Eric Chris on the West Coast Express and TransLink Ridership in General
Eric Chris takes on TransLink’s appalling history of exaggerating ridership on Vancouver’s metro transit system.
Zwei has known since the mid 1980’s that BC Transit exaggerated ridership on the SkyTrain Expo Line to impress visiting transit types, but they were not fooled as they could see that the light loadings on the mini-metro did not match what they were told. Even Zwei had a personal experience when a BC Transit official told him that car counters were told to report 100 persons per car, regardless of actual capacity. At the time the MK.1 cars had a maximum capacity of 70 persons.
TransLink carries on the tradition, over-estimating ridership to put the transit system, especially on the metro system. One problem arising out of this is that receipts do not match reported ridership and thus the myth of massive fare evasion was born. The mainstream media, especially one local radio station has bitten in this kool-aide and has done a radio soap opera on the issue, doing TransLink a great service promoting the $171 million fare-gate installation because it is hoped it will stop fare evasion. Trouble with that, is that fare-gates, unless they are manned by attendants, will do little mitigating fare evasion and the cost of installation, maintenance and operation of the fare-gates will cost TransLink more than it was losing from fare evasion!
The TransLink saga continues…………………………………….
Eric Chris’s letter.
Apparently, the West Coast Express (WCE) only operates on weekdays (260 days per year) and the 3,077 daily ridership previously given for the WCE is a little low.Ai?? Still, ridership on the WCE is not 6,000 people, commuters or passengers daily as TransLink contends.
Ridership on the WCE is around 4,300 people daily (2.25 million trips per year / 260 operating days per year / 2 trips per person daily on average).Ai?? By not correcting the false ridership stated by TransLink in the Vancouver Sun and The Province, you are allowing TransLink to lie and get away with it.
This is to trick the average reader into thinking that transit by TransLink moves far more people than it really does.Ai?? It is to gain sympathy for more transit funding when TransLink already spends far more than any other transit organization in Canada (refer to Figure 4-9 on page 27 of the TransLink efficiency review by Shirocca Consulting completed for the TransLink Commissioner, Martin Crilly, March 2012):
http://translinkcommission.org/TransLink_Efficiency_Review_Mar_21-12_FINAL.pdf
TransLink is basket case and in a class of its own when it comes to spending per rider.Ai?? Yet, you and the rest of the reporters in Vancouver appear too scared to take on TransLink and do not seem interested in pointing how awful transit by TransLink is to your readers.Ai?? In fact, you bend over backwards for TransLink to write stories persuading readers to fund more SkyTrain transit which is the root cause of the poor efficiency of transit by TransLink.
Generally, TransLink reports two to three times the real number of people on buses and SkyTrain cars.Ai?? You have to take ridership figures presented by TransLink with a grain of salt.Ai?? Approximately 264,000 people ride transit on average throughout the week in Metro Vancouver (11% of the 2.4Ai?? million population in Metro Vancouver).
Incidentally, how many times a transit user boards transit is irrelevant, and the average transit user boards transit many times daily, just like the average driver gets into and out of his or her car many times daily.Ai?? Most serious and regular transit users have a transit pass.Ai?? If TransLink is able to say how many people hold transit passes, it will give you a very good idea of how many people truly use transit regularly, surely.Ai?? Hope this clarifies things for you.
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It seems the rumours about Vancouver and its’ operating authority that we hear about on our side of the pond ring true. It puzzles me greatly that transit officials tell some non too factual accounts of the transit system and not just tell the truth. Certainly their goal is to improve the transit system for its revenue paying customers and what presently is being done is deception and it seems Translink officials have deceived themselves.
Again, I am puzzled why the news media don’t pounce on this for some rather juicy news stories as they would in the UK. I find Vancouver strange indeed, where the truth is frowned on and telling tall tales is rewarded. Bizarre
A couple of points some nit picky and one bigger.
First the big….but it does not necessarily take away from the point that ridership numbers can be confusing. As far as I know all transit agencies in North America report trips and not riders, whether that is the best is up for debate. A few may also report number of riders but this is rare. I assume this is the same in Europe because when I was looking for ridership info from places like Karlseruhe all I could find were annual trips.
Now the nit picky, what is the 11%? The 2006 census shows 16.5% transit journey to work share for metro vancouver and wiki shows a population of 2.2million in 2007.
Zweisystem replies: Rico, have you considered that the census numbers are wrong. Could it be that some people put on the census form that they take transit, when in fact they don’t, because it makes them feel good. Remember, the census cannot, itself, be subject to an independent audit.
This letter was sent to The Province and the Vancouver Sun. While The Province replied asking for my calculations which this letter provided, the Vancouver Sun never replied and isn’t at all interested in reporting anything other than what TransLink wants reported.
Kelly Sinoski, the “voice of TransLink” and Vancouver Sun reporter has come out with another story intended to drum up support for more long term funding for TransLink. Mayor Peter Fassbender of Langley City for whatever reason can’t get his head around the fact that TransLink is already spending well beyond its means and wants more long term funding for SkyTrain transit by TransLink:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/TransLink+considers+selling+property+raise+funds/6668897/story.html
This is hard to swallow. TransLink only has to cancel the proposed $1.4 billion SkyTrain line to Coquitlam and then spend the $1.4 billion to improve transit throughout the region, if it only really needs $220 million to “avoid service cuts” as the article by Kelly Sinoski states.
Of course, TransLink requires much more than the $220 million for transit service now and $1.4 billion for the SkyTrain Line to Coquitlam. In Kelly’s latest article (or should we say TransLink’s article written for Kelly), TransLink CEO, Ian Jarvis is feigning concern over maintaining transit service when there are 13 practically unused transit routes to UBC over the summer (three routes to UBC would be plenty).
After 7 pm, transit isn’t reducing gridlock (there isn’t any to reduce) and isn’t reducing pollution (buses carry too few passengers). Much of the five to 10 minute transit service in Vancouver could easily be extended to 20 to 40 minutes to both reduce the number of empty or nearly empty buses on the roads and to provide at least some transit to Delta, Surrey… Langley after 7 pm.
Since the RAV Line, TransLink has been decimated financially and requires billions of “new dollars” desperately, to maintain and rebuild its existing SkyTrain lines. So, the comical show of TransLink requiring money to avoid service cuts (costing or saving TransLink next nothing) just keeps playing out in the media.
Rico, the 2006 census states 16.5% took transit for the “working population of commuters”. From memory, there were 1 million working commuters in 2006, or 165,000 workers who took transit daily. For the entire population of 2.4 million people in Metro Vancouver, on average, the transit use is about 11% or 264,000 people, currently.
Other, cities might list passenger trips but it is unlikely that other cities lie to refer to the trips as “people” in the media in order to intentionally confuse the politicians and public. For example, the media are continually saying that 50,000 “people” take the 99 B-Line dally. This is absolutely false. About 10,000 to 20,000 people take the 99 B-Line for eight months of the year while UBC is in session. Moreover, the 99 B-Line may be crowded for a few hours daily but all the buses transferring passengers to it are mostly empty.
Right now while UBC is in recess, the ridership on the 99 B-Line is miserable and most buses are empty from about Arbutus Street to UBC (one-third of the trip distance). Yet, TransLink is indifferent and won’t cancel the “express” 99 B-Line buses over the summer to just operate regular trolley buses which are also mostly empty.
Instead, goofy TransLink went ahead and increased the service frequency of the 99 B-Line buses over the summer – crazy, but no one at TransLink is going bananas over it – to try to save some money by operating just the trolley buses to UBC. Rather, Ian Jarvis of TransLink is asking for more money because he can’t identify any waste in his lean and mean transit operations.
Eric Chis understates WCE ridership. In 2011, annual ridership was 2.6 million (down from the nearly 2.8 million in 2010 which included the Olympic Games effect). There are 250 service days in a year, as there is no WCE service on 10 statutory holidays. That equates to 10,400 boardings daily, or 5,200 people making a round trip (more than 90% of passengers make a round trip).
WCE operates 41 cars in normal service, with a combined capacity of 6,016 seats (beyond that there is a limited capacity on the WCE TrainBus service). If Eric Chris’s figure of 4,300 people riding per day were accurate, that would mean that nearly one in three seats was vacant. Anyone who rides the trains regularly knows that there are nowhere near that many vacant seats.
Zweisystem replies: I understand that Eric Chris figures comes from Metro Vancouver.
Then the Metro Vancouver figures are quite out of date.
WCE is not a good candidate to pick as a means to criticize TransLink’s counting of ridership. Ordinary TransLink transfers have no validity by themselves (but can be used to justify purchase of an “add fare” WCE ticket that discounts the cost of the connecting bus ride). All passengers must carry a WCE ticket (daily, weekly, 28-day) issued by a ticket vending machine or an annual employer pass, which is an individualized pass with the individual’s photo, which is registered with WCE. That should produce an accurate count of ridership.
The only fudge factor might come if WCE assumes that the holder of a monthly pass actually rides on every weekday of that month. I don’t know if it does so or not, but it wouldn’t create much variance.
In his letter, Eric Chis criticizes TransLInk for stating that WCE ridership is 6,000 people daily. The context is important here. The figure of 5,200 that I calculated in my first post is an all-year average. Summer ridership would be lower and at certain other times it would be higher, possibly high enough to be rounded up to 6,000 for general publicity purposes.
The trains have a capacity of 6,000 seated and at times there will be standing passengers, particularly between the last suburban stop at Port Moody and Waterfront on some of the morning runs. TrainBus adds a little bit of capacity beyond that.
Zweisystem replies: what the WCE did do was to spread strip developments all along the Lougheed Hwy. from the Tri-Cities to Mission. It can be said that th WCE brought massive Vancouver style development up the Fraser Valley to municipalities ill-equipped to handle the increased populations.
Melfort, how many seats are vacant on the return trip out of Vancouver in the morning? Are you able to provide the link for the 2.6 million riders in 2011? On average, most people make two trips daily on the WCE while some people might make one trip daily and some people might make more than two trips daily. Otherwise, Vancouver would grow in population by thousands of people daily .
For 250 service days on the WCE rather than 260 service days, the number of people using the WCE increases slightly to 4,500 people daily and TransLink is still lying about moving 6,000 people daily on the WCE. Here is the link showing 2.25 million passenger trips in 2011 and the source is TransLink:
http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publications/Transit%20Ridership.pdf
I suspect, the accountants and economists at TransLink merely divided 2.25 million trips by 365 days to incorrectly “estimate” 6,000 people daily for the media (2.25 million / 365 days = 6,164 people or about 6,000 people reported in the media). This shows that the accountants and economists running TransLink are terribly deluded about ridership or are lying about ridership.
TransLink lies so much about ridership (finances too) that it can’t separate the lies from the truth anymore. Very likely, Surrey and Delta will form their own transit organization based on LRT soon to escape the corruption and lies surrounding SkyTrain and TransLink.
Eric, my figure came from the 2011 TransLInk Annual Report. It was no more specific than 2.6 million. See page 25. [http://www.translink.ca/~/media/documents/about_translink/governance_and_board/board%202012/2011_yearend_financial_and_performance_report.ashx]
However, the link you provided also shows WCE “system boardings” of 2,804,547 when transfers from other modes are included. Dividing that figure by 250 service days yields an average of 5,609. Would that not be a more accurate figure of total WCE usage?
Whenever I have taken WCE, my day starts with a one-zone bus ride to the nearest station. WCE would be able to count that because I would then purchase a discounted “add-fare” WCE ticket from a machine at the station, indicating that I had already paid one fare. Therefore, I would be included in the higher “system boardings” figure. My neighbour who rides with me on the bus has an annual employer pass from WCE and does not need to purchase either a bus ticket or a train ticket. WCE does not know that he arrived by bus (nor that he uses SkyTrain at the Vancouver end of the trip, including the return home) and he would therefore not be included in the 2,804,547 figure.
About 75% of WCE passengers use a weekly, 28-day or annual pass, so their connecting trips with other TransLink modes at either end of the journey cannot be identified as their passes need only to be shown to bus drivers or ticket inspectors, not inserted into fare boxes or ticket validators. I suspect that is what leads to the figure of 2.25 million, since there is no way of knowing what other modes are used. The same would apply to passengers who arrive at the station on foot or by car and purchase a full fare one-way or round-trip ticket without the “add fare” discount.
A WCE one-day round trip ticket is valid on all TransLink modes and effectively functions as an all-day, all-zones pass. Beyond its initial purchase from a WCE ticket vending machine, there is no further counting of that passenger’s movements, since he simply shows the pass to a bus driver or to a SkyTrain inspector if asked.
Most WCE passengers make a round trip, but there are cases where a one-way ride would be involved. I’ve done that myself, and returned home by another mode (SkyTrain/bus or my own car if I had left it at the office overnight).
I don’t understand what you mean about the vacant seats on the return trip out of Vancouver in the morning, since there is no such train trip. The five trains arrive in Vancouver between 6:40 and 8:40 a.m. and lay-over until the afternoon. The first train does not depart until 3:50 p.m. and the final eastward departure is at 6:20 p.m.
The first eastbound departure of any kind is a TrainBus at 12:55 p.m., followed by another one at 1:25 p.m., both serving those who are not putting in a full day at work. The other three leave after the last train has departed to provide a service for those who have to work late or do other things downtown after work.
Melfort, you are incredibly knowledgeable about the WCE, do you work for TransLink? Yes, the boardings do refer to transfers from buses and SkyTrain. Boardings also refer to people who do not complete their trip on the same train (get off one train temporarily to board another train). This is called recycle, and given the fact that the WCE has limited stops, recycle for the WCE is less than the recycle for buses.
Boardings in the context of buses, WCE or SkyTrain in isolation are misleading and really make more sense in terms of the entire transit system as a collective. “Each person makes three to four boardings on transit on average daily” and if you are going to use boardings as a measure of “people” on the WCE, you have to deduct the “corresponding number of people” from buses and SkyTrains.
Otherwise, you are counting people multiple times. At the end of the day, 12% of the overall population uses transit (264,000 people). Perhaps a higher percentage of the population uses the WCE but it is unlikely. You can’t use boardings to measure people any more than you can use the number of times that people get into and out of their cars to count drivers. Anyhow, we’ve flogged this to death and TransLink is still lying about moving 6,000 people daily, even if you use boardings which is wrong.
Eric Chris, no I do not work for TransLink. I have researched and written about WCE ever since the project to build it started in 1993, as a matter of personal interest.
Melfort, I learned a great deal from your posts and was originally under the impression that the WCE operates as a transit service – it operates more like CP Rail or Air Canada. Being able to throw out comments for others to critique on this blog is a good way to learn.
TransLink indiscriminately refers to boardings as people in the press, and it irks me to see TransLink brag about how ridership is booming, especially on the 99 B-Line route, when it isn’t. Most buses operate empty or nearly-so most of the day.
Transit like LRT to reduce vehicle traffic during “rush hours” makes perfect sense to reduce the requirement for more roads which are expensive. However, SkyTrains and B-Lines which are operating too frequently every few minutes during off peak hours or about 80% of the time are just polluting the air, wasting tax dollars and harassing resident with noise.
The monkeys at TransLink are not going to stand up and say – “we wasted billions of dollars on inflexible-inefficient SkyTrains and B-Lines to move fewer people than with LRT or trams – B-Lines have degraded the air quality and damaged the health of residents” – fire us we’re idiots!
The monkeys at TransLink just won’t do it. It is a better career move for the monkeys at TransLink to spend millions of dollars in Vancouver Sun advertising for the Vancouver Sun reporters to avoid printing the truth about TransLink.
The lack of a single, stgiraht freeway slashing through the city is likely a contributor here as well.Despite traffic jams and a glacial pace through rush hour times, the Seattle’s freeways provide a convenient route to get from point A to point B pretty much anywhere in Seattle. Buses don’t tend to use it (if at all? some do in Vancouver) making their routes longer and more circuitous.In Vancouver, drivers don’t have a freeway option, which makes getting anywhere an exercise in taking city streets complete with stop signs, traffic lights and other things that make trip times longer.Of course there’s no *one* factor that contributes to the difference between the two locations. I’m just mentally speculating that this might be a partial contribution. I cycle everywhere anyway