The provincial government is in turmoil and those who “Pay to Play” on the municipal scene are getting anxious, as billions in potential profits are being put on hold for the moment.
The Metro Vancouver’s metro Mayors Ten Year Plan is nothing more than a skillfully drafted document that is designed to direct the flow of taxpayer’s dollars into the pockets of political supporters and nothing more. The planned Broadway SkyTrain subway is a very good example of this.
Planning to build a dated and capacity constricted mini-metro in a subway under Broadway to Arbutus has now turned into a $3 billion nightmare and threatens regional transit in the region. The Broadway subway will not benefit transit customers at all and is inferior to a at-grade/on-street LRT option costing about one tenth to build!
Who benefits from a subway?
Land developers and land speculators who fund Vision(less) Vancouver’s political machine. it is called “Pay to Play”.
The cement manufacturers stand to make huge profits, with massive amount of cement used on the subway.
Engineering firms stand to make huge profits with all the extra engineering services needed with subway construction.
Politicians, cutting ribbons. Building subways is always a good background for politicians at election time, where they con the voters into thinking that the massive costs are actually worth it.
Surrey’s $2.5 billion LRT,Ai?? is being designed as a “poor man’s” SkyTrain and the same people will benefit from LRT’s construction as the Broadway subway, only on a smaller scale.
The Mayor’s Ten Year Plan is more about moving money, than moving people and those most in need for better transit, will be left at the station waiting for a train that will never come, as the political pork barrel express is about to leave.
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Mayorsai??i?? Council anxious political turmoil could derail ambitious transportation plan
With the continuing political uncertainty in B.C., the Mayorsai??i?? Council on Regional Transportation is calling on all parties to commit to quick action on Metro Vancouverai??i??s ten-year transportation plan.
Surrey mayor and Vice-Chair of the Mayorai??i??s Council Linda Hepner says the current state of political limbo has her uneasy about the future.
She says with the results of the election finalized the mayors want to hear from the parties that theyai??i??re committed to moving quickly on the regionai??i??s transportation priorities.
ai???Iai??i??m worried because itai??i??s a very hyper-political environment right now and when itai??i??s so unstable then, of course, you have to be worried about large projects.ai???
Those projects include big-ticket infrastructure items like the replacement of the Pattullo Bridge, a new light rail system for Surrey, and a subway along Broadway.
The concern comes against the backdrop of the Mayorsai??i?? Councilai??i??s ten-year-vision, a comprehensive plan to improve transit, roads and active transportation infrastructure.
Phase one of that plan, largely involving increases in bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus service, is already underway, while phase two, which involves the major capital investments has been approved but is not fully funded.
Ottawa and Victoria have both pledged to cover 40 per cent of transit funding, but cash for the Pattullo and questions around how Metro Vancouver will pay its remaining share remain unsettled.
ai???I am nervous, I was nervous around the referendum stage and the timeline it took for that and Iai??i??m just very concerned that this will cause another timing delay that simply canai??i??t happenai??? Hepner says.
The BC Liberals have said that if elected, they will still require a referendum on any new funding source the Metro Vancouver mayors develop.
There is a plan in place, which has received international recognition.
The Leewood Study has been ignored by most politicians, but not all and the time is right to put shovel to ground as regional traffic congestion in the Fraser Valley has become endemic and relief is needed.
Do not listen to the SkyTrain Lobby, as the aging gadgetbahnen is becoming extremely expensive to operate and maintain. No one has bought an ALRT/ART transit system in over a decade as it is too expensive not only to build, but to operate and maintain.
Do not listen to the light-metro lobby, as huge construction costs ($130 mil/km) make it unsustainable. Also, being elevated has not proven to be an advantage over at-grade LRT, in fact the opposite is true as at-grade transit is easier and cheaper to maintain and operate.
Do not listen to the subway lobby, as they live in a land of sparkle ponies and pixie dust. Subways are hugely expensive to build and hugely expensive to maintain, costing the operating authorities huge sums of tax money to operate. Due to their nature, subways do not attract ridership, in fact subways tend to deter ridership!
The former BC Liberal Government (in a minority position, as I write this) has absolutely no care for regional transit, except for building multi billion bridges and highways and has left good transportation planning rot.
The Leewood Study even though seven years old, gives the region an affordable 21st century solution for transportation from downtown Vancouver to Chilliwack, connecting the population centres of Vancouver/Burnaby; North and South Surrey/Cloverdale; Langley; Abbotsford; and Chilliwack/Sardis.
Do not be left at the station with the baggage of unworkable or unaffordable solutions and board the train with a ticket for success!
The Canada Line was down for three hours on Friday, but if one was looking for evidence of it, well TransLink is doing its best to cleanse the internet from reporting the problem.
Trying to avoid the fiasco of last winter, where TransLink abandoned customers, when the Canada Line failed in the snow, officials were quick to get to the radio to allay fears of transit users.
The problem, was in the Automatic Train Control, where a cable failed.
Cables just don’t fail and there must be a root problem causing the failure and dirty subway tunnels and the piston action of trains operating in subway tunnels creates an extremely corrosive atmosphere.
Operators of subways have “vacuum trains” for cleaning tunnels as preventative maintenance to help keep vital signalling equipment operating.
Could it be that TransLink is unaware that subways are dirty environments and must be kept clean? Has the subway portion of the Canada Line ever been cleaned?
If the answer is no, watch out for more “cable failures”.
A London Tube "subway" cleaning train.
Update: Canada Line resuming service between Oakridge and Bridgeport
Due to a track issue, there is no service between Marine Dr Station and Bridgeport Station. Gerry Kahrmann / PROVINCE
A mechanical issue that was disrupting service on the Canada Line has been fixed and normal service is resuming.
TransLink stopped running trains between OakridgeAi??andAi??Bridgeport stations for more than two hours Friday afternoon due to a track issue.
In a press release, TransLink said a bus bridge that was established to shuttle passengers between the two stations wouldAi??continue to operate until about 2:30 p.m.
ai???Expo and Millennium Lines are unaffected, and are running normally,ai??? Jill Drews, TransLinkai??i??s media relations advisor, said in a release. ai???Additional security and Transit Police are at the stations to ensure passenger safety and crowd control.ai???
Recent problems with Bombardier’s delivery of new trams for Toronto has made Canadian customers look elsewhere.
For two long, Ottawa has twisted arms of Canadian transit operators to buy the Canadian Bombardier product, to keep production going, propping up the giant multinational company and garnering votes from Ontario and Quebec.
This is not to say Bombardier provides a bad product, as their European designed trams are well received around the world.
This has lead to complacency with Bombardier Inc., which management has completely forgotten about customer satisfaction.
Problems delivering new trams for the TTC has set off alarm bells at MetroLinx, in Ontario………….
…….. which is now procuring trams from Alstom, a well regarded French company, which is presently supplying trams to Ottawa.
Vancouver will not have this problem as our proprietary ALRT/ART system has only one supplier, Bombardier, so production delays doesn’t matter.
The Canada Line EMU’s use a dated EMU design from Hyundai and being part of the consortium operating the mock P-3, no other car manufacturer need apply.
With SkyTrain light-metro, Metro Vancouver is stuck with two suppliers, who can sell us anything because there is no competition.
There are two lessons to be learned:
Throwing money at Bombardier, does not improve management, but keeps the largely inept corporation from going bankrupt.
TransLink is screwed because of the proprietary SkyTrain system and having only one supplier.
With the order with Alstom, Bombardier will have to face stiff competition, something their tired and protected management are deathly afraid of.
So, it took the compass Card to make transit more user friendly – NOT!
Is not TransLink’s main function to make transit user friendly, so more people perceive it is a good product, use itAi?? and hope, vote accordingly if there is another plebiscite?
This is pure spin, by an organization, that can’t seem to get it’s act together.
It doesn’t take a Compass Card to provide good service, rather good management, something that TransLink dearly lacks.
Memo to TransLink: Forget about the Compass Card, the Census and trip diaries; get out of your TransLink paid car allowance cars and ride the system. Yes, ride the system for a week and all you need to know to improve the transit system will will be clear.
The knowledge the Compass Card provides, put to good use by TransLink.
TransLink using data from 1-million Compass Cards to improve service
TransLink says data from the one-million Compass Cards will help them adjust service to better meet commutersai??i?? needs.
Spokesperson Jill Drews says data has always been collected over the years, but says the card has helped increase the amount of information available.
ai???So planners before would use things like census data and we did a trip diary survey every few years to find out how customers used the system, but now with Compass, weai??i??re able to see what all of our customers are doing and target service where itai??i??s needed to make the system more efficient.ai???
She says they are hoping to see if more customers use a particular route versus other options.
ai???We could also see if the demand is exceeding the capacity and maybe increase service or propose new route space.ai???
But she says they are respecting passengersai??i?? privacy.
ai???All of the procedures that we use for the compass program adhere to the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.ai???
Drews says 95 per cent of trips on the transit system right now involve a compass product.
Photos have gone viral on the Chinese internet showing a metro station in Chongqing that was apparently constructed in the middle of nowhere.
Located on Chongqing Metro’s Line 6, Caojiawan Station was finished back in 2015. Of its three planned exits, only one is currently is in use, the other two being overgrown with weeds and shubbery. Still, even that one exit might be overkill.
After leaving the metro station, passengers enter a barren wasteland. The station is not connected to any major roads, meaning that commuters have to rely on a van service to get the rest of the way home.
A worker at the station told the Chongqing Morning Post that often there are no passengers to be found inside the station at all.
Subways sound great – at first, but when the realities of subway operation, including extremely high costs and user unfriendliness, the love affair with subways tend to wane with customers.
The huge cost of subway construction, means economies must be had and in Scarborough, those economies mean a lack of stations. Subway stations are both extremely expensive to build and extremely expensive to operate. This means the line will only have one station. It will give a fast journey time, but the time to get to the station will, in most cases, negate any time gained by a one stop subway.
What attracts people to transit?
Just about every study done on public transit point to user friendliness and ease of use as the prime reason for taking public transport.
A one stop subway is not user friendly, deterring ridership and in the end those politicians who championed a subway so they can cut ribbons at election time, maybe instead cutting their chances for reelection.
In Vancouver though, the mainstream media, a corporate controlled press, do not ask questions about transit and those politicians and their land developer friends have ensured no debate on subways will take place.
Here lies the problem with TransLink and transit in Metro Vancouver, politicians will not allow honest debate on transit, which causes the taxpayer to vote no in plebiscites.
Even the voters in Liberal friendly areas dumped the Minister responsible for transit in the last election!
What does it take for politicians to understand that the public has absolutely no confidence in transit, TransLink nor the people who run it!
And that is what the corporate controlled media and politicians are deeply afraid of.
Cut and cover subway construction, coming to Broadway very soon.
Critics shout down staff and local Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker as they challenge wisdom of replacing five existing Scarborough RT stops with one subway stop.
At a public consultation on the Scarborough subway extension, disgruntled residents were told the budget leaves no money left to rough in future stations. Building stations later would cause the line to shut down for several years, TTC project manager Rick Thompson explained.Ai??Ai??(Andrew Lahodynskyj / Toronto Star file photo)Ai??
That was the prevailing message from a packed meeting at the Scarborough Civic Centre during a public consultation on the next phase of planning for an extension of the Bloor-Danforth line to the Scarborough Town Centre.
Residents and subway critics at times shouted down staff and local Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker as they questioned the wisdom and fairness of replacing five existing Scarborough RT stops with just one new one.
The current plan, approved by a majority of city councillors, is to build a single stop at the end of a 6.2-kilometre tunnelled extension. An early estimate puts the cost of that extension at $3.35 billion, but that figure is considered preliminary and expected to rise.
That, disgruntled residents heard, has left no money to rough in future stations. Building stations later would cause the line to shut down for several years, TTC project manager Rick Thompson explained.
ai???It is so distressing that you forget everyone out here on this end,ai??? one resident said to loud applause. ai???Itai??i??s totally inappropriate to be served by one subway extension.ai???
Responding to concerns about a single new stop, Mike Logan, from the cityai??i??s planning department, explained the subway extension was conceived of as part of a larger network, including a proposed 17-stop extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, whatai??i??s being called the Eglinton East LRT.
ai???Those are all funded?ai??? someone from the audience shouted about the additional lines.
Logan explained that only the subway is fully funded with $3.56 billion committed from all three levels of government.
ai???The stations are so far apart in Scarborough,ai??? another resident shouted from the back. ai???All the rest of the city gets them close together . . . Do we not count like the rest of the city?ai???
De Baeremaeker said he continues to believe a four-stop subway should be built. He blamed ai???downtown councillors,ai??? who represent the most densely populated wards in the city, for not wanting to fund more frequent transit stops like their residents enjoy.
ai???Iai??i??ve been moving heaven and earth to try to get more stations and more money,ai??? said De Baeremaeker, appointed to champion the subway plan by Mayor John Tory, who was elected on a pledge to advocate for ai???One Toronto.ai???
De Baeremaeker blamed a ai???suburban/urban divideai??? for Scarboroughai??i??s woes.
ai???You talk to my downtown colleagues, thereai??i??s no way theyai??i??re giving us money,ai??? for more stops, De Baeremaeker said. ai???In fact theyai??i??re still trying to stop this one.ai???
A man in the audience stood several questioners later to address De Baeremakerai??i??s points:
ai???I think Councillor De Baeremaeker is misleading us when he says the downtown councillors wonai??i??t afford more money for more stops. What the downtown councillors and many others . . . wanted to do was build a network of rapid transit all over Scarborough, but Councillor De Baeremaeker and his allies prefer to spend all the money available on just the one stop subway.ai???
Several members of the TTCRiders advocacy group commented on how a comparison to the previously-planned seven-stop LRT to replace the SRT ai??i?? what was fully funded by the province ai??i?? was never done and questioned why the options presented at the meeting failed to show all the alternatives.
Council voted in March to reject a request for that cost-benefit comparison and to move forward with the one-stop plan in its absence.
Logan explained to the room that staff had never been directed to do that study.
Staff are now conducting a mandatory environmental assessment of the subway extension. Critics say the province should insist on a comparison of the extension to the light-rail alternative.
The province, which under Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne has campaigned for a subway while fighting recent by-elections, has signalled they are not interested in that comparison.
Just brief notes on the election or deciphering the entrails before they get cold.
It seems the SkyTrain/TransLink curse has now caused the Liberal Minister responsible for TransLink, Peter Fassbender to lose his seat.
Regional transportation has been made the “kiss of death” for politicians by successive NDP and Liberal governments and combined with weak leadership and management in TransLink has made TransLink a black hole for just about everyone.
By forcing politically motivated transit construction onto TransLink, without any public debate only exacerbates the situation.
On Vancouver Island, E & N politics or lack there of, by the Liberals, helped the NDP secure needed seats.
The Fraser River replacement bridge for the Massey Tunnel, will be a hot topic as massively escalating costs and questionable benefits, other than letting massive tankers and colliers ply the Fraser, may be mothballed for now.
The Regional Mayor’s Ten Year transit plan is in jeopardy as the two major pieces, the Broadway Subway and Surrey’s lackluster LRT, come under greater scrutiny, especially with another plebiscite promised by the Liberals. Another plebiscite will once again doom financing and with no plan B, rubber on asphalt will become the the transit mode of choice.
The Greens must join in a coalition with the NDP to both gain credibility and sustain a change of government and government priorities and if they join the Liberals, they will be toast in the next election.
The NDP must shake off the phantom of previous bad transit decisions and look at workable and affordable transit solutions that may be contrary to local regional thought. Hint: Transit is built to move people, not to sell condos.
The Liberals, have shown no interest in regional transit, will continue to show no interest in regional transit, instead preferring vanity mega bridge and highway projects.
Road pricing has been put on a pedestal of being the great transit panacea, its not and for regional road pricing to work, taxes must be shifted off gas (gas taxes are road pricing) onto a distance based system. For real road pricing to be accepted by the population, an affordable public transit alternative must be in place. The region doesn’t have, nor is one being planned for and this must change.
The Leewood/Rail for the Valley Transportation study would give the best bang for ones buck by linking communities from Vancouver and Richmond to Chilliwack. Support for Leewood/RftV TramTrain could prove to be an electoral winner, by giving the region over 130 km of rail transit, at half the cost of a 7 km Broadway subway to Arbutus and or a poorly planned LRT in Surrey.
The Leewood/RftV TramTrain study just makes sense in today’s world and if the NDP or Greens could grasp the importance of this, they may be able to secure Liberal seats in the upper Fraser Valley.
TramTrain, a cost effective way to deal with local transportation congestion.
$8 billion is a lot of ‘spreadin around‘ money and $8 billion for one bridge seems a tad pricey.
This bridge is not about traffic congestion or better transportation, this bridge is a gift to the Vancouver Port Authority so massive Panama Max. and Cape Max. colliers and tankers can navigate up the Fraser to load LNG, American Brakken Oil and thermal coal at Surrey Fraser Docks.
At present, the tunnel acts as a dike, preventing deep draft vessels up the Fraser.
Memo to Delta Mayor Lois Jackson: Stop taking orders from Victoria and do what is best for Delta and reject the bridge.
Memo to Liberal candidate Ian Patton: Isn’t this bridge a little pricey so farmers can take their farm machinery to Richmond?
Memo to transit users: $8 billion could buy one hell of a lot of public transit in the region.
Memo to South Delta voters: you are being duped as:
The new bridge will only move gridlock a few km North. Gridlock will be massive crossing the North Arm of the Fraser River to Vancouver.
LRT is not being planned to South Delta, as it has never been planned for nor is there any money to make it happen. This promise makes nice “elect me” stories, which are nothing more than massive fibs.
If the Liberals really wanted to improve transit in South Delta, compel TransLink to bring back the direct express buses that went from South Delta to Vancouver, without forcing people to transfer to the Canada Line in Richmond. It is, what the transit customer wants.
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BC NDP say George Massey Tunnel replacement will cost $8-billion
A leaked document released by the BC NDP says the George Massey Tunnel replacement bridge will cost a lot more to finance the project than the promised $3.5-billion.
The document shows total interest costs from 2017 to 2068 are forecasted to be $8-billion.
That figure includes long-term bonds, short-term loans, and borrowing from a private partner.
In a statement, the BC Liberals fired back admitting to a loan but didn’t reference an amount.
Delta’s mayor Lois Jackson has been in favour of the project and says playing politics over this project before an election is wrong.
“They are playing politics with this and I think it is very wrong, as a Mayor’s council, that they are taking a position of this nature”, says Jackson.
“It’s election time and I really don’t believe the figures, Sorry.”
With its shelves lined with worn textbooks and corridors plastered with drawings, noisy GyermekvasA?tas Otthon on the western outskirts of Budapest seems like any normal school before the bell rings. Peer through the windows and you may see muss-haired children sitting on desks, teasing friends, toying with mobile phones or doodling in jotters as they wait for the day to begin.
But look closer and youai??i??ll notice something odd. Those textbook subjects arenai??i??t algebra or English. Instead they bear the stamp of MA?V START Zrt, the Hungarian State Railways. By the whiteboard, past the teacherai??i??s desk, a cartoon poster reveals the detailed safety procedure for what to do when a deer ai??i?? or more commonly a hedgehog ai??i?? strays onto the tracks and into harmai??i??s way. Next to it is a blueprint for the inner workings of the ultimate big toy: a locomotive engine.
Located in the suburbs at the end of the HAi??vAi??svAi??lgy tram line ai??i?? one of 10 metro and suburban lines in Budapest ai??i?? GyermekvasA?tas Otthon isnai??i??t a learned place of academia. Itai??i??s an extracurricular training ground for the 11.7km GyermekvasA?t, or Train Line 7. Travelling at 20kmh over the contours of the Buda Hills to SzAi??chenyi Hill on the forested outskirts of the city, this tram line is one of the longest and fastest of its kind in the world. And itai??i??s entirely run by children.
Scott Brown
TransLink says data from the one-million Compass Cards will help them adjust service to better meet commutersai??i?? needs.
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