AdiA?s Transit Improvements?

A hint of the shape of things to come.

TransLink is imploding under its weight of inefficiencies and there is more to come; $30 million must be carved from the TransLink budget to cover the loss of the denied fare increases. Zwei has a few hints where these cuts could come from.

1. Get rid of the highly paid spokespersons for TransLink, as they are merely professional windbags, who know little or nothing of transit issues and are there merely to put a ‘happy face’ on transit announcements.
2. Get rid of the TransLink Board of Experts, as they are experts in doing as little as possible, except increasing their annual stipends.
3. Get rid of Translink’s planning department and contract out planning, as the current highly paid regime do little, but provide reams and reams of paper outlining extremely dated material, mostly how to extract more money from the taxpayers.
4. Rationalize bus service and bring it up to European standards with minimum bus stop distances. TransLink could reduce the number of bus stops by 50%, improve service and increase headways (capacity), without increasing costs.
5. Abandon the Evergreen Line as there is no evidence that SkyTrain has actually attracted the motorist from the car in such numbers that would justify a $1.4 billion light metro.
6. Use LRT/streetcar instead of SkyTrain/light-metro for future ‘rail’ transit planning.
7. Abandon the new head office being built in New West Minster and instead radically reduce TransLink’s bureaucracy.

Radical change must happen at TransLink as the ponderous bureaucracy, has done little to improve transit, while at the same time done much to improve their personal incomes.

Rapid Bus and B-Line in question south of the Fraser

With funding for transit expansions still being worked out, new bus services could be in limbo

Dave WhiteApr 13, 2012

SURREY (NEWS1130) – It could be a huge blow for Surrey, desperate for new buses. New transit options meant to make your commute south of the Fraser easier later this year could be in jeopardy because of TransLink‘s financial woes.Major projects all included in TransLink’s 2012 plan may be delayed or cancelled, like Rapid Bus over the New Port Mann Bridgeand B-Line service for King George Boulevard and 104 Avenue.We spoke with Paul Hillsdon, who writes for Civic Surrey.Ai?? He says transit users are caught in a political back and forth game, as mayors, the province, and TransLink’s commissionerhave differing opinions on where new money is going to come from.”It was supposed to be a property tax, the mayors don’t want a property tax.Ai?? The province says no to a vehicle levy, no to tolls, no to gas tax, and the Commissioner says, essentially, $50-million is going to have to be found through an audit,” Hillsdon points out.

Hillsdon fears folks south of the Fraser are going to be neglected again when it comes to transit expansion.

“The service I’m most concerned about is the King George B-Line,” Hillsdon says.Ai?? “It has been in the plans for over 20 years now.Ai?? We thought it was coming after the Olympics when the buses from the 98 B-Line in Richmond were supposed to be rerouted to Surrey, that didn’t happen.”

“Of course this whole fiasco is disproportionately affecting those of us who need that transit infrastructure in Surrey.Ai?? We don’t have that backbone that Vancouver does, and it takes investments to build that,” Hillsdon adds.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts is out of the country at a conference, but City Councillor Marvin Hunt tells News1130 the ordeal is incredibly frustrating.

“We’re stuck until TransLink can figure out the implications of everything that’s been thrown at it in the last couple of days,” Hunt says.Ai?? “It’s extremely frustrating because ultimately, we don’t have a complete transit system on our side of the river.”

He says BC’s second largest city should not have so much trouble getting more buses when 70 per cent of the region’s growth is expected in the area.

Hunt feels the province should not have stepped in to play politics with transit, and should let Mayors and TransLink bring in money how they see fit.

TransLink needs to come up with $30-million annually to pay for new projects and expansion of the system. Mayors had approved options for funding including a vehicle levy earlier this year, but Premier Christy Clark pledged money would be found through an audit of the organization.

Hunt says there’s no timeline on that audit, which means it’s not clear when or if the new bus routes will come to fruition.

TransLink says it needs more time before it knows exactly what will happen.

“Well in the past few days we received [those] decisions that impact our business,” says spokesman Derek Zabel.Ai?? “The commissioner’s decision to reduce our proposed fare increase and the recent mayor’s council motion to eliminate reliance on property tax to fulfill the moving forward plan.”

“We do need time to review the information and understand what these decisions mean for TransLink, our customers, and the public we serve,” Zabel adds.Ai?? “We will share our process publicly in due course as we go through all of this.”

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/351474–rapid-bus-and-b-line-in-question-south-of-the-fraser