An Open Letter To The New Minister of Transportation Blair Lekstrom

Dear Mr. Lekstrom;

Welcome to your new ministry, with its many challenges.

The Gateway project is one that will give a few headaches as it's a grossly overbuilt highway that will not carry much traffic. In 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, stop building highways.

As minister of Transportation, you are responsible for that little gem TransLink and all what it entails. There is one problem that you will be soon forced to deal with and that is the $400 million funding gap for the forever promised Evergreen metro line. Regional mayors are tired of anteing up more money for the SkyTrain metro system and are balking at increasing property taxes to pay for gold plated metro schemes. The Evergreen Line must be built, because your new boss, Premier Christy Clark 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 Evergreen Line maybe the catalyst for a South Fraser rebellion, just in time for the next election. Gaining votes in the Tri-Cities maybe countered by losing many more votes south of the Fraser River.

Adding to the Evergreen Line woes, 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.".

Dealing with TransLink maybe dealing with a Pandora's Box of myth, bad planning, and deliberately misleading bureaucrats.

There is one South Fraser rail project that is now more than a pipe dream, 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 is seen by many South Fraser politicians as an economic and doable project. The "Full Build" RftV/Leewood TramTrain is 138 km. long, costing just under $1 billion and would service Vancouver, Richmond, as far as Rosedale, past Chillwack. Compare this to the 11 km. $1.4 billion Evergreen line and it is easy to see one gets a lot more bang for your buck with the RftV/Leewood TramTrain/Interurban report!

TransLink and the BC government also have their own, rather dated study, 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 how the Ministry of Transportation 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 2013.

Then there is TransLink itself. This ponderous bureaucracy which forever wants more and more tax money, with no public oversight, TransLink has failed to offer a transit system that is both efficient and affordable. TransLink's bureaucrats have convinced themselves of the opposite, that their metro only policy is both affordable and efficient, leaving Vancouver and TransLink a sort laughing stock in international circles. Major changes must be made and soon.

The major problem with our transit system can be summed up with a comparison with Calgary's LRT system. To date, the 48.8 km Calgary's LRT system has cost the Alberta taxpayer just over $1 billion, yet carries over 252,000 customers daily. By comparison, Vancouver's 68.7 km SkyTrain carries a claimed ridership of over 380,000 customers (it must be noted, that unlike Calgary' LRT, there is no independent audit of ridership on SkyTrain and without turnstiles, TransLink's numbers are suspect), a day yet TransLink's metro system has cost the taxpayer over $8 billion to date!

A complete reappraisal of our regional transit system is a must, but if the new Minister of Transportation, like the many before him, puts his head,  like the proverbial Ostrich, in the sand and ignore the many problems plaguing TransLink, a Liberal mayor from Surrey may lead the charge of South Fraser municipalities abandoning the sinking ship TransLink.