Failure

Failure

noun

1. lack of success: “an economic policy that is doomed to failure”

2. the neglect or omission of expected or required action: “their failure to comply with the basic rules”

A rather intense phone call has prompted me to post this.

The caller irately stated: “SkyTrain is not proprietary” and “Vancouver has the most successful transit system in North America”. He went further but his rant became a salad of gish gallop.

It has been a long time since I have entertained such a call, but my name has been in the local media of late so it was to be expected.

The problem I think is that TransLink is spending huge amounts of money, now over $16 billion to extend the Expo and Millennium Line a mere 21.7 km, combined with the fact that the Broadway subway (As I predicted as early as 2016) has sterilized business along Broadway (now with over 80 bankruptcies) has got a lot of local politcans very worried.

Also very worried is the provincial NDP, who have been gaslighting taxpayers as to the costs and benefits of the SkyTrain light metro system.

The problem is that TransLink’s ridership has been in a steady decline since 2018; 2025 ridership numbers declined 1.5% from 2024!

With civic elections this year and a tenuous majority in Victoria, combined with an extremely unhappy electorate both the provincial government and TransLink ar extremely worried, but not worried enough to do the same things over and over again, ever hoping for different results.

TransLink’s failure to attract new customers after about $30 billion has been spent on the SkyTrain light-metro system alone, does not an election winner make!