From SFU Public Affairs & Media Relations:
- Gordon Price, director of the SFU City Program was on CTV, talking about a proposed 12.5-per-cent increase in transit fares—before independent TransLink regulator Martin Crilly ruled against the increase.
“Gordon Price predicts that Crilly may find some other areas where TransLink can be more cost efficient. However, Price said he will be surprised if the fare hike is not approved. Without increasing prices, TransLink will not be able increase the frequency of bus services, Price said.
“‘Things like cracking down on fare evasion or cut salaries, that will give you some bucks but it’s not the kind of numbers you really need to serve the existing system or to expand it,’ he said.”
[Wrong on that one!]
- Price was in The Province after Crilly said no to the fare increase for 2013.
“Gordon Price, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University and a former Vancouver councillor, said the public has ‘a love-hate relationship’ with TransLink.
“‘The conclusion people can fairly draw is that the commissioner is saying to TransLink you don’t need more money, that there is waste. Find the efficiencies.’ said Price.”
- Price was also in Coquitlam NOW and on News1130 Radio saying rejection of the increase in fares will hit areas south of the Fraser River worst.
Coquitlam Now: “According to SFU prof Gordon Price, Crilly’s decision will have no impact on Evergreen Line construction, but rather an adverse effect on more long-term projects like a B-Line service through Surrey.
“‘I do think that it’s south of the Fraser that’s going to get the real whammy here,’ Price said. ‘So at the very time when the fastest-growing parts of the region need transportation choices because they’re going to get hit with tolls, they’re going to find that even their anticipated options like the B-Line down King George Boulevard, much less the mayors’ vision for light rail, will be very much up in the air.’”
Price is director of the SFU City program and a former Vancouver councillor.
- News1130: “But Price says it would be foolish for TransLink to try to expand, considering all the money issues its dealing with.
“‘You’ve got to do better with what you’ve got. But it will only enable you to maintain, at best, your existing level of service.
“He suggests the transit authority will have to focus on maintaining its current fleet and will have to put expansion plans on hold for years.”
- News1130 also reported: “TransLink Board Chair Nancy Olewiler says it has cut $30 million in costs over the past three years but is committed to finding more savings and providing quality service.
“We will take up your challenge to find cost savings beyond what we have already done or have underway,” she says in a letter to Crilly.
The story didn’t mention that Olewiler is director of SFU’s School of Public Policy.
And for a more nuanced and inside look at the report, check out Stephen Rees’ analysis.
* * *
FURTHER COMMENTS ….
As I expected, promised expansion and anticipated projects – save for the Evergreen Line – are being put on hold by the Mayor’s Council, as reported by Frances Bula in the Globe. Yes, it’s South of the Fraser that will get impacted the most, as emphasized by those mayors who voted against cancellation.
City of Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender said three mayors from south of the Fraser, where most of the improvements would have occurred, voted against the call to cancel.
“It took us a long time to get these enhancements,” he said. “It would be ludicrous not to have buses on the new Port Mann Bridge. We are adamant.”
Unfortunately, this will only reinforce the antipathy of those who believe they get little from TransLink for what they pay, and thus increase the price for any politician who proposes an alternative source or additional funding for expansion of the transit system.
Of course, this is red meat for the anti-government groups, who will echo the message throughout the media that TransLink is just another example of excessive waste and should be cut off from any further revenues. For further irony, add in the transit users who may think they’ve benefitted from the rejection of a fare increase but may not appreciate the increased efficiency that comes with overcrowded buses, eliminated routes and infrequent schedules.
I wonder whether Martin Crilly, the TransLink Commissioner, really understood what he was doing when he turned down the fare request on which the ‘Moving Forward’ supplement was based. It’s not just that he killed the momentum for transit expansion in the fastest-growing parts of Metro. What with the opening of massive new highway projects and the Port Mann Bridge, those municipalities to the south and east will be forced to lock themselves further into car dependence, having little hope that growth will be accompanied by other transportation options.
That’s not just sad. That’s tragic.
- post by Gord Price
Print 
PDF
Isn’t Price the same guy who wanted Translink to waste hundreds of millions to build a Gondola to SFU because he didn’t like the bus ride.
Interesting article. What kind of increases? Question is who benefits from extra commitments? We are connecting the satellite areas of Vancouver for efficiency and fair society. Connecting suburbia also creates another system of real estate purchases – hopefully answering our housing needs for everyone. I think you can only plod along with good articles like this and slowly the public will decide for themselves.
Sigh.
The unending problem of how to finance TransLink.
Personally, I would give the roads portion of their mandate BACK to the Min of Transportation from whence it came, in the first place (who will then squawk that those roads are a municipal problem!).
The GE Bridge is an interesting situ. Again, TL: Pushed? Mandated? Delusional? re; replacing the Albion. Something tells me that although this bridge is wholly owned and built and run on TL funding (fares, taxes) it MUST have had something to do with the Gateway Project. Maybe the province can buy it out.
It may well be the best thing since sliced bread in another 20-50 years as Surrey to Mission build up, but it’s a pig in a poke right now. You do pay for foresight.
I think that TransLink, under successive Socred/NDP/Liberal governments, has been the preferred whipping post of choice for provincial and municipal pols—blamed for things largely out of its jurisdiction and control (it can only raise revenue thru provincially approved and legislated mechanisms).
Meanwhile, both the province government and Mayors Council joust over types of technologies that will be built (the province, by dint of having more money, wins, and TL has to bow to that will).
The Mayors Council, however, doesn’t escape from the nonsense unscathed. Differing political ideologies within the munis means that they can line up on one side or other of the government of the day, and fight them and each other over issues including buses (those union jobs!), light rail (they don’t want the capital costs of Skytrain SOF), and who gets what goodies, when.
They can’t even all agree on the density issue, which should have been the driver in choosing and delivering appropriate technology throught a servixce area as ridculously vast as the GVRD, when that organization first had responsibility, over 25 years ago.
So, to put more politicians in charge of the TL board to make these decisions? Uh-uh, no thanks. I like a board composed of a few mayors, with many qualified business types (all chosen by a selection committee and approved by the mayors, btw). Few politicians possess the fiduciary or transportation knowledge that is needed here.
AND, were I the Mayors, I would INSIST that the province fill in its two seats on the board, too, which it has always had—but on which it has never placed reps. One only need look at the headlines to understand why they want to be about, oh, a hundred miles away when it comes to being involved in any direct decisions.
Because if they’re all gonna want a say about what to build, when to built it and how to pay for it, and they step in it anyways, it had better land on ALL shoes, not just some shoes.
Thought of The Night
“Robertson – Dix Transit Fares and Misdemeanors.”
Wow!
Not since Woody Allen’s “What’s up, Tiger Lily?” writer/ actor/ director I’ve seen so many self-references in one single article.
Fourteen different variations of Gord, Gordon, Price from “head to tows”.
Seriously?
After the fifth “Price says” I lost track of what I was reading, I wasn’t sure I was reading on City Caucus or proofreading for “The Price is Right!”
And I’m bidding … one dollar!
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
re: “Of course, this is red meat for the anti-government groups, who will echo the message throughout the media that TransLink is just another example of excessive waste”
We actually prefer “members of the reality community” rather than “anti-government”
..and you’re right, TransLink is just another example of excessive waste, and also a shining example of the inevitable destruction of responsibility that comes with these public/private/unelected-but-can-tax rip offs.