Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Dave2]

Originally Posted by Joat

Just curious about the downtown streetcar plan. I guess its in limbo for a good while?

I'd be happy to see the track to Science World restored... 8 Million dollars spent from Olympic Village Station to Granville Island, nothing east of Olympic Village... http://www.straight.com/article-466316/v...eetcar-proposal-panned-vision-councillor

[Mac Write]

Wasn't the streetcar route supposed to be built as an Olympic Legacy?

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Wasn't the streetcar route supposed to be built as an Olympic Legacy?

No, it was just temporarily there for the Olympics. And yes, the streetcar is in limbo (pretty much dead) since the NPA lost the elections.

[Metro-One]

Yep, because our oh so green city council is more interested in tearing down infrastructure than building it

Again, i really wish all their viaduct energy was instead being spent on promoting and gathering steam for the streetcar, to at least get the first segment (science world to Granville Island) permanent.

[cc85]

the development opportunity and increase in livability outweighs the cost to study and deconstruct the viaducts.

[Zassk]

Originally Posted by cc85

the development opportunity and increase in livability outweighs the cost to study and deconstruct the viaducts.

There is no substantial development opportunity gained by tearing them down, and a substantial loss of livability due to a less effective street/bike grid... we have been over this on this forum before.

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by Zassk

There is no substantial development opportunity gained by tearing them down, and a substantial loss of livability due to a less effective street/bike grid... we have been over this on this forum before.

I agree that we've been over this many times, and if anyone else wants to talk about it, they should direct it here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=174625

Just nipping this one in the bud, before the entire thread goes off the rails!

[GeeCee]

Here's something a little more on topic..

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/04/14/bc-translink-mayors-expansion.html

Mayors vote to scrap TransLink expansion plans
Lower Mainland mayors have voted to cancel TransLink's expansion plans rather than raise property taxes.

In a letter released late Thursday, the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation criticized Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom for turning down their alternate funding suggestions.
...

[Meraki]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

Here's something a little more on topic..

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/04/14/bc-translink-mayors-expansion.html

Hah. Now that the Evergreen line is beyond the point of no return, everyone votes to cancel the South of Fraser projects, to the dismay of Surrey and Langley etc. Politics at its finest.

[Gordon]

Could this letter from the Mayor's council just be some sort of Political brinksmanship my the council to try and get Victoria to take significant& serious action on overall funding for Translink? Victoria needs to take some significant legislative action to solve this issue instead of taking the easy way out and soomply saying NO! to every fundin vehicle that Tranlink asks about?

[GeeCee]

The BC Liberals aren't going to fix Translink any time soon. We're going to have to wait for the next provincial election for any kind of appreciable change in the funding model.

[usog]

Originally Posted by Meraki

Hah. Now that the Evergreen line is beyond the point of no return, everyone votes to cancel the South of Fraser projects, to the dismay of Surrey and Langley etc. Politics at its finest.

Siiiiiiiiigh, looks like I'm voting Conservative next go around, and also against whatever incumbent mayor runs. This is just retarded, they should defund someone's pet project and throw the money into Translink.

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by Meraki

Hah. Now that the Evergreen line is beyond the point of no return, everyone votes to cancel the South of Fraser projects, to the dismay of Surrey and Langley etc. Politics at its finest.

To be clear, this has nothing to do with Evergreen Line being beyond the point of no return. Besides, there is no such thing as Evergreen Line being beyond the point of no return, given its history. All it could take is ONE PERSON IN POWER to kill it, even if the contract has been signed with the primary builders and hard construction has begun. And never say it could never happen...just look at Toronto!

I'd also like to point out, historically it was SoF people (Doug McCallum, Kevin Falcon) that DELAYED the Evergreen Line in favour of the Canada Line so SoF is not without sin when it comes to this "politics at its finest". Besides, see the quote below from that CBC article.

At this stage, he (Fassbender) said, the vote is a non-binding expression of intent until TransLink presents a revised plan.

So before this becomes yet another us vs them fight that has plagued this forum since the days of the Millenium Line proposal (!!), why don't we all just concentrate on getting ALL these transit projects to move forward...

[GeeCee]

Originally Posted by usog

Siiiiiiiiigh, looks like I'm voting Conservative next go around, and also against whatever incumbent mayor runs. This is just retarded, they should defund someone's pet project and throw the money into Translink.

Somehow I don't think that the tories are too into funding transit projects.

[queetz@home]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

Somehow I don't think that the tories are too into funding transit projects.

Exactly!

After all, the BC Conservatives are the ones that really really really wanted to kill the gas tax to fund Evergreen and to be absolutely honest, they are the ones that I personally fear the most when it comes to the Provincial elections. So much so I'm willing to forgo six years of no new office tower construction in Vancouver and actually hope Adrian Dix would win.....this coming from a card carrying member of the BC Liberal Party....

[usog]

Originally Posted by queetz@home

Exactly!

After all, the BC Conservatives are the ones that really really really wanted to kill the gas tax to fund Evergreen and to be absolutely honest, they are the ones that I personally fear the most when it comes to the Provincial elections. So much so I'm willing to forgo six years of no new office tower construction in Vancouver and actually hope Adrian Dix would win.....this coming from a card carrying member of the BC Liberal Party....

Dunno, the liberals are just stupid now but the NDP have always been so. Kinda OT but have the BC Conservatives released anything with regards to a transit platform? Hopefully they'd be savvy enough to realize it matters to us here in BC.

[jlousa]

While it's certainly true that the Conservative's voter base might not be your typical transit user, I think it's not really fair to say the party would ignore transit. Looking at the federal party which is very similar to the provincial party they've supported transit across the country much more then the previous governments. I think we'd see a BC Conservative party continue and even potential increase funding in transit but likely in ways it saw fit.

[GeeCee]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I think we'd see a BC Conservative party continue and even potential increase funding in transit but likely in ways it saw fit.

Or in other words, we would see bus service funding increasing in what would be their support base, so out in the boonies while the lower mainland is left to rot.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by jlousa

While it's certainly true that the Conservative's voter base might not be your typical transit user, I think it's not really fair to say the party would ignore transit. Looking at the federal party which is very similar to the provincial party they've supported transit across the country much more then the previous governments. I think we'd see a BC Conservative party continue and even potential increase funding in transit but likely in ways it saw fit.

^But really, you can say that of any political party. I wouldn't put it past any party currently to support/fight transit funding if it helps them politically.

And count me as skeptical of the BC conservatives supporting strong transit initiatives, unless they grow a significant urban constituency, and/or take over the centre-right coalition mantle from the libs.

[racc]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

^But really, you can say that of any political party. I wouldn't put it past any party currently to support/fight transit funding if it helps them politically.

And count me as skeptical of the BC conservatives supporting strong transit initiatives, unless they grow a significant urban constituency, and/or take over the centre-right coalition mantle from the libs.

Cummings and the gang started an Axe the Tax web site opposed to the gas tax for the Evergreen Line and did not offer any realistic suggestions on how to fund it. They instead tried to pander to the vocal minority of tax haters. Pretty obvious that they are not really serious about transit.