??Halifax Light Rail Alliance, said on Thursday.
The group isAi??proposing a transitAi??line that stretches from Sackville and looping on the Halifax peninsula to Clayton Park, using rails that already exist and others that would need to be created.
Future extensions could connect to Dartmouth, Spryfield, and other communities.
Macleod said he has presented the plan to two municipal politicians.
He noted that the federal government is helping fund other LRT projects in Canada.
Dalhousie University transportation professor Ahsan Habib said that the plan has merit.
ai???LRT will give this physical identity that this transit will run well connecting communities, so it will probably give a boost to transit-oriented development, more density,ai??? he said.
Habib said that LRT is the preferable transit option because it is relatively cheaper and easier to expand compared to commuter rail.
Commuter rail in the works
Bedford ai??i?? Wentworth Councillor Tim Outhit has been pushing to bring a commuter rail option using existing infrastructure.
He said heai??i??s hoping to get it started within a couple of years for around $30 to $50 million, not including operating costs.
Although Outhit said he shares the vision of the group, he says it is ai???prematureai??? to discuss LRT at the moment.
ai???We have to walk before we run,ai??? he said.
Macleod said even though the groupai??i??s proposal would be years away before taking detailed shape the municipal government needs to plan ahead. He said preserving a portion of the redeveloped Cogswell Interchange lands for a future light rail service would be an example.
Another news story which tends to confirm Zweis observation that; “despite a now over $11 billion investment in rapid transit, congestion is getting worse.”
The article doesn’t touch on the real problem, which is the user-unfriendly SkyTrain light-metro system. It also continues the myth that the Canada line is successful, despite the fact its station platform’s are a mere 40 metre long, half the length of the Expo and Millennium/Evergreen line’s station platforms and can only operate two car, 41 metre long trains. The Canada Line has effectively half the capacity of the rest of the light-metro system.
Of course the Canada line trains are crowded, all Richmond and South Delta/Surrey buses are forced to transfer their customers onto the Canada line at Brighouse Station and transfers are deemed user-unfriendly.
Also no mention of the huge debt servicing; operation and maintenance costs of the light-metro lines which today is over $300 million annually!
The Canada Line is a classic transit white elephant.
But he feels like he doesnai??i??t have a choice. First, TransLink eliminated the B-line bus along Granville when the Canada Line opened and transformed his 10-minute commute to Richmond into a 40-minute, two-transfer one.
TransLink doesn’t have a income problem, rather it has a spending problem, spending huge sums of money on very expensive vanity projects.
Mobility pricing, the great philosopher’s stone for regional transit is also showcased, but for mobility pricing to work, the region must have a viable user friendly transit service. The metro Vancouver region doesn’t and mobility pricing will be the political demise of any politician advocating for it.
The key for better transit in Metro Vancouver is modern LRT and until regional planners and politicians show some maturity and begin to plan for a customer based transit system, spending money on transit will be a fool’s errand.
The only thing that will defeat the car as a commuting tool is a user friendly public transit system, which includes a large light rail network, servicing the needs of the commuting public.
Billions have been spent on new transit lines, better bike lanes and more walkable communitiesai??i??and yet we refuse to give up our wheels. And nowhere is that more true than in the suburbs of the Lower Mainland
Clayton Chmelik and his wife were poster children for the car-shunning millennial generation for most of their 20s. They lived in south Vancouverai??i??s Marpole neighbourhood and both took buses almost everywhereai??i??first to university, then to their practicums and jobs. They didnai??i??t own a car and didnai??i??t feel deprived.
Now 33, Chmelik, a health manager at a Richmond company, has two cars in his family. He commutes 40 minutes a day each way in his Mazda 3 from his townhouse in Surrey, while his wife has her own car, a Mazda 5, that sheai??i??ll be using to commute to her counselling job when her maternity leave for their second child ends later this year. He estimates it costs them at least $700 a month to run both vehicles, not counting the $10,000 apiece the cars cost to buy. He knows itai??i??s a lot. ai???If I had a choice, I wouldnai??i??t do it.ai???
But he feels like he doesnai??i??t have a choice. First, TransLink eliminated the B-line bus along Granville when the Canada Line opened and transformed his 10-minute commute to Richmond into a 40-minute, two-transfer one. Then, when he and his wife decided to buy a home, a modest townhouse in South Surrey was all they could afford. That new location made transit even more unrealistic.
Chmelik is not an outlier. As the people born between 1980 and 2000 move intoAi??their household-forming, baby-having years, those who study how cities work are floating the idea that North America may have reached ai???peak millennial.ai??? American demographer Dowell Myers has generated a little dust storm of media coverage the last few months with that very idea, warning that the members of this groupai??i??renowned for their love of urban living, craft breweries and alternative modes of transportai??i??may undergo a significant shift in behaviour as they get older.
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson is a strong supporter of former BC Liberal Premier Christi Clark and sees the proposed ten lane bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel as her personal legacy project when she retires from politics next year.
Rail for the Valley rejects Lois Jackson LRT into Delta plan via the proposed bridge as it just doesn’t make sense.
As for the mayors Council, well it is all sparkle ponies and pixie dust as the regional mayors wait with baited breath for money from the new NDP government to fund their vanity projects, which will do little to reduce congestion because they were never planned to, rather they are planned to enrich developers and speculators, who use transit to inflate properties that they assembled along the proposed transit routes.
As always transit is planned to move money and not people.
Mayorsai??i?? Council puts brakes on Delta mayorai??i??s proposed Richmond-Chilliwack LRT
An idea to link Richmond to Chilliwack with a light rail transit (LRT) line wonai??i??t be getting rolling anytime soon.
The Metro Vancouver Mayorsai??i?? Council brushed the idea aside Thursday, after it was brought forward by Delta Mayor Lois Jackson.
The plan would have seen one of the 10 lanes of the proposed Massey Tunnel replacement bridge reserved for a future LRT line running from the Richmond-Brighouse Canada Line station through Delta, South Surrey, Langley and terminating in Chilliwack.
Jacksonai??i??s motion proposed a preliminary study of the line be added to year five of the Mayorsai??i?? Councilai??i??s 10-year transit and transportation plan.
But New West mayor Jonathan Cote said the idea was voted down because Thursdayai??i??s council meeting was the wrong time to introduce the proposal.
ai???I think itai??i??s a valid point that Mayor Jackson put forward, but to have that jump the queue in front of all the other discussions that we need to have done in the region I think it needs to be done holistically.ai???
The proposal was instead referred forward as a possible update to the regional transportation plan, to be considered at some point within the next year.
Jackson, who was denied the opportunity to speak at the meeting, said the Mayorsai??i?? Council was stacked against her and accused it of refusing to take her idea seriously.
ai???You know Iai??i??m not part of the boys club, letai??i??s put it that way and whatever I seem to be saying is falling on total deaf ears.ai???
ai???I donai??i??t think the fact that itai??i??s been deferred means the idea isnai??i??t worthy of consideration or taken seriously, itai??i??s about how do we actually find the right home for that discussion so that the region can be able to analyze that properly?ai???
The future of a proposed new $3.5 billion Massey Bridge has come into question with the election of a BC NDP government.
The NDP has suggested that twinning the tunnel could be a better option, and aside from Jackson, the regionai??i??s mayors are united in their opposition to a new bridge for the crossing.
Preparatory construction on the proposed bridge began earlier this spring.
Ai??Ai??2017Ai??Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
What this story does not mention is that Portland has an extensive LRT/streetcar network, a transit network designed to meet the needs of the transit customer.
Unlike Metro Vancouver where transit is built to meet the needs of land developers and land speculators, Bombardier and SNC Lavalin, all political friends with sitting councils.
Building with LRT enabled Portland’s suburbs to survive, unlike Metro Vancouver where the city is being torn apart by massive land development and almost eternal gridlock because of a definitely non-userfreindly public transit system. It seems many who move into those $1,000,000 or more condos prefer to drive, rather tan takeAi?? bus, then rapid transit and a bus again to go where they want to go.
SkyTrain has now given a new word to an ever expanding transit lexicon: “Demoviction“.
Both Vancouver and Portland started investing in rail transit about the same time, but Portland built LRT to meet the needs of transit customers, while Vancouver built proprietary light-metro to meet the needs of various political agendas, both civic and provincial.
Net result: Portland is a livable city where Vancouver has become a playground for the wealthy.
Premier Horgan please take note.
The initial LRT line in Portland cost less than a quarter to build than Vancouver's SkyTrain, enabling the transit authority to build more lines, reaching more customers.
Portland, Ore., has a well-deserved reputation among urbanists for its sound design sensibilities, from pedestrian-friendly sidewalks to tasteful public squares to a downtown waterfront park that was once an overpass. One less-reported aspect of this aesthetic is its charming retail hubs.
Rather than concentrating all of its retail into a few corridors, as most cities do via strip malls, Portland has allowed it throughout its residential areas, particularly in its Eastside neighborhoods across the Willamette River from downtown. Some hubs are just a few blocks long and offer niche retail, while others are longer and include more practical features like grocery stores.
Take Sellwood-Moreland, where I lived recently. The neighborhood, at under two square miles, has about 12,000 residents and a half-dozen of these retail hubs, most just a few blocks apart from each other. The strip that I lived near, at the corner of 13th Avenue and Bidwell Street, was so diverse that I forewent countless car trips. It had a library, a bar, a convenience store, a coffee shop, various restaurants and even several food carts, which are common citywide.
These hubs reflect Portlandai??i??s history, says Tom Armstrong, a staffer for the cityai??i??s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. Sellwood-Moreland and other Eastside neighborhoods, such as Irvington and Mt. Tabor, began as streetcar suburbs, later to be annexed by the city. This meant they each developed their own Main Street-style, pre-automobile retail centers, featuring narrow streets and apartments above storefronts.
The hubs remain thanks to what the city did — and did not — do. While Portland has its own ugly urban renewal history, many of these historic areas were spared in the post-World War II decades. Portland also did not insist as much as other cities did on separating its uses into residential and commercial. Starting in the 1980s, there were conscious efforts to protect and bolster these hubs in the cityai??i??s comprehensive plan. There are 23 of these so-called neighborhood centers mentioned in the current plan, along with a formal strategy to allow housing and amenities around them. Meanwhile, the zoning map also allows for dozens of additional autonomous retail spots that are either within or near these centers.
The result is that Portland, despite still being largely single-family residential in nature, has a much stronger retail presence than most U.S. cities with similar designs and histories. Walkability scores for its Eastside neighborhoods are generally in the 80s and 90s. At street level, this gives the city a spontaneous quality. One can meander through a quiet residential area and suddenly stumble upon a bakery or a micropub.
Perhaps more important, it has paid off for the city, showing the value of mixed uses. In other places, this kind of retail-residential mix has been hard to implement — often because itai??i??s a target of NIMBY resistance. But these urban-style amenties have made median home listing prices in Portlandai??i??s Eastside neighborhoods some of the highest metrowide. ai???Theyai??i??re very popular places,ai??? says Armstrong, ai???and we keep seeing redevelopment and new investment in those places.ai???
As I discovered, theyai??i??re convenient, placing Portlandians near charming, historic retail streets that provide whatever they could want.
It is to be expected, TransLink wants more of your money so out rolls the propaganda machine claimingAi?? increased ridership, Howrah!
Translation; “We want to bamboozle the NDP to give us more money for our two vanity projects, the Broadway subway and the Surrey LRT.
The late Carl Sagan had something to say about being bamboozled:
ai???One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If weai??i??ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. Weai??i??re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. Itai??i??s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that weai??i??ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.ai???
The problem for TransLink is that their claims do not match the operation of the transit system.
The new Compass Card is very good in calculating ridership because it collects money, thus TransLink knows exactly how many people are using transit, down to the last nickle (pennies are now obsolete), thus TransLink knows daily the number of unique transactions on the Compass Card and the number of unique transit actions would tell TransLink the actual number of people entering the transit system! TransLink would also know the exact amount of transfers a Compass Card customer would make. But TransLink doesn’t use that data, TransLink uses the easily toAi?? manipulate boarding’s and percentages.
Hint #1: Most people who use SkyTrain first transfer from a bus, are they counted twice?
Hint #2: The U-Pass, with over 130,000 issued allows unlimited daily travel and can be used upwards of 8 times per day per person.
The ALRT/ART light-metro system’s MoT operating certificate allows a maximum hourly capacity of 15,000 pphpd and in the past, according to TransLink, the system was carrying near this number; but wait it really wasn’t because ridership on SkyTrain has grown by almost 12% – really? That would mean SkyTrain would be carrying at least 1,000 pphpd more than it was legally entitled to.
So in reality SkyTrain has been carrying far less than TransLink would have us believe. Tsk, tsk!
In the future the public must demand:
TransLink give daily ridership stats from unique use of the Compass Card.
TransLink give the number of transfers, recorded by the Compass Card.
Ai??TransLink give the actual number of U-passes being used and the total numbers of times the U-Pass is used each day.
By having the actual hard numbers via the Compass Card, the public will be given a far clear picture of TransLink’s operation. But this news item was never about the transit system, rather it is a bamboozle to create the the myth that TransLink needs a massive infusion of money to keep operating, from the new NDP government.
TransLinkai??i??s latest numbers show increase in ridership
TransLink is out with its ridership numbers for the first half of 2017 and the transit authority is painting a rosy picture.
It says ridership across all their services for the first half of 2017 year is up 5.7 per cent compared to last year, which was also a record breaking year.
The more than 200 million boardings would put them on track for an unprecedented 400 million trips.
SkyTrain led the jump in ridership numbers, with 74 million boardings, up a whopping 11.9 per cent over 2016.
SeaBus also saw a steep climb, with 2.7 million trips, up 5.7 per cent year over year.
But the numbers revealed most transit riders are still taking the bus, with 122.5 million boardings in the first half of the year, up a more modest 2.5 per cent.
As for what continues to drive the growth, TransLink is citing a strong economy and increase in service hours and the Compass system.
External factors like increased gas prices are also believed to be playing a role.
But while there is a reason to celebrate now, TransLink says itai??i??s monitoring to see if recent fare increases will put the brakes on soaring ridership.
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