Who is driving TransLink?
Who is driving TransLink, you ask?
The real answer, if a Mr. Ferry cared to investigate, is the provincial government and the Premier’s office.
What is making TransLink so expensive, demanding all sorts of taxes and levies?
The provincial demand for light-metro, mostly in the guise of SkyTrain, has increased the the cost of a regional rail system by at least three times! So the taxpayer has paid well over $8 billion for three light-metro lines (the Canada Line is in reality a heavy-rail metro, but built as a light-metro), instead of just under $3 billion, if the province built with light-rail instead.Ai??The taxpayer’sAi??cost for light-metroAi??increases on an annual basisAi??because of provincial subsidy of over $250 million for light-metro, which will only increase with the construction of the Evergreen Line.
SkyTrain and the province’s desire to build politically prestigious light-metro instead of more efficient and cost effective light rail is driving TransLink – driving TransLink right into a financial iceberg!
The province’s desire for SkyTrain light-metro, is driving TransLink into a financial iceberg!
Who’s driving TransLink?
By Jon Ferry, The Province March 7, 2012
Greater Vancouver mayors meet today with Transportation Minister BlairAi?? Lekstrom to lobby, among other things, for an overhaul of TransLink, ourAi?? region’s perpetually cash-strapped transportation agency.
Now, you don’t need an MBA to know that, to be effective, organizations needAi?? solid governance structures with clear reporting lines. TransLink, however, hasAi?? one only a mother could love.
The mother in this case was hard-driving Kevin Falcon who, whenAi?? transportation minister, was so ticked off with the regional mayors’ squabblingAi?? over the planned Canada Line he set up a new governing structure. The onlyAi?? problem was it was worse.
It consists of a somewhat powerless mayors’ council on regionalAi?? transportation, a rather secretive board of directors, a separate regionalAi?? transportation commissioner and a chief executive officer, all supposedlyAi?? operating in tandem with Metro Vancouver and Victoria (which really controls theAi?? purse strings for capital spending).
It’s as flawed as the B.C. teachers’ bargaining structure. And it’s theAi?? reason why Lower Mainland residents remain baffled by TransLink and all theAi?? various taxes, levies and fees it keeps proposing to fund the new Evergreen LineAi?? and other costly transportation projects.
I mean, if you want to complain, who do you call? Well, you don’t. And thatAi?? probably was the governance structure’s purpose when it was set up.
So, all these TransLink entities are doing something . . . but what? And toAi?? what effect? It’s hard to figure out.
TransLink commissioner Martin Crilly is reviewing planned transit-fare hikesAi?? averaging 12.5 per cent that are due to take place next January. He says heAi?? could reduce these increases if TransLink could find offsetting cutsAi?? elsewhere.
But don’t hold your breath, there’s no net-zero mandate here. Crilly, whoAi?? does have an MBA, is supposed to rule on the hikes by the end of the month.
The mayors’ transportation council, meanwhile, is meeting Lekstrom to pressAi?? their case for a new source of funding to help TransLink cover a $30-millionAi?? shortfall for various capital improvements.
The mayors also are seeking regular, official performance reviews ofAi?? TransLink ai??i?? plus, of course, the aforementioned new governance structure.
Mayors’ council chairman Richard Walton agrees with me that the current setupAi?? is strange, and TransLink should revert to having a single board of directorsAi?? consisting wholly or in part of regional mayors.
“It’s always been an issue for us that the TransLink board is not accountableAi?? to the public for how the dollars are spent, in a direct public way,” saidAi?? Walton, the mayor of North Vancouver District. “And we are as mayors andAi?? councillors.”
Yes, if TransLink is going to squeeze us like lemons, there should beAi?? responsible people to whom we can squawk. And who better than those we elect toAi?? head our region’s 24 local authorities?
However, I think we need direct input to the board from a standing committeeAi?? composed of regular folks for whom the system is more than just a politicalAi?? football. It should include both motorists and transit and bike riders.
We need a transportation agency that’s more in touch with those it’s supposedAi?? to serve.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/driving+TransLink/6263192/story.html#ixzz1oRYrNLzI
