Lots of smoke and waving arms over the RAV line in vancouver. Here is another opinion... See the Vancouver Sun of the past couple days.

Deciding the RAV line isn't like baseball

Letter

June 24, 2004

Re: TransLink is broken; it's up to Victoria to fix it, Editorial, June 23

Is this democracy or baseball, where it takes
three strikes before you're out? Twelve
responsible, representative, and highly informed
leaders have twice said no to the proposed
Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line.
Clearly, it is not TransLink that's broken, but
The Vancouver Sun's sense of democracy.

Melbourne, Australia, and Vancouver were judged
this year to be the most livable cities in the
world. Two years ago, Melbourne also said no to a
$1.5-billion, 22-kilometre rail link to the
airport for its 3.4 million people. A look at the
State of Victoria auditor-general's report (May
2004) shows how its team evaluated a project
similar to RAV and decided to choose a rapid bus
system, rather than lose $350 million to $450
million over 10 years.

So why is it that when TransLink directors did
not support the largest public expenditure ever
contemplated in this region, with further high
cost over-runs likely (they occur in 70 per cent
of major infrastructure projects), some people
regard those directors as incompetent people?

Transportation and transit funding is very
complex. Too often peoples' views are based on
ego and blind faith, rather than on facts.

So here are some facts:

1. To build the SkyTrain Expo Line in the 1980s
consumed so much money that only 32 buses were
purchased over the next decade. We are now 300 to
450 buses short of the number planned for 2004.

2. The Vancouver region has the lowest number of
transit hours per capita of any major city in
Canada.

3. Even after building two SkyTrain lines, 80 per
cent of our ridership is still in buses. We need
more buses.

4. The largest gain in ridership seen since 1986
(last year's jump of 13 per cent) was not caused
by building a new transit line, but by the new

U-PASS program at the University of B.C. and
Simon Fraser University. This demand-management
strategy required students to buy a year's bus
pass when they paid their tuition, thereby saving
them the costs of a car, gas and parking and
reducing UBC parking needs by 30 per cent.

5. Public-private partnerships require a 15 per
cent to 25 per cent profit to be worthwhile for a
private investor. That's a lot of extra public
money to spend when you're spending $2 billion.

Fred Bass

Councillor, City of Vancouver

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

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