These stories happened on the same day. From The Globe:
Sales-tax opponents say maintenance top priority following SkyTrain glitch
A new significant SkyTrain shutdown affecting thousands of passengers during rush-hour on Monday morning has some people nervous about the delicate job of persuading Lower Mainland voters to support a sales-tax hike to pay for new transit, especially after other shutdowns in the past year.
Monday’s problems affected downtown core service, and follow two unprecedented service disruptions last July that shut the system down for between five and six hours, stranding thousands of passengers. The Expo Line had a smaller glitch between two stations last September. …
Opponents of the tax seized on Monday’s SkyTrain challenges to bolster their criticisms of the status quo, which they say includes TransLink’s management practices.
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Meanwhile, same day in Washington, DC. From the New York Times:
Woman Dies After Smoke Fills Washington Metro Tunnel
One woman aboard a subway train died and 83 other people were taken to hospitals here Monday after a downtown Metrorail tunnel filled with smoke during the late afternoon rush, National Transportation Safety Board officials said. Two of the injured were reported to be in critical condition.
The Virginia-bound train had just left L’Enfant Plaza station on the system’s Yellow Line and was on its way to the Pentagon about 3:30 p.m. when smoke from an unknown source in the tunnel began filling the cars. Officials said the driver was unable to back the train into the station, trapping some passengers in the cars until firefighters arrived.
The N.T.S.B.’s initial finding was that the smoke had been caused by a high-voltage “arcing event,” when electricity jumps from the subway’s third rail in a pop or a flash, the agency’s investigator in charge, Michael Flanigon, said at a news conference late Monday.
Arcing events are not uncommon in subway systems, he said, and it was unclear why this one — which occurred about 1,100 feet ahead of the train — turned deadly. There was water in the tunnel, he said, and that could have been a cause of the problem.
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The point is not to diminish the problems with SkyTrain, but to make the point that service disruptions (and worse) are common on all transit systems – as they are on the road system:
From January 7 on CTV Vancouver News:
Diesel truck rollover closes Hwy. 1 in Burnaby for 8 hours
A tanker truck crash on the Trans-Canada Highway in Burnaby, B.C., prompted the highway to close for eight hours Wednesday morning, snarling the morning commute and causing major delays.
Eight hours on Highway 1, as opposed to three on SkyTrain. Just another day in Motordom.
But there’s no referendum on whether billions will be spent on roads and bridges, no opportunity to ‘send a message’ to the provincial Ministry of Transportation nor identify its senior managers for incompetence. But there is for transit.
As I was quoted in The Globe: “It’s a dangerous thing to happen prior to the referendum,” he said. “It reinforces the ‘No’ side storyline.”
Saying that breakdowns are a reason to vote “no” when they spend all their time complaining that redundancy is wasteful is proof that the CTF are a bunch of hypocrites. Don’t plan for inevitable failures, but when they occur have a backup plan in place so nobody is inconvenienced.
Ultimately the “no” side is determined to stop people from supporting taxation, period. They would have us believe that all forms of taxation are evil and that anything and everything funded by taxation should be either shut down or operated by the private sector.
Remember that Jordan Bateman said this when he was involved in politics in Langley Township when he had to, you know, actually had to think about things;
“I am committed to keeping taxes as low as possible. But we also owe it to Langley’s children to build the infrastructure that will keep them safe and healthy and to improve public safety. We need full-time fire halls and more police officers, and we must balance both the present and future needs of the Township.”
http://www.canada.com/langleyadvance/news/story.html?id=e5688882-76a4-4771-a8b2-fdeaeaba997a
Sounds pretty sensible to me….
If you ever need a talking point against the CTF for the upcoming referendum, remember this one, especially when he complains about the transit police.
You’re welcome ! 😉