Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[Migrant_Coconut]

There's a little good news.

Mayors' Council approves new development cost charge for transit expansion

... Earlier this morning, TransLink’s Mayors’ Council approved the new tax, which will raise about $20-million annually starting in January 2020 – subject to final approval from TransLink’s Board of Directors and new legislation enacted by the provincial government.

Here are the draft initial rates when the tax is implemented in 2020:

Single-family dwelling: $2,100 per dwelling unit
Townhouse/duplex: $1,900 per dwelling unit
Apartment/condominium: $1,200 per dwelling unit
Retail/service: $1.00 per sq. ft.
Office/institutional: $0.50 per sq. ft.
Industrial: $0.50 per sq. ft.

The new DCC will fund between 10% to 15% of the total cost of TransLink’s $2-billion Phase One expansion plan. It could either be collected directly by TransLink or through the municipal governments.

[urbancanadian]

I'm going to add to my cynicism:

We all know that Corrigan is a strict NDP loyalist with extremely close ties to the party - the closest of any of the mayors. It also seems that Corrigan's nomination was a complete surprise to everyone.

Could the NDP have been looking for a way to slow down transit spending so they can put the money towards other party priorities? Corrigan would be the perfect person to install atop the Mayors' Council to achieve that.

Just thinking out loud here...

[POCO]

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

I'm going to add to my cynicism:

We all know that Corrigan is a strict NDP loyalist with extremely close ties to the party - the closest of any of the mayors. It also seems that Corrigan's nomination was a complete surprise to everyone.

Could the NDP have been looking for a way to slow down transit spending so they can put the money towards other party priorities? Corrigan would be the perfect person to install atop the Mayors' Council to achieve that.

Just thinking out loud here...

Well not spending money is the one thing he's good at, that and being re-elected...

[GeeCee]

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

I'm going to add to my cynicism:

We all know that Corrigan is a strict NDP loyalist with extremely close ties to the party - the closest of any of the mayors. It also seems that Corrigan's nomination was a complete surprise to everyone.

Could the NDP have been looking for a way to slow down transit spending so they can put the money towards other party priorities? Corrigan would be the perfect person to install atop the Mayors' Council to achieve that.

Just thinking out loud here...

You always hear about how Corrigan has strong ties to the NDP, but at every opportunity he seems to go against them. The only thing we can really glean from this is that we're not going to see Broadway start in the next three years if not longer. Expanding the bus service rather than building grade separated infrastructure is just going to make our already crowded road system worse, especially along Broadway as it is already maxed out in terms of BRT.

As soon as Burnaby got the M line, he started putting up a big fuss any time someone even suggests expanding transit. He likes the competitive advantages gained by Burnaby having skytrain and doesn't want to share with anyone else.

[Kisai]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

You always hear about how Corrigan has strong ties to the NDP, but at every opportunity he seems to go against them. The only thing we can really glean from this is that we're not going to see Broadway start in the next three years if not longer. Expanding the bus service rather than building grade separated infrastructure is just going to make our already crowded road system worse, especially along Broadway as it is already maxed out in terms of BRT.

As soon as Burnaby got the M line, he started putting up a big fuss any time someone even suggests expanding transit. He likes the competitive advantages gained by Burnaby having skytrain and doesn't want to share with anyone else.

I really hope this torpedoes the Surrey LRT, eg downgrades to BRT. However knowing how Corrigan operates, it's more likely he is going to push to cancel everything point blank.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Kisai

I really hope this torpedoes the Surrey LRT, eg downgrades to BRT. However knowing how Corrigan operates, it's more likely he is going to push to cancel everything point blank.

WHY, and HOW was Corrigan of all people, elected to this position anyway? Merde alors!! Wrong man, wrong place, wrong time! Bad luck, bad karma, or what?!

[dandor31]

That's super disappointing with Corrigan getting the Chair of the Mayors Council. Perhaps these votes should be weighted by populations like all other votes... Also it is only a one year term, so here's to hoping that sanity returns and we can have a more pro-transit chair next year!

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

i wonder how he got elected. clearly he said the right things to enough mayors to get elected. that is democracy after-all. if he was so bad, he wouldn't have gotten elected by the mayors. we must be missing something.

[Reecemartin]

How much power does the chair really have, will Broadway come down to a vote?

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i wonder how he got elected. clearly he said the right things to enough mayors to get elected. that is democracy after-all. if he was so bad, he wouldn't have gotten elected by the mayors. we must be missing something.

It's pretty clear from the CBC link why Corrigan would favored by some on the council:

But the provincial government has not approved funding for any of those projects yet, and Corrigan — who has been publicly critical of Robertson and TransLink's philosophy on a number of issues in recent months — suggested the current strategy was too aggressive.

"They're looking at a very ambitious plan. And I think they were trying to proceed very quickly to accomplish everything in the plan. I think there will be a slow down. I think we're seeing that already from the provincial government, that there certainly hasn't been the due diligence from the provincial government level at this stage to be confident in proceeding with all of the elements of the plan," he said.

Likely under his term, there will be no controversial proposals and it looks like little advocacy for new transit infrastructure. No appetite for aggressive funding measures either, roadpricing is likely off the table.
I could be wrong - he may put the kibosh on the surrey lrt plan which IMO is a big mistake. we will see what happens in time.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Well, at least we didn't end up with Hepner...

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i wonder how he got elected. clearly he said the right things to enough mayors to get elected. that is democracy after-all. if he was so bad, he wouldn't have gotten elected by the mayors. we must be missing something.

One city, one vote.

One can imagine the way places like Lions Bay, Anmore, Belcarra, West Van, the two North Vans voted.

Richmond nominated him.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Well, at least we didn't end up with Hepner...

This. We'll see what happens, but I am willing to see the Broadway subway can be kicked down another couple steps if it means the Surrey LRT is scrapped. Doesn't matter what we think anyway, we'll see it all unfold soon enough.

[Reecemartin]

With how important Broadway is I'm amazed anyone would say that

[Metro-One]

With the entire poorly planned Surrey LRT fiasco and now the Broadway Subway potentially being delayed again due to mayoral stupidity, it goes to show that despite what many were claiming early maybe the mayors in general really don’t know what they are doing and should not be responsible for deciding our regional transit expansions.

Maybe this also shows that we should not give them similar powers in our highway system............ *cough GMB *cough

[WBC]

Originally Posted by dandor31

That's super disappointing with Corrigan getting the Chair of the Mayors Council. Perhaps these votes should be weighted by populations like all other votes... Also it is only a one year term, so here's to hoping that sanity returns and we can have a more pro-transit chair next year!

Finally, the Burnaby will get its 3rd SkyTrain lines it deserves.

Maybe even monorail connecting Burnaby Village with the Burnaby City hall...with lots of wire-frame sculpture animal flower beds

[dcman72]

After listing and reading this Globalnews - Burnaby’s Derek Corrigan named mayors’ council chair it seems to be that the other mayors didn't want the two cities that will receiving dollar billion projects also the ones heading up the council.


One sticking point seems to be the Broadway Subway project, if the engineers come back and say that it can be done above ground then they want Vancouver to pay the difference to make it a subway. Coquitlam had wanted the evergreen line to be partially a subway but that was reject and Coquitlam didn't have the money to cover the shortfall.

Votes are still weighted, eg Vancouver has the most votes, followed by Surrey and so on. Council elections are 1 mayor, 1 vote. Seems to me that the mayors are still moving forward with their 10 year plan, this isn't a revolt, they just don't want the ones in the leadership roles to be not the ones receiving the most benefits

I won't be surprised that behind closed doors the mayors knew this was coming. Linda Hepner didn't attempt re-election, and the District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton got the vice chair position.

edit: The cynical person in me thinks that Corrigan will be viewed as fair and balanced as he didn't vote for the 10 year plan so he'll be able to sell it better than any other mayor.

[Meraki]

Originally Posted by dcman72

After listing and reading this edit: The cynical person in me thinks that Corrigan will be viewed as fair and balanced as he didn't vote for the 10 year plan so he'll be able to sell it better than any other mayor.

Comedy option, Corrigan pushes for the Millennium Line extension all the way to UBC, as long as it's raised guideway after Arbutus. Argues if his city has to live with guideways why should the wealthy west side of Vancouver be exempt.

[Xrayal]

• Damen Shipyards Group has relocated the construction of the new SeaBus vessel from Romania to the Netherlands. Vessel delivery target of Q4 2018 and in-service target of Q1 2019 remains.

• A new operating depot for CMBC vehicles named Silvertree. -Marpole Transit Centre Silvertree Site - Pre-Design Services

• The Millennium Line Broadway Extension (MLBE)...will result in major disruption to bus operations, including removing trolley overhead wires and reduced lanes on the central Broadway corridor

• Transit Plan for Millennium Line Broadway Extension Construction- To order 37 diesel buses to replace some of the the trolley fleet and to build bypass trolley overhead infrastructure for others during construction.

• The farebox replacement project has been reduced in scope. Replacement of fareboxes on Community Shuttles will move to a simpler, mechanical farebox thus releasing Cubic fareboxes for use on conventional 40’ & 60’ expansion buses. An RFI will be released to gather industry information on basic mechanical fareboxes by early December 2017.

• Management to negotiate a contract with First Canada ULC to operate custom transit services (HandyDART), including call centre functions and trip delivery functions, beginning July 1, 2018, for an initial term of three to four years, and with the option for TransLink to extend the term for two additional one to two year periods

• Pattullo Bridge - A technical review of the business case is underway to enable Provincial confirmation of project funding. The business case requests Provincial grant funding of 40% of the cost of the project (consistent with Provincial commitments), and annual payments equivalent to toll revenue to cover the full project costs. Given that the entire financial burden of the project would effectively reside with the Province, the ownership of the new bridge (project and asset) is now being discussed with Provincial counterparts.

• CMBC will be receiving 284 new expansion and replacement buses in 2018. This represents replacing 40 per cent of the existing diesel conventional fleet.

• By the end of 2018, the first two of the 28 additional Mark III expansion cars are expected to be used in peak service

• New Compass features and services, such as open payment and Compass Pass for organizations.

• Replace track & turnouts in OMC 1 yard, implement permanent solution to OMC 1&2 track connection and reinstate 2 storage lanes.

So the Pattullo Bridge could be going back under BCMOT control/ownership?

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

One city, one vote.

One can imagine the way places like Lions Bay, Anmore, Belcarra, West Van, the two North Vans voted.

Richmond nominated him.

For the chair, yes, not for actual matters they vote on, which is by population.