Sad times for TransLink: it’s getting beaten up pretty bad, and it’s starting to show.
Mike Shiffer, its head of strategic planning, has just been let go. Or should that be “sacrificed”?
We’re seeing the end of the post-Olympics success story, when an integrated transportation system performed almost flawlessly.
The Canada Line arguably changed our culture. Proof: the following year, transit use increased over the record numbers during the Games.
Though there was conflict between the mayors and the province over the Canada Line (and a reorganization of TransLink as a consequence), everyone was getting along pretty well. By mid-2011, the regional mayors risked a property and gas tax increase just before municipal elections, contingent on a commitment by the province to look at new funding sources.
So we were “moving forward:” the Evergreen Line was a go, new services south of the Fraser were committed, including the follow-through on the Gateway project: express buses across the Port Mann Bridge.
And then, in a matter of a week, the goodwill was gone. The province once again pulled the rug from under the mayors, refusing to entertain new taxes. But if there was one moment when things started to go very bad, it was when Martin Crilly, the transit commissioner, turned down the anticipated fare increase on which expansion plans were based, on the presumption that funds could be found internally.
I wonder whether commissioner Crilly really understood what he was doing when he killed the momentum for transit expansion in the fastest growing parts of Metro Vancouver.
His report, plus media stories on uncollected fines, fare evasion and executive bonuses, along with the anti-government groups that echo the message, has effectively cut TransLink off from further revenue and stalled public transit in its tracks.
How can elected officials go to any other source, whether property taxpayer or car driver, to find the dollars now that the transit users themselves will not be paying more (over the 2% allowed in the legislation)?
Add in gas price volatility, which costs TransLink more to operate while reducing gas-tax revenue, and the uncertainty of a replacement for $30 million in property-tax revenue due to expire in two years, it’s clear why proceeding with expansion plans would be foolhardy – which is what the mayors decided when they voted to put expansion on ice.
City of Langley mayor Peter Fassbender said three mayors from south of the Fraser, where most of the improvements would have occurred, voted against the call to cancel.
Senior governments are happy to let TransLink dangle – constantly being audited (this will be the fifth review in a decade) and yet constantly cited as wasteful no matter what cuts it makes.
Now that the Evergreen Line is going ahead, provincial leaders fear little backlash if, say, rapid-bus on King George Boulevard or any of the other less glamorous but more valuable extensions don’t proceed.
The message is pretty clear: yes to roads and bridges, especially if they’re connected to Gateway infrastructure, but no more money for the promised alternatives.
Along with new oil and gas pipelines, we’re doubling down on our high-energy, fossil-fuel based economy.
Isn’t that a very risky proposition at this point in time?
By making it a lot easier to drive and less easy to use transit, we’re increasing the vulnerability of the people of Surrey, Langley and points east.
Why would we want to make them more car dependent, more exposed to a spike in gas prices and less able to respond?
For further irony, add in the transit users who might think they’ve benefited from the rejection of a fare increase but might not appreciate that one person’s “efficiencies” might mean another’s overcrowded bus, eliminated route or less frequent schedule.
The question now is whether we – the public and our leadership – will be satisfied with a vilified TransLink and stagnation for at least a political generation, or whether a new determination and consensus can be crafted to move forward.
If not, well, there’s another scenario:
Earlier last month, protests over service and crowded buses on Bogota’s bus–rapid transit system, the TransMilenio, escalated into riots in Colombia’s capital city.
“The immediate response to the news was surprise that one of the world’s most celebrated transit systems could spark such widespread anger,” according to reports.
Couldn’t happen here? Try the B-Line to UBC or the Commercial and Broadway station at rush hour, and tell passengers to get used it. Or get back into cars.•
