Memo To TransLink – The Regional Mayors Did Not Blink – Well At Least For The Moment.
It seems TransLink’s game of chicken has failed at the regional level; well for the time being.
The real problem why TransLink is on a financial precipice, is the SkyTrain light-metro system and light-metro systems, especially driverless light-metro systems, cost a lot to build and operate. Like many who work for TransLink, regional mayors have been lulled into a SkyTrain ennui and believe, golly gee whiz, that because it has no drivers, it costs very little to operate and hip, hip, hooray, it is a world-class transit system. That very few citiesAi??(a total of seven counting Vancouver) operateAi??SkyTrain, despite it being on the market for over 33 years isAi??a strongAi??indication that SkyTrain is not aAi??good transit system nor is it world class, Ai??is quietly ignored.
The fact of the matter is rather simple, SkyTrain not only costs a lot more to build than light rail (up to 15 times more per route/km.), it costs a lot to operate because by not having drivers, you have to have an expensive small army of technicians and attendants (250 full time attendants at last count) to ensure smooth operation, which translates into having much higher operating costs. In fact, SkyTrain costs about 40% more to operate when an ‘apples to apples’ comparison is made with LRT. This goes a long way to explain why SkyTrain has been almost universally rejected by transit planners around the world.
Here is the kicker, the provincial government quietly subsidizes SkyTrain and the Canada Line by well over $250 million annually and helps explain why the province is not so forthcoming with extra cash for the somewhat bloated bureaucracy.
Building a SkyTrain Evergreen line will only exacerbate TransLink’s dire financial chaos, but then all this was predicted back in the 1980’s, but no one listened. Even when the Canada Line light-metro was being planned, overseas consultants were amazed by Vancouver’s SkyTrain/light-metro voodoo planningAi??and let one company’s consultant, John Jordan to comment; “Certainly I can imagine that the powers that be in Vancouver cannot begin to imagine the daft reputation they have managed to generate in the wider transport community around the world.”
Mayors put off axing of property-tax rise for TransLink
By FRANK LUBA, The Province September 19, 2012
Itai??i??s looking increasingly as if mayors in the Lower Mainland will reject more property tax for TransLinkai??i??s latest three-year plan.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie was ready Wednesday to axe the tax, which would be an average of $23 per home.
But his motion to drop the property tax at Wednesdayai??i??s meeting of the regional Mayorsai??i?? Council on Transportation was tabled until the councilai??i??s next meeting Oct. 18 because some municipal leaders wanted more time to consult with their councils and residents.
ai???I want to cut it right now so itai??i??s not used for the next two years,ai??? said Brodie.
ai???Iai??i??m guessing the vote will ultimately be similar to the one we had in April,ai??? he said of the Mayorsai??i?? Councilai??i??s initial rejection of the idea of giving TransLink more property tax.
ai???Will it be a death blow?ai??? said Brodie. ai???No, it will mean more adjustments have to be made.ai???
Even Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, whose community would benefit from a proposed B-Line bus service on King George Boulevard that is part of TransLinkai??i??s draft base plan, agreed property tax is not the answer.
ai???The system doesnai??i??t work,ai??? said Watts. ai???The legislated options given by the province are unsustainable and at the tipping point.
ai???We have to start having a different conversation.ai???
Watts wants to have that conversation with the provincial government.
If Victoria chooses not to talk, the mayors can ask TransLink for a supplemental plan without the $30 million property tax in 2013 and 2014.
TransLink has already found what it called ai???efficienciesai??? of $98 million annually in 2013-2015 to deal with a projected shortfall of $472 million during that period.
But another option for operating without the $30 million from property tax is service cuts.
The $30 million represents about 10 per cent of the five million bus service hours that cost the transportation authority $300 million in 2011.
The Surrey B-Line bus and the Highway 1 Rapid Bus from Langley over the new Port Mann Bridge envisioned for 2013 would cost about $2 million each to operate.
It seems that Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie who kicked and screamed like a spoiled brat to get the Canada Line metro built, now balks at TransLink’s request to up the property tax. His bloody hypocrisy is just breathtaking!
Here we have a mayor, wanting the most expensive transit toy around and now doesn’t want to pay for it. Selfish, childish, and arrogant, someone should give him a good hiding for being such a temperamental child.
A real transit system designed by engineers is a network of lines converging to a central location. It is the most efficient design possible, refer to transit in Moscow:
http://engl.mosmetro.ru/flash/scheme01.html
It can be a LRT, tram or subway network… the thing to note is that all transit lines converge to the central business district (CBD) and there is a ring line for anyone who wants to avoid going to the CBD (change direction before the CBD).
Stinky TransLink has created an ad hoc and very expensive transit system with limited capacity (B-Lines and SkyTrains) guided by the whims of the provincial government and developers. Pull the plug on TransLink and kick the bums at TransLink to the curb.
We’re throwing good money after bad on the Evergreen Line which is an expansion of the poorly thought out SkyTrain system. If the Millennium Line were designed properly in the first place, it would be able to handle the proposed Evergreen Line extension – it wasn’t designed properly and can’t handle the expansion without squandering another $1 billion on the Millennium Line to upgrade it on top of the $1.4 billion for the 11 kilometre Evergreen Line (an obscene amount).
TransLink has merely inflated the cost of the Evergreen Line to over $127 million per kilometre to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars to cover other losses. TransLink wants the mayors to commit to a steady cash flow for TransLink to do all the billions of dollars in “maintenance required” which TransLink is calling upgrades in the future for its sick SkyTrain fiasco.
Just fire everyone and stop listening to the architects of TransLink such as Gordon Price who is attempting to save face rather than admit that he is nothing more than a petty economist who deserves to be strung up by his heals. Gordon Price and friends get lost.
SkyTrain is costly to build, maintain, operate and expand. Enough is enough; quit it, no more money to TransLink – got it Mayors’ Council?