[Busriders-van] Adding insult to injury

[David Bantle]

Just an observation.  Phil I find your analysis seems very well
researched but why is it only focussed on skytrain?

Translink is spending $600 million to build a six lane tunnel
underneath the Fraser and divert enormous volumes of Port Mann
and I5/Hwy99 traffic into downtown Maple Ridge.  There has 
been only one open house on a weekday between 1 & 4 pm when many
people are at work and no public hearings on this at all - at 
least not in Maple Ridge which appears to be the community
that is going to be most affected.

This Fraser Crossing Project will be connected on both sides
by the South and North Fraser Perimeter highways.  This is
part of a $4 BILLION project which obviously dwarfs the
skytrain project.  Just curious why your analysis always
overlook this?

In addition to this project, the local papers have pointed 
out that this crossing will dump tons of traffic onto the
Lougheed westbound which will swamp the Pitt River Bridge.
So they are now talking about either rebuilding the Pitt
River Bridge or building a completely new crossing over
the Pitt River to accomodate all this traffic.  This
project just keeps growing like an octopus.  It seems
to me the whole thing is so expensive it can't even be
taken seriously anymore.  

On Monday I decided to drive to Port Moody, park my vehicle
at the Pt Moody train station and catch the bus to Vancouver
to go to work.  The PNE traffic backed up along the Lougheed
from Shaugnessy to Coast Meridian.  It took me 30 minutes
to get from Maple Ridge to Port Moody by car.  That's
under todays conditions.  With a new six lane freeway
feeding traffic into Port Coquitlam it should be something
to see.

On top of all this, they want to build another crossing
over False Creek inlet from downtown Vancouver to the
North Shore.  

Just where is all this money supposed to come from and
what does this say about the Translink board's grasp on
reality or their graps of rational spending priorities?



> 
> Hi All
> 
> Hope everyone had a good summer!
> 
> After having a good look at Translink's new and approved 3 Year Financial
> Plan I'm finding some unpleasant facts.  I hope you can follow the
> following:
> 
> 1.  Translink over the next three years will pump some $130 million into the
> SkyTrain Millenium Line for operating costs and debt service costs (includes
> start up costs).  For this huge public investment they will only receive $16
> million of revenue from Millenium Line fares.  That leaves a $114 million
> deficit that must be recovered from other Translink transit revenues and/or
> more property taxes for residents of the GVRD.	This does not count the
> Provincial Government's obligation to pay off its share of the SkyTrain
> Millenium Line debt.  The province will put out some $216 million over the
> next three years alone for the SkyTrain Millenium Line. Translink and the
> Province's total cost to subsidize the SkyTrain Millenium Line over the next
> three years will be $330 million. ($110 million per year).  Of course this
> huge public expense will not end in 2004.  This amount of public cash will
> be required for another 20 - 30 years!	
> 
> (Incidently, the premier is boasting that the SkyTrain Expo Line would not
> have been built if it wasn't for Expo 86.  What the premier fails to tell
> the public is that this same Expo Line is costing the province more than
> $110 million per year even after 17 years of service.  None of this $110
> million is recovered from SkyTrain fares.  He also fails to tell us that he
> himself in a Globe and Mail article called SkyTrain a "huge capital drain". 
> The budget deficits for schools and health care services in the province is
> the product of expensive public transportation investments.  The province's
> and Translink's subsidies for the SkyTrain Millenium Line of $110 million
> per year as well as the more than $130 for the Expo Line would go a long way
> in providing adequate affordable housing, quality education and health care
> services in the region.)
> 
> 2.  Translink expects to receive somewhere around $170 - $190 million over
> the next 3 years from the new increase in transit fares, new property taxes
> and other transit revenue put forth in "Choice 2".  Over $100 million of
> this new revenue will come from the increased fares put into the bus fare
> boxes.	Around 80% of all new transit revenue!	However, only $30 odd
> million of this $100 million in new bus fare revenue over the next three
> years is being pumped back into the buses.  Where is the rest going?  If you
> guessed the Millenium Line, you're correct.  As predicted!
> 
> 3.  The original 10 year Financial Plan of Translink's indicated a fare
> increase in Year 2003. Is Translink looking at increasing fares for Year
> 2003?  
> 
> 4.  The 3 Year Plan of Translink's shows only a peak hour ridership on the
> SkyTrain Millenium Line of 1200!  Since most of the buses that run in the
> north eastern part of the region are being redirected to the Millenium Line
> or eliminated all together, one can safely say that almost all of the riders
> on the new line are former bus passengers who are now without any other
> transit option to get them to work or school.  When Chicago built the Orange
> Line it redirected it buses to the Orange Line stations. Over 2500 bus
> transit users (20% of the Orange Line's ridership) had to return to using
> their cars to get to work or school as the Orange Line no longer took them
> to their destinations.	This highlights the problems of fixed modes of
> transit.  The only way fixed or urban rail systems can function effectively
> is if their is numerous lines criss-crossing a region such as New York,
> Toronto and other high density cities.	We are not a high population density
> city or region.
> 
> 5. On the Olympic Games front:	A report prepared by a professor of urban
> and transportation planning at Portland State University shows that most
> airport to city centre rail lines carry only 2 - 4% of all passengers
> travelling through the airport.  Now why would anyone in their right minds
> (those who care for the public purse) invest $2 BILLION in an urban rail
> project (actually it will be in the range of $140 million dollars a year
> over 30 years) when it will carry so few passengers.  At worst the present
> fast bus service to the airport and to Richmond City Centre from downtown
> Vancouver costs around $6 million a year ($500,000 a month) in subsidies. 
> The SkyTrain to the Airport Line would require subsidies in the range of $11
> million a month or $132 million per year for the next 30 years!  So why are
> municipal politicians pushing this huge expense on to the residents of their
> communities?  Did they even take the time to enquire what their citizens
> priorities are for public spending? 
> 
> 6.  And on a totally unrelated subject:  A recent issue of the PIQUE from
> Whistler shows a few two bedroom, two bathroom townhouses on sale for
> $750,000. (These same townhouses in White Rock would sell for $250,000.  The
> townhouses for sale in Whistler are good examples of pre-Olympic bargains!
> 
> 7. When will BCer's stop electing former mayors of Vancouver?  Is Philip
> Owen going to be our next premier? 
> 
>  
> 
> 
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