Free Bus Passes: Come on now Main Stream Media, is that the best you can do?
The Vancouver Province has been trying to make a big issue about free transit passes issued to bus drivers and families, sorry is that the best you can do?
The Province also has an editorial today on the subject.
I’m sorry, but this pathetic attempt to rouse peoples emotions about TransLink employees and their families getting a free ride doesn’t wash. The one questionAi??Ai??not answered is: “Are the free passes being used in great numbers or are they just gathering dust in a top drawer somewhere in the house?”
The attack on free bus passes is simple to explain, TransLink is broke but instead of going after ‘big fish’ issues like building metroAi??Ai??like SkyTrain or the RAV/Canada line instead of much cheaper LRT, operating buses on routes with very little ridership Ai??Ai??or the massive, yet mostly redundant bureaucracy that is now called TransLink.
Like the ‘fare evasion’ issue, the ‘free pass’ issue is meant to play on people’s emotions about someone else getting a free ride. Most transit companies offer free passes to their employees, including railways, ferries, and the airlines and TransLink is no different.
If the mainstream media is to retain any credibility at all with local transit issues, start tackling the big issues regarding public transit in the region and leave the nickle and dime issues alone for now.
Addendum
Added August 19, 2010
http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/letters/your+math/3416843/story.html
Maybe The Province should set their sites on the boardroom of BC Ferry Services where family passes can be worth a hundred times more than bus passes. For example, CEO David Hahn, whose 2010 raise of $93,459 brought his salary to $1.128 million, gets ferry passes for himself and family.
http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2010/08/carry-on-sailors.html