TransLink’s Finacial Woes
The Vancouver Province's editorial has got it partially wrong. a good part of TransLink's financial woes is that they have tied themselves to the extremely dated light-metro/SkyTrain rapid transit model which can cost over fifteen times more to build than light rail, without any operational or financial benefit! Light-metro, especially the automated (driverless) product not only costs much more to build, it costs more to operate, giving the transportation authority a financial double whammy.
It is not social engineers that are the problem, rather the adherence to a now discredited transportation policy that was designed to compete against old fashioned PCC style non-articulated streetcars and not modern modern light rail operating trains of articulated trams on reserved rights-of-ways.
SkyTrain is an operating museum piece and the taxpayer must bear the brunt of increased taxes to pay for it.
Editorial: Social engineers are behind transit woes
The ProvinceThe Canada Line.
Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, PNG file
As much as many people would sympathize with the idea of Province letter writer Laura Lynn to hold an inquiry into TransLink spending, it's unlikely much would be learned not revealed in the 2009 audit by thencomptroller-general Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland.
She found that the much-despised transportation authority had a structural deficit because its constant expansion of services was outstripping its ability to pay. Certainly nothing has changed since, with TransLink promoting its Evergreen Line despite having enough cash without imposing new, totally unpopular tax hikes on a tapped-out and angry public, particularly drivers.
The overpaid social engineers at TransLink, on various municipal councils, and various taxpayer funded institutions such as Simon Fraser University have created the mess.
TransLink's recent breathless announcement that ridership is again at an all-time high can be largely blamed on the organization and its backers' constant attack on drivers. North America-high fuel taxes, criminal parking tax rates and a failure to upgrade the road system leading to congestion has forced people who otherwise would look after their own transportation needs on to public transit.
TransLink needs to stop expanding, take a breath, and work within its budget and not, as its officials constantly whine, demand higher taxes. As well, private transportation should be encouraged much more than is currently the fashion.
