AdiA?A?s the Evergreen Line?
It seems TransLink’s game of brinkmanship will be their undoing. They have played this hand too often and regional politico’s are tired playing against a stacked deck.
We all know that public transit is good, but when you have Gordon Price saying on the radio, that the LRT/SkyTrain debate is theological and radio personality singing hosannas about the $2.5 billion plus Canada Line being a success, despite the fact there has been no discernible modal shift from car to RAV, the public should prepare for an upcoming public transit financial fiasco in the Vancouver Metro region.
SFU professor and former Vancouver City councilorAi??Ai??Ai??Ai??Gordon Price, has never taken the time to inform himself about ‘rail‘ transit and treats the LRT/SkyTrain non-debate as a Cadillac/family banger debate. He is very wrong as SkyTrain/light metro and light rail are two different ‘rail‘ transit modes, designed to solve two different public transit problems. That light rail made SkyTrain obsolete a quarter century ago is lost as he goes about pontificating about transit matters that he knows little about.
Here is the root of our currentAi??Ai??public transit malaise, those in power and those planning for regional transit are grossly ignorant about public transit and transit mode. Why so? It seems that those supporting ‘rapid transit’ (LRT is not rapid transit) for the region do not want their preciousAi??Ai??preconceived notionsAi??Ai??about public transit be debated, lest those ideas prove to have no basis.
It is the regional taxpayer that clearly understands transit economics 101, that by building metros on routes that do not have the ridership to sustain them, need greater taxes to sustain them. I t is the taxpayer that is driving regional mayors to challenge the out of control TransLink. “Oh yes“, say the SkyTrain Lobby, “SkyTrain carries over 300,000 passengers a day“; but over 80% of those passengers first took a bus to the metro and for many, forced to transfer.
But there is a dragon in the swamp calledAi??Ai??the U-Pass. The highly subsidized U-Pass has created havoc, causing over crowding on the buses and SkyTrain and with the U-Pass, many pass holders are making multiple trips a day. Thus it can be said that SkyTrain maybe has over 300,000 boardings a day (which translates roughly into 150,000 people), but factoring in 10,000 or so U-passes in the system, with many making multiple boardings each day, many put the actual number of people using the now $8 billion SkyTrain light-metro system at under 100,000!
Until the MetroAi??Ai??region has a fullAi??Ai??independent audit of finance andAi??Ai??ridership of TransLink, the light-metro system and the bus system, by BC’s auditor general, we should have a moratorium on all transit expansion, including the Evergreen line, until we have a firm foundation on whichAi??Ai??to operate and expanded the system.
It seems foolish to keep throwing more money at a transit system that seems to have a lot of managers, spin doctors and planners, buts seems to be running always on three cylinders.
Evergreen Line plans in flux as mayors balk at TransLink’s repeated tax hike pitch
By Frank Luba, The Province
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart refused Wednesday to back away from his optimism about the long-delayed Evergreen Line rapid transit project.
A?ai??i??Ai??I know itA?ai??i??ai???s going ahead,A?ai??i??A? said Stewart. A?ai??i??Ai??We have their engineers in our office every day working out details of the line.A?ai??i??A?
But StewartA?ai??i??ai???s buoyant attitude comes in the face of another body blow delivered to the $1.4-billion project Tuesday, when TransLink announced that more property taxes are the only way to pay the regionA?ai??i??ai???s $400-million share of the project.
The regionA?ai??i??ai???s mayors have twice rejected property taxes as a source of Evergreen funding, but will vote again Dec. 9 on the TransLink plan. The Evergreen Line would extend SkyTrain service from the Lougheed Mall to Coquitlam Town Centre.
TransLink has enough money in reserves to pay its share of Evergreen in 2011, but would require a property tax increase of approximately $61 per household beginning in 2012 to continue paying for Evergreen, the North Fraser Perimeter Road and increased transit service.
Stewart will vote for more property taxes, but doesnA?ai??i??ai???t think homeowners will end up paying those taxes.
The former Liberal MLA is counting on another source of funding being found by 2012 A?ai??i??ai??? because he said that was the point of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the province and the regionA?ai??i??ai???s mayors earlier this fall.
A?ai??i??Ai??The challenge right now is timing,A?ai??i??A? said Stewart. A?ai??i??Ai??The timing is that we have to come up with a way of funding our commitment by the end of this year.
A?ai??i??Ai??The only tool available to us right now is property tax.
A?ai??i??Ai??So, in the interim, IA?ai??i??ai???m willing to go along with that.A?ai??i??A?
Provincial Transportation Minister Shirley Bond is in Asia and unavailable for an interview, but she did issue a statement supportive of TransLink.
A?ai??i??Ai??The TransLink Board has fulfilled its mandate, as it has set out options for the Council of Mayors, which will meet its commitment in funding the Evergreen Line,A?ai??i??A? said Bond.
A?ai??i??Ai??The province and federal government came to the table at the request of the region to fund the Evergreen Line. We expect the region to fulfil its commitment.A?ai??i??A?
The MOU is a key for Bond.
A?ai??i??Ai??Under the recent MOU between the mayors and the province, both parties committed to work together to explore all funding related to future transit strategies,A?ai??i??A? she said. A?ai??i??Ai??The province remains committed to delivering the Evergreen Line, with construction beginning next year.A?ai??i??A?
What?? This blog is so biased, it is laughable:
But there is a dragon in the swamp called the U-Pass. The highly subsidized U-Pass has created havoc, causing over crowding on the buses and SkyTrain and with the U-Pass, many pass holders are making multiple trips a day. Thus it can be said that SkyTrain maybe has over 300,000 boardings a day (which translates roughly into 150,000 people), but factoring in 10,000 or so U-passes in the system, with many making multiple boardings each day, many put the actual number of people using the now $8 billion SkyTrain light-metro system at under 100,000!
First of all, about 80,000 students pay for UPass, so Students are actual people…
I agree with you based on ridership, the evergreen line probably should be LRT. However it is foolish to say SkyTrain is obsolete. That is ridiculously foolish, there are applications for both technologies. I thunk the broadway corridor will have to be skytrain, because LRT won’t be able to handle the ridership in ten years. Skytrain is faster than an LRT would be. I don’t want to go from Port Moody to Vancouver on LRT that is not the correct usage. There should be LRT on 2nd tier corridors like Main St, maybe Kingsway, Hastings etc etc.. But the top tier corridors make the most sense for metro. This is what they do in Europe.
The evergreen line has the advantage that if the Broadway line is built, then the Evergreen and Millenium trains can run interlined to UBC which makes a lot of sense. No LRT would go direct from Port Moody to UBC.
Finally – give us usage projections for the Valley LRT. The corridor isn’t ideally positioned. Why not start with rapid bus and then when you need more capacity go to LRT?? That is the most cost effective.
Zweisystem replies: SkyTrain (for the 1000 times) is a proprietary railway, now owned by bombardier Inc. As it is a proprietary railway, powered by Linear Induction Motors, is not compatible with any other railway. There can never be through running on the Canada Line. If Bombardier ceases production (only 7 such systems sold in over 30 years), then everything must be custom built. The SkyTrain guideway can’t accommodate regular metro cars, so it will be a very expensive proposition to replace.
SkyTrain’s main competition was LRT, yet SkyTrain has never been allowed to compete directly with LRT for any of the 7 lines built. To date, SkyTrain has proven IT IS NOT FASTER THAN LRT; nor has SkyTrain proven to have a greater capacity than LRT. In the real world there is no bang for the huge amount of extra bucks needed to build SkyTrain.
There is no bias at all, rather a true perspective of the problems facing TransLink and the mayors.
What is laughable is your ignorance of modern transit practice, but hey, you would fit in nicely with TransLink or perhaps you work there already.
Oh yes, where is TransLink going to get the $4 billion or so to build a subway under Broadway? And that is no laughing matter.