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Latest round in confusing TransLink-province tussle: Decision has to be made re Surrey/Vancouver priorities

February 17th, 2014 · 5 Comments

Anyone who thinks the mainstream media is dead should have been at the scrum with Transportation Minister Todd Stone and TransLink mayors’ council chair Richard Walton Friday, where there was a multiplicity of cameras, recorders, and reporters.

And, since the talks that had just happened between the minister and council were fairly inconclusive, everyone was looking for some kind of new news out of the meeting.

I emphasized the fact that mayors, not TransLink, are now going to have to decide whether Surrey or Vancouver gets priority for a big new rapid-transit investment. Jeff Nagel, who has covered this issue like a blanket, went with a lead that suggested the mayors could decide to hold a referendum just on a new vehicle levy in order to pay for a big increase for the bus system.

What was obvious in the scrum was that the minister was trying to set a more conciliatory tone — yes, the mayors know what they want for the region. No, it does none of us any good to be squabbling about all this. The transit rider sitting at the bus stop doesn’t care who pays for it. (I guess that’s what their focus groups and angry emails were telling them, after the province seemed to go on the attack against the mayors a couple of weeks ago, complete with planted calls to talk shows about how the mayors never mention that Vancouver got exempted from the hospital tax to pay for transit 14 years ago.)

On the other hand, what also seems to be obvious is that the province is still stuck in a mentality of fighting to make sure it retains all the money it can from its bridge tolls etc. That’s why Stone, in his letter to the mayors Feb. 6, made it clear the province would not go along with any kind of regional road-pricing scheme in the referendum, since that might impact the revenues the province gets from the Port Mann Bridge and any future tolled bridges.

Too bad. If the province wanted to find a regional solution for road pricing, I’m sure a roomful of highly paid accountants could figure out a way to institute such a system and then divide up the revenue between the province and TransLink. But the province seems to be more desperate to protect its turf than work out a complex but perhaps, in the end, much more equitable and long-term solution like that.

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  • boohoo

    Of course there’s a reasonable solution to be had, but that’s not what the Province wants. There’s zero indication they want this solved at all.

    With the latest numbers from the Port Mann, it only strengthens that resolve. They sink or swim with road widening/new bridges and tolls, they can’t afford to give a penny of that away.

    They will sink, of course, but they’re too deep into it to stop now.

  • Chris

    Could federal funds directly awarded to Surrey change the equation? Surrey could conceivably go it alone with light rail if sufficient cash is granted by Ottawa, and they could probably pressure some additional money out of the Province in such a scenario. If I recall correctly, Conservatives have close margins in Surrey North and Newton, and so have a good incentive.

    If the referendum is delayed, and Surrey builds light rail independent of TransLink, then paying for Broadway becomes a clearer goal. Unfortunately, this subsequent focus on Vancouver may also render any proposal more likely to fail in a regional vote.

  • guest

    Here are a couple of good reads from Branchline – a Canadian Railway magazine with stories on each of the Millennium Line and the Canada Line when they opened. Each includes a history of the funding/political issues for each line from a “neutral” perspective.

    Millennium Line article (January 2003):
    http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/b…03/2003-01.pdf

    Canada Line article (December 2009):
    http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/b…09/2009-12.pdf

  • guest

    Millennium Line article (January 2003):
    http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/branchline/files/2003/2003-01.pdf

    Canada Line article (December 2009):
    http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/branchline/files/2009/2009-12.pdf

  • Adam Fitch

    Chris, it would be nice if rapid transit expansion could go ahead regardless, enen if TransLink and the province cannot agree that the Surrey project should go ahead – which is what you are implying, I think.

    And, what you said about federal political considerations is an important factor. I always emphasize that political considerations are an important, perhaps the single most important factor, in transit and transportation system planning. You can have all the technical analyses you want, but if you don’t get the political analysis right, you won’t get anything.

    But, on the other hand, it just does not make sense for the City of Surrey and the federal government to “go it alone”, outside of the translink framework. For one thing, how would inter-system transfers work? for another, operations and maintenance are a huge factor, and if Surrey had a separate transit system, they would find operations and maintenance expenses to be overwhelming, even the administration side of it.

    But I do like your point about how the current City of Surrey approach to the federal government is affecting the Vancouver vs Surrey discussion. That is probably a fact. And, I am sure that whoever made that decision at Surrey had that in mind.