An Open Letter To The Minister of Transportation

To whom it may concern:

Cutting ribbons is not the main function of the Minister of Transportation, but in BC it seems it is.

Trying to justify the Premier’s (or should I say Fraser Surrey docks/SNC’s) $3.5 billion Massey Tunnel vanity bridge replacements is seemingly taking a lot of your time. I understand your many challenges, rewriting history and distorting the truth and hiring shills to make the case.

The Gateway highway project is givingAi?? headaches of late, with the road slowly buckling due to poor engineering, but maybe the money was spent instead on the grossly overbuilt theAi?? three overpass (one is gated) Hwy 17 & 99 interchange. At the Tsawwssen end of things, Hwy. 17Ai?? is so ill designed and needlessly overbuilt, it boggles the mind.

Simplicity and economy just was not in the lexicon

of the engineers mind when they designed this ‘spaghetti junction’

at Hwy. 17 & 99!

Who’s in charge, the MoT or the Road Builders Association?

I know that inAi?? BC, politicians love to build new highways because their political friends in the Road Builders Association and the trucking industry just love taxpayers money being spent on them. You will make many new friends, until of course, the government stops building highways, as one can only blacktop so much scarce farmlands.

The Premier is ultimately responsible for our little gem called TransLink and all what it entails. I understand this but there is one problem that must be dealt with and that is regional transit.

Regional mayors are tired of anteing up more money for the BC governments cherished light-metro system and are balking at increasing property taxes to pay for gold plated schemes which are dictated from the Premier’s Office. The Evergreen Line will now open in 2017 because the boss, Premier Cristy Clark (a.k.a. Premier Photo-op) desperately wants to cut ribbons for the new line before the next political election.

At the same time, South Fraser politicians are mulling over leaving TransLink because of their taxpayer’s dollars are spent on other peoples transit projects. The grossly expensive SkyTrain Broadway subway maybe the catalyst for a South Fraser rebellion,Ai?? that is why you have installed Mr. Factbender, sorry Fassbender to oversee transit.

Forget about bogus “Business Cases” for both the Broadway subway and the poor man’s SkyTrain (a.k.a. LRT) in Surrey; remember in 2008, American Transit expert Gerald Fox, shredded TransLink’s Evergreen Line’s business case. Mr. Fox stated;

“I found several instances where the analysis had made assumptions that were inaccurate, or had been manipulated to make the case for SkyTrain. If the underlying assumptions are inaccurate, the conclusions may be so to“. Fox later said; “TransLink has used this cunning method of manipulating analysis to justify SkyTrain in corridor and corridor and has succeeded in keeping the proprietary rail system expanding. In the US all new transit projects that seek federal support are now subject to scrutiny by a panel of transit peers, selected and monitored by the federal government, to ensure that the projects are analysed honestly, and the taxpayers” interests are protected. No SkyTrain project has ever passed this scrutiny in the US.”.

Hardly reassuring, isn’t it, as dealing with TransLink is like dealing with a Pandora’s Box of myth, bad planning,Ai??and ineptitude.

There is one South Fraser rail project that could unite the Fraser Valley with a credible transit line, the Rail for the Valley TramTrain or Interurban initiative for the old BC Electric route. Backed by the Leewood Projects Study, which shows that a TramTrain project is financially viable, the return of the interurban has been seen by South Fraser politicians as an economic and doableAi??project. That was until a diktat from the Premier’s office informed BC Liberal leaning mayors and councilors that it would be unwise to support such a project, especially if they wanted to run under the party banner in upcoming elections.

Maybe the Premier’s friends at SNC Lavalin, didn’t want any distractions interfering with the $3 billion Broadway SkyTrain subway to Arbutus?

By the way, $3 billion is a lot of money, considering that the BC Liberals sold the entire BC Rail railway for a mere billion dollars, in a deal reminiscent ofAi?? Bre-X! But hey, that is a different issue, or is it?

The “Full Build” 2011nRftV/Leewood TramTrain is 13 km. long, costing just under $1 billionAi??and would service Vancouver, Richmond, to Chilliwack Chillwack. Compare this to the 11 km. $1.4 billion, now over budget and two year delayed Evergreen line and it is easy to see one gets a lot more bang for your buck with a TramTrain

TransLink and the BC government also have their own, rather dated studies, which focuses on a bus based transit system for South Fraser Communities. Other than the fact that buses do not attract the motorist from the car, there is no evidence that TransLink or the BC Transportation ministry clearly understand Bus Rapid Transit. To be truly BRT, a bus needs to be guided or operate on an independent rights-of-way, which in most cases costs only slightly less than a LRT solution, with many more drawbacks. There is clear evidence that the recent provincial government Valley transportation report was done, like a similar study for the E & N Railway, to downplay any rail transit solution for South Fraser municipalities. The RftV/Leewood Study makes a mockery of the provincial government’s efforts.

It is howAi??the Ministry of TransportationAi??responds to the many important transportation issues South of the Fraser River, that will decide the fate of TransLink, where present municipal unhappiness with current transit taxation, planning and implementation will later translate into out right rebellion and a succession from TransLink, just in time for the next provincial election in 2017.

Then there is TransLink itself. This ponderous bureaucracy which forever wants more and more tax money, with no public oversight. TransLink is so ill loved that the public rejected paying any more taxes to fund it by an overwhelming no vote in last years plebiscite.

TransLink has failed to offer a transit system that is both efficient and affordable. TransLink’sAi?? six figured salaried bureaucrats have convinced themselves of the opposite,Ai??that their hugely expensive light-metro only policy, leaving Vancouver and TransLink aAi?? laughing stock in international circles. Just last year, TransLink let go two senior planners that dared to mention that building LRT on Broadway would be about $2 billion cheaper and carry more people.

The major problem with our transit system can be summed up with a comparison with Calgary’s LRT system. To date, the 59.9 kmAi??Calgary’s LRT system has cost the AlbertaAi??taxpayer just over $2 billion, yet carries over 333,000 customers daily. By comparison, Vancouver’s 68.7 km SkyTrain carries a claimed ridership of just over 390,000 customers a day yet light-metro system has cost the taxpayer now over $10 billion to date!

A complete reappraisal of our regional transit system is a must. Alas the Minister of Transportation, like the many before him, has put his headAi?? likeAi??the proverbialAi??Ostrich, in the sand and ignores the many problems plaguing TransLink.

The public is so very tired with the transit issue that it may lay blame, not on regional mayors, but the Premier in her run up to election year.

Pity……