Two items that arrived together this morning from Ohrn:
Metro Vancouver: “Compass card points to poor choices – but not for the reasons you’d think” by Karen Fung:
The Compass program — including fare gates and electronic fare cards — will never pay for itself on the basis of fares collected from reduced fare evasion. As blogger and transit insider Stephen Rees has long documented, TransLink’s studies continually made this fiscally key point — to no avail. The province, through then-Minister of Transportation Kevin Falcon, ignored these statements, leaving TransLink with hastily negotiated money from the provincial and federal governments and requiring them to move forward as they, not we the public, deemed necessary.
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The Sun: “Leading the battle against the transit tax hike” by Barbara Yaffe:
Bateman’s main tactic in marshalling opposition to the sales tax hike for transit is spotlighting TransLink’s record of injudicious spending. … The Taxpayers Federation argues that any needed regional transportation improvements can be financed by reallocating funds from future municipal budgets, expected to grow at 4.8 per cent annually over the next while. …
Bateman says he does not himself use transit or confront a regular commute, although he drives to appointments throughout the region. The family owns a Prius and a minivan.
“In urban Langley, where I live, the transit service is so poor around town that it’s virtually unusable.”
