TransLink: Funding shortfall could scrap Evergreen Line
 

BURNABY (NEWS1130) - A massive funding shortfall looming for TransLink may push the Evergreen Line to the back burner again, as TransLink warns that unless it can find an extra $450 million a year, the long promised Tri-Cities transit line will remain just a promise.

TransLink says it needs more money to build it, and run it after it's built. TransLink's Ken Hardie says even if the transit authority exhausts all of its current funding sources (property taxes, gas taxes, fares and even a vehicle levy), it will still be hundreds of millions short of what is needed.

Hardie says without a new source of $450 million a year to expand, TransLink will concentrate instead on keeping existing transit rolling and on current problem areas. "We have people standing by the road right now watching full buses go by and we really need to look after them before we go out and spend large amounts of money on new infrastructure."

Hardie says the TransLink board is currently crunching numbers so it can make recommendations to area mayors on how the funding shortfall might be addressed. The mayors will have until the end of October to decide whether to approve a plan with supplemental funding, or stick with a 10-year base plan that reflects current revenue with no new funding sources.

The no new money plan would eventually trim transit service by 40 per cent.
http://www.news1130.com/images/2009/...een%20Line.JPG
http://www.news1130.com/news/more.js...46_8924&page=1

we need double decker buses soon. I mean we are looking at a 3mil people in 10 years it's about time buses doubled their capacity and halved their roadspace requirements.

If only we had a freeway that goes to downtown.

which actually fixes nothing.

Fuck Translink. What we need is to privatize our public transportation system and have competition amongst the different companies.

Looks like Aircare will stay! :)

Epic fail. They need to stop living in the past and stop trying to build everything themselves.

Vancouver needs a major infrastructure overhaul. I am sure Vancover would benefit from a public-private-partnership in the infrastructure sector unless they are as rich as China.

Doesn't Translink have a massive funding shortfall every year? Instead of finding ways to solve the problem, they just find new ways of taxing non transit users.

I totally agree...

stop letting translink having total monopoly on

Who the fuck cares about the Evergreen line? I'm not sure where it ends specifically, but it's just another bill on the tax list. The Surrey line is just as useless, there are enough buses heading out. What they need is to fucking FIX the bus service so it's more efficient, and extend the bus service to Abbotsford since people seem to want that. It'd be so much cheaper to have more buses than to build trains.

Do you use the road in front of your house? Then guess what... you're a legitimate Translink tax payer. Just because someone doesn't take the Skytrain or the buss it doesn't mean they aren't a "transit user."

i'm 100% sure you've never seen the number of buses in surrey...

i say chuck the idea of putting extra buses in vancouver and put the in the suburbs...its always stupid vancouver/burnaby that benefits and never the people in the burbs...we are always getting the short end of the stick...

also scrap the olympics NOW! and put the money into something more important...guarantee we will hear that we will need to pay for the debt of this stupid olympics

the only way i see it to make the bus service more efficient is to increase the amount of buses running on the same route. and to extend the service to abbotsford would mean building a new depot there or getting more buses to actually go out there while maintaining service in our local area. to do that, it will only mean costing more money, which in turn hits us tax payers in the ass.

build a vancouver ring. make it a one way highway loop and charge people with toll booths and sell season passes. that will solve all their money problems.

but ya. privatizing public transit with multiple companies would be a start. let them compete and make it work.

start gating skytrain stations and actually make people pay to use it would be good too.

get rid of all these stupid electric buses and go double decker diesel ones like every where else in the world.

stop building stupid things that hurt the already overcapacitied infrastructure like stupid bike lanes that gets used maybe 2 months in a year by only a few people.

manage their money better. serious reforms are needed to turn things around.

aircare is stupid. its a cash cow and it does nothing for the environment. let it die.

educate people to drive better to ease congestion and make it harder for people to get licenses so the retards stay off the road. less accidents, less congestions. that then forces potentially shitty drivers to take mass transit. everyone wins.

Of course I am a Translink tax payer, I live in B.C. Getting taxed is fine but what I find frustrating is watching Translink use up all their funding and run into a shortfall every single year. What Translink is currently doing obviously isn't working.

Buddy, I LIVE in Surrey. My primary means of transportation right now IS THE BUS. There AREN'T enough buses out here. On busy periods the buses are either full or the spacing between them is long enough that I can walk to my destination if it's close enough (but what's the point of that if I have a monthly pass)...The burbs are getting screwed.

On a sidenote, I just found out that the Canada Line starts from Waterfront. So now, I have to go from Patterson all the way down to Waterfront, then to Aberdeen or whatever.. FUUUUUUUUUU!

still faster than taking the 430 richmond center at metrotown

And this kids, is why you buy a car.

woha, sucks for the Newport village, Port moody
bunch of new condos are going up with the promise of transit linking to lougheed station
I went to one presell and they were selling like 500~600k, fking ridiculous price for a port moody condo, reason was the ocean view(ROFL) and evergreen line... LOL not....

if transit doesn't work for you, buy a car.

yeah and sometimes it's just cheaper to carpool and more convenient as well.

translink never has enough money, wtf!

The suburbs do get the shaft when it comes to public transportation, but even if more buses were bought, would it be realistic to expect someone to sit on a bus for 2-3 hours to commute from Abbotsford to Vancouver? (And if someone did this commute on a daily basis, well they should consider getting a job closer to home.) Besides, buses add to the congestion - we need transportation that takes people off the roads like an automated rail system (e.g Skytrain, etc.) or a commuter rail system (like Toronto's GO, West Coast Express, Paris' RER, etc.)

If privatizing the system works so well, then name a major world city that has a fully privatized transportation system. Privatizing would create the following problems:

- Many routes that are underserved now would be completely cut because of the lack of revenues.
- How would you transfer between systems? You might end up paying two to three fares to get where you're going. (Unless you can get the companies to play nice and get everyone on-board a single payment system, like Octopus)

Public-private partnerships might be the way of the future, but we'll get a chance to see how effective these are once the Canada Line starts service. But, the line isn't off to a great start as there have been complaints about the size of trains, and the very small stations.

Well you've got a new bridge which is being highly subsidized by translink for the first 15 years, and are getting a new giant bridge, and there's a new train line to the airport, and the highway to whistler's been rebuilt.

Also since none of you valley people pay a toll yet for using any of the highways or the port mann or the alex fraser... and your train/bus fares are ridiculously cheap compared to say places with a successful privatized transit system like japan. You wonder where the money goes...or comes from in the first place