Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[officedweller]

As has been mentioned before, a 200km streetcar network built at $15M per km (i.e. in street without grade separations) will not be a fast network and is inappropriate for longer journeys. People will not ride a glorified bus. Speed is important to people who aren't academics.
On top of that, what would the annual operating costs be for a manually driven streetcar network? If operating costs for manually driven streetcars are high, you're probably going to end up with bus-like frequencies (on top of the slow speed).

[Metro-One]

Maybe this comment belongs more in this section:

Also these people keep forgetting that most of these European and Asian cities already have decent freeway, bridge, metro/subway/LRT and commuter rail systems in place, built over the last 60 years. They have now built tram networks to simply feed into these greater systems, they do not act as the backbone but are simply the icing on the transit cake. I am tired of people skipping steps 1 through 9 and thinking we can simply build step 10 and everything will be perfect! We need a decent skytrain system to act as the backbone metro for Greater Vancouver, essentially one day it should connect every major urban and suburban center. We also need decent, safe bridge structures and freeways that have proper interchanges and alignments to allow for safe effective travel for commercial vehicles and rapid buses. A 5 lane bridge as the regions main road artery is absolutely ridiculous. I am tired of having to go over this again and again, please do not post those stupid articles any more. In my opinion it is more up to the individual cities to build tram networks and up to the province to connect the individual cities through skytrain, commuter rail, bridges and freeways. And if people have problems with a tram network being so divided among communities, well then maybe this will give the proper incentive for people around here to drop the petty regionalism and finally amalgamate some cities into one (which this area desperately needs, there are to many bosses (mayors and councils) to get anything done properly and promptly (evergreen line anyone?)).

PS - In my mind the north shore should be one city, Vancouver, Burnaby and New West should be one, Coquitlam, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam should be one and Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows should be one.

Also i am guessing they did not factor in the cost of buying the land and building OMCs, buying the rolling stock, operational costs of drivers, etc...

[officedweller]

Hmmm...

Coast Mountain denies buses infested with bugs
Regular transit user spooked by 'body louse' on Hastings Street bus

Cheryl Rossi
Vancouver Courier

Wednesday, March 25, 2009


CREDIT: Photo-Dan Toulgoet
Among TransLink's 1,400-bus fleet, 480 have cloth seats.

Kara Ardan was sitting near the back of a Hastings Street bus earlier this month, when something on the seat in front of her made her jump to her feet.

"I just saw something move," she said. "It was probably a body louse. A good sized one, too. There were a few of them just hanging out there on the back of the seat."

The sight made Ardan, who's been a regular transit user for 20 years, wonder what else lurks in the spongy layers of the fuzzy, dark blue seats on TransLink buses. "Head lice, body lice, bed bugs, you name it are riding around this city without a bus pass, and it's costing all of us," Ardan said. "Those seats are soaking up and containing more nasty bacteria, critters and body fluids than any bathroom."

Her son lives in a Vancouver apartment building that was fumigated for bed bugs. She wonders if Vancouver's bed bug infestation can be connected to transit.

But Derek Zabel, the manager of media relations for Coast Mountain Bus Company, says Coast Mountain has had few reports of bugs on buses and none of its vehicles have been fumigated. Every three to four months each bus is scrubbed from top to bottom and a steam cleaning "extractor" sucks the contents out of the cushy seats.

TransLink switched to cloth seats in 2006 and 2007 because people with limited mobility could too easily slip off the old vinyl seats. Of its fleet of 1,400 buses, about 480 have cloth seats. The 180 new hybrid buses taking to the road this year are fitted with vinyl seats designed to create more friction. He added TransLink is investigating retrofitting the old fabric seats with this new vinyl because they're easier to maintain.

Bed bugs have been found on transit in other North American cities. The California Department of Public Health's guidelines for the control and prevention of bed bug infestations notes the bloodsucking pests have been found living underneath cloth seats on buses.

Brian Johnston, a supervisor in environmental health with Vancouver Coastal Health, doubts cloth or vinyl matters when it comes to bugs. He said bed bugs aren't often transported on people. They generally feed when their human victims are in their deepest slumber, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., and then hide. Johnston said bed bugs are lazy, or smart. They don't stray far from their food source, so if bed bugs bite your ankles, they're probably living near the foot of your bed.

He hasn't heard about any increasing reports of lice in Vancouver. After her experience, Ardan has copied the practice of other bus passengers she's observed by lining her seat with the free papers handed out at transit stops. Johnston says this isn't a bad idea to keep moisture and bacteria at bay.

Ardan wants the cloth seats replaced with vinyl and buses better cleaned. "I used to actually clean my Dad's school bus back when we had 72-passenger buses. It was my job to clean the school bus after school for my allowance," Ardan said. "I would have been reprimanded severely for what I see on the bus."

Zabel said TransLink has found flushing out buses with water is too corrosive so it's scrubbing them with cloths and detergents at its Surrey depot. TransLink plans to roll this out to the entire fleet this summer. He said anyone who spots critters crawling on seats or "human protein spills" should phone TransLink's customer relations line, 604-953-3040, with the bus number and time of the sighting.

[email protected]

© Vancouver Courier 2009

[SpongeG]

nice

did anyone ever catch the drunk bus back in the day? I think it was the 14 - it was legendary

good times

[officedweller]

From the Leader - sounds like you would have to scan on and off of buses if you can program a discount fare for a trip of "a few blocks".

Surrey North Delta Leader
TransLink closing in on smart cards

By Jeff Nagel - Surrey North Delta Leader

Published: March 24, 2009 10:00 AM
Updated: March 25, 2009 9:06 AM

TransLink intends to choose a provider by this summer to deliver a smart card that could revolutionize how we pay for transit.

But CEO Tom Prendergast said the authority's board has yet to decide whether it will also add gates at the same time to the currently open-access SkyTrain system.

TransLink has been under pressure from transportation minister Kevin Falcon and others to swiftly install turnstiles to block fare cheats and calm fears of crime.

Prendergast said in an interview the board is not rushing the decision.

"The primary vehicle we're going after is the smart card," he said.

"If you put fare gates in, you'd do it at the same time as the smart card."

He said the request for proposals to be issued by June will require the winning bidder to design the smart card payment system and also provide a separate option and price to add fare gates.

Prendergast said the board would decide later in the process whether to install both or just the smart cards alone and keep the current system of fare-paid zones with patrolled enforcement.

Activation of the smart card system would likely be two to three years away, he said.

TransLink's board is to decide Friday whether the system will require passengers to scan their card at both the beginning and end of each trip. Some new systems can auto-scan passing cards without the need to pull them out of a wallet or purse.

Users would load cash onto their smart card and payment would be automatically deducted from their accounts.

It could theoretically allow the elimination of the current system of transit fare zones and enable TransLink to charge based on the actual distance travelled, as well as offer various discounts for regular users.

The potential exists to automatically refund passengers for trips that take too long due to service delays or to charge them very low prices below current one-zone fares for short-distance trips of a few blocks.

Special discounts could be offered to get new riders on board in areas where improved transit service is being launched.

Prendergast is particularly interested in the ability to offer cheaper fares outside of peak hours to encourage more travel at those times when there's lots of room on buses and SkyTrain.

He likens TransLink's situation to that of a store owner with a large stock of unsold product.

A retailer would slash prices to move the old inventory rather than throw it out, he said, and TransLink should do the same.

"With a smart card we could charge a lower fare," he said.

Smart cards would also generate highly accurate data on transit travel patterns that TransLink desperately needs to better design service and track which routes are congested and which are underused.

A key decision going forward is whether TransLink will follow the lead of Hong Kong's Octopus card and allow smart card holders here to also use them as payment at other participating retailers.

That's a convenience for users who could also wave the card to buy a coffee, sundries or pay for parking at nearby outlets.

But Prendergast said it adds complication because banking industry regulations may then apply to the system.

"We don't know if we want to cross that threshold."

Also to be determined is how to allow some people to continue to pay cash.

Costs of smart card systems elsewhere in the world vary widely but it's expected it would cost TransLink at least $100 million and perhaps considerably more if gates are also added.

The province has promised to cost-share the project.

Montreal has just installed a new Opus transit smart card system at a cost of $217 million.

[SpongeG]

It’s time to put a stop to TransLink’s tax grab

By Canadian Taxpayers Federation Wednesday, March 25, 2009

(This article first appeared in the Vancouver Sun, March 24, 2009.)

TransLink, the government organization that runs Metro Vancouver’s public transit system and roads, has once again displayed its insatiable appetite for other people’s money. When TransLink’s CEO Tom Prendergast proposed a litany of possible tax increases, overtaxed Lower Mainland residents were predictably outraged. It’s time to drive the beast back into its lair and give nimbler competitors a chance to do what TransLink seems unable to do: move people from point A to B at a cost people are willing to pay.

As if TransLink doesn’t already bite a large enough chunk of change from taxpayer’s pockets, Mr. Prendergast, hired last year from the US, proposes to bring back the $100 per car levy that died before the 2001 election. But that’s not all. He also wants higher property and gasoline taxes, a cut from the property transfer tax, a parking tax, a tax on cell phone calls, and – showing a complete lack of understanding of where he now lives – a tax on shipping containers.

In 2007, TransLink collected $569-million in tax revenue; of which $247-million came from property taxes, $22-million from parking site taxes, $17.6-million from hydro taxes and $14.7-million from parking sales taxes. TransLink also takes 12 cents tax on every litre of gas, for a total of $268-million in 2007, but even that’s not enough. New legislation gives TransLink the ability to levy a new three cent per litre gasoline tax in Metro Vancouver.

Granted, TransLink has to cover the cost of its part of the government’s Cadillac transportation plan somehow, but TransLink has other big cost increases to attend to, and they don’t involve more busses.

For instance, during the first secret meeting of TransLink’s new board of directors, they gave themselves a 500 percent increase in meeting fees, a 150 percent increase in the retainer paid to the chair, and a new $25,000 retainer paid to each director. The cost to the taxpayer for TransLink’s new board of directors will be a minimum of $437,200 for 2008, more than three and a half times the 2006 cost.

What about executive salaries? According to information garnered from Freedom of Information requests by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Vancouver Sun reporter Chad Skelton, salary increases for TransLink’s top executives ranged from between eight and 41 percent. Former TransLink CEO Pat Jacobson’s salary rose by 21 percent, from $297,468 in 2006 to $360,595, in 2007. Bob Paddon, the Vice-President Corporate & Public Affairs saw a hefty 41 percent increase in salary, from $149,114 in 2006 to $211,628 in 2007.

And let’s not forget how TransLink executives – the people responsible for running and promoting Vancouver’s public transit system – spent more than $154,000 on car expenses in 2006.

There has to be a better way, and, in fact, there just may be. TransLink has a structure similar to that of a municipality, so perhaps a solution found at the municipal level would also work for TransLink. The City of Indianapolis, looking for an end to an ever-increasing property tax burden, implemented a system known as activity-based costing.

The city’s financial system told how much was spent by function and department, but didn’t say how much it actually cost to provide each city service. The city put together a task-force to develop activity-based estimates to capture the true cost of providing a single service. This estimate included every labor hour, each piece of equipment, and all facility costs, materials and overhead dollars. The city then showed that information to municipal workers and encouraged them to develop new cost-saving measures by allowing them to submit their own bid to provide that service in competition with private operators.

For example, Indianapolis found that costs associated with plowing a mile of snow in one area were $39.96, compared with $117.59 in another. By breaking down the cost components the city was able to reallocate resources to save money.

TransLink says it costs an average of $104.59 per hour for bus service. To get that figure, it adds up the operating costs for the entire bus system then divides it by the number of service hours. If TransLink were to establish activity-based costing, it would give its employees the opportunity to find route-by-route cost savings and allow private sector operators to compete to provide some or all services.

Without competition, Translink’s appetite for tax dollars will never be satisfied and why should it? There is no incentive to rein-in spending. But if TransLink cannot move people from point A to B at an affordable cost, it’s time to try something new. Public transit expansion must stay within the ability of riders to pay for it, and be able to resist political meddling. TransLink must be run for the people it is supposed to serve, not for politicians, and not for its management.

Maureen Bader, BC Director, CTF,
E-mail: [email protected]

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/9628

[GeeCee]

Pff.. and deregulation of public transit in the UK has gone so well.. alrighty then, CTF

[mr.x]

great to hear the long awaited update on the smart cards!



But a bit spooked by bugs on the buses....as for the taxpayers federation, don't they complain about every single tax? I laugh whenever the media, especially on tv, gets a representative from the CTF and every single time it's "no! no! no!".....oh, how predictable.

[twoNeurons]

Personally, I've always wondered how any CEO is worth more 8x the average salary in his company.

I despise the fact that salaries appear to go up logarithmically in this country.

I mean, $437,000 for one person's work? Don't they work 40 hours a week like the rest of us?

I know, I know... "these are competetive" wages, but I can sooner justify a hockey player's wage (who, because of his job, will likely suffer physically later in life, will lose teeth, and can't continue his profession much beyond 40 years of age) than executive in some of these companies.

[rant off]

Can someone help me to rationalize these numbers?

Note, I'm not complaining about Translink here, just ranting in general. With all the stuff that's been in the news recently about AIG, it's pretty hard not to feel this way, if you ask me.

[deasine]

I say we use Octopus system = FelCia instead of some proprietary system by Siemens USA or something... that way I can use it with my phone =D

[DKaz]

Think of Steve Jobs... he's a CEO.... his job is basically to make his company, Apple, successful. He's the one who finds a way to convince the public that they need his product, make sales, market, manage, roll out new products, etc. The CEO of Translink is basically doing the same thing. It's a demanding job and companies will pay top dollar to get the best CEO.

[Spork]

DKaz is bang on. A very special type of person is suitable to be CEO, it is not your average run-of-the-mill person, and can't be had by experience or education alone. Albeit, some CEOs are absolute crap, but you can blame that on a crappy board of directors.

You could just as easily ask why a unionized auto plant employee should make $30/hr for work the same amount of work that a line cook does. If you've ever worked as a line cook in a remotely busy restaurant, you will understand how tough the job is. However, we recognize that the auto plant employee has some skills over and above the average line cook. The case is similar for a CEO, or any other position.

[jlousa]

A CEO is worth as much as he/she is paid if it's in the interest of the company. Was bill gates worth 8x the average microsoft salary you betcha, was/is steve jobs yup, is jeff rubin nope (sorry jeff you're an idiot), it really depends. But in general a CEO is worth much more then a average grunt. At the end of the day grunts are easily replaced Ceos not so easily. Even for 8X my salary I wouldn't want that job, it's not nearly as easy as most people think, most CEOs end up dying of heartaches before they get to 65.

[CBeats]

Originally Posted by jlousa

most CEOs end up dying of heartaches before they get to 65.

-->Yes, they spend too much of their time at work and don't connect with the family, so a divorce happens. Then suddenly the CEO realizes that he or she has lost the only thing that really matters in life: love (obviously). This epiphany is too much emotionally and physically to bear, so said CEO dies of heartache.

[eduardo88]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

Pff.. and deregulation of public transit in the UK has gone so well.. alrighty then, CTF

Theres been a hell of a lot of improvement since the privatization of British Rail, and in London since buses are privately run service has improved drastically. If only the tube were privatized...government has obviously proven it's inept at running the underground..

[MistyMountainHop]

Originally Posted by DKaz

Think of Steve Jobs... he's a CEO.... his job is basically to make his company, Apple, successful. He's the one who finds a way to convince the public that they need his product, make sales, market, manage, roll out new products, etc. The CEO of Translink is basically doing the same thing. It's a demanding job and companies will pay top dollar to get the best CEO.

Steve Jobs is paid $1 a year.

[Spork]

Originally Posted by marmorek

Steve Jobs is paid $1 a year.

Plus stock options. In 2007, this totalled $14,700,001.

[lightrail]

Originally Posted by eduardo88

Theres been a hell of a lot of improvement since the privatization of British Rail, and in London since buses are privately run service has improved drastically. If only the tube were privatized...government has obviously proven it's inept at running the underground..

You're wrong on both accounts.

The rail has only been partially privatised - the government keeps a tight control on the franchises, demanding and getting concessions on service, performance and upgrades, in return for the state paying a fee for service.

The bus service outside London is completely privatised and it's a complete mess. Private companies determine their own routes and fare structures. Buses do not integrate with other modes, in fact, they complete with trams and trains. And the fares are some of the most expensive in the world. Some areas of the UK have passenger transport executives who do their best to try to bring standards into place, but it si very weak and limited. New legislation should change that.

London was never completely privatised, because they new it would be a disaster. The buses are run more like the trains, as a franchise, with Transport for London keeping tight control on the fares and routing of buses.

Of the three, I actually like the rail franchising as it is done in the UK - it has seemed to be effective. Provided the government keeps control of routing, scheduling and fares, I'm okay with private operators running buses and trains.

[raggedy13]

While I don't consider buses to be the cleanest environments either, that woman sounds a bit germaphobic.

[jlousa]

Sounds like skytrains Dunsmuir tunnel has been leaking more then expected lately and has been causing the hardware to corrode faster then normal, they have issued an RFP to make some repairs. Nothing really interesting and just routine stuff. I've decided to link the pdf though as it provides some really interesting insight into the tunnel itself as well as some pictures of the tunnel.

http://www.translink.bc.ca/files/pdf/Q9-0013_-_RFP.pdf

PS note the document is large, so it might be wise to download it before attempting to open it.