Evergreen Line remains on track, officials say
Local officials say they continue to talk to the province about the long-delayed project
By RICHARD J. DALTON JR., VANCOUVER SUN
September 4, 2009 9:01 PM
Although TransLink commissioner Martin Crilly is questioning the status of the Evergreen rapid transit line, local and provincial officials said Friday the on-again, off-again project remains on track.
In a report this week, Crilly questioned whether TransLink can afford the Evergreen Line and whether it should use expensive SkyTrain-type technology.
“Evergreen Line’s ridership performance is likely to be relatively weak,” Crilly warned in his report.
TransLink needs the approval of both Crilly and the regional mayors’ council to raise fares by more than two per cent a year, and to set up other fund-raising mechanisms.
He said he agrees with
TransLink’s current approach of putting the Evergreen Line on a slow track, emphasizing upgrades to existing lines before building new ones.
But Crilly acknowledged that the line has long been part of regional planning and said its fate is ultimately a political decision.
Transportation Minister Shirley Bond said the Evergreen Line remains a provincial priority, and local officials said they are continuing to talk to the province about the project.
Crilly’s report was overshadowed by news from the provincial budget that the repeal of a parking tax on commercial spaces to make way for the harmonized sales tax would cut a $57-million hole in TransLink’s budget.
“Implications and options for TransLink related to the removal of the parking tax are being reviewed as part of the ongoing TransLink review,” budget documents said.
Opposition finance critic Bruce Ralston said the resulting hole in TransLink’s income is “one of the unintended and unthought-through consequences of entering into this agreement [for the HST].”
Bond said the province expected there would be some hitches in the implementation of the HST, but she wouldn’t say if her office had advance warning of the repeal of the parking tax.
The mayors’ council will vote next month on TransLink’s funding options, which are based in part on revenue from the parking tax.
Some mayors have said they can’t legally approve any option whose funding isn’t nailed down. If the parking tax revenue isn’t replaced by the time of the vote, TransLink could be forced to default to a scenario that requires “drastic cuts” to transit service.
Bond said the provincial comptroller-general is reviewing the options and will offer recommendations by the end of this month.
“Our goal is to get that solution sorted out so the mayors have certainty of the revenue stream in time for their decision,” she said.
Bond also said the province continues to support the Evergreen line.
The province’s new budget calls for $514 million over three years for the project: $60 million from the province and $454 million from the federal government and TransLink itself.
“There’s no doubt we’re going to have to take some time and figure out how we’re going to deliver this, but we’re not stepping away from that commitment,” Bond said. “We’re going to do our best to find a way to make the Evergreen happen.”
Pete Steblin, city manager of Coquitlam, said provincial officials are still discussing the line, which would run from Burnaby to Coquitlam via Port Moody.
“I just had a meeting with them yesterday,” he said. “Having said all that, we recognize that there are serious funding challenges for the project.”
Crilly’s report also said the region must push people to use transit by tolling major highways and controlling parking more tightly.
He said local planners must make their cities more dense. “There’s not as yet a firm commitment in the region for land-use control with real teeth which would lead to an urban structure that would support rapid transit projects,” he said in an interview.
But Surrey mayor Dianne Watts, who chairs TransLink’s mayors’ council, said planners need a transit plan before they can determine land use.
“One of the challenges is that we don’t have a fully built-out transportation plan that we can go from, so a lot of the land use has been planned in a vacuum,” Watts said.
Crilly also criticized the provincial and federal governments for using “large, lumpy investments” such as those in the Canada Line and, potentially, the Evergreen Line to dictate what gets built and where, rather than relying on regional planning to set priorities.
“TransLink has not been free to select its own optimum rapid transit configuration,” he said.
The report evaluated TransLink’s four 10-year plans, rejecting two extremes: the last-resort option, which called for drastic cuts, and a plan calling for dramatic expansion that lacked detail and is unfunded.
Crilly waived judgment on two middle plans, saying politicians must decide on the correct balance between expanding transit and raising revenue.
TransLink plans to revise its 10-year-plan annually, so it could revive its expansion plans if funding becomes available.
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