Bad idea

A sales tax increase? Terrible idea. Why should a single mum living on the poverty line in Hope pay more at the cash register in order to pay for GVRD transit?

A fare increase is possible and makes sense but that would heavily impact those who take transit because of lack of affordable options.

Business benefits substantially from transit, we could raise taxes there. Or increase income tax so that at least affordability to pay would be a prerequisite.

Kredit

"That's what happens when the voters who use the "services" outnumber those who are made to pay for them"

Hate to pop that balloon but the number of people that work far outnumber the number of people using transit. And the people using transit are most often also workers.

Catch-22

If service is cut, as Kredit suggests, then people will complain that they have no alternative to driving.
If fees/taxes/etc. are raised to pay for the service then people complain that it costs too much.

One of the problems is the Provincial Gov't U-pass program is revenue neutral rather than net neutral. TransLink gets the same amount of revenue as before, but has to spend significantly more to provide additional service.

So either U-pass cards should cost a little more (still an amazingly good deal) or the Ministry of Transportation should be picking up the slack by paying a portion of the operating costs of every route that serves a post secondary institution. Routes like the #44, #84, #135 and #480 probably wouldn't even exist without U-pass so Victoria should be paying 100% of the cost of operating those routes.

All I'm saying is that there

All I'm saying is that there is no pressure on these bodies to try and control the cost size of their fiefdoms.

We - most of the world - are in a no-real-growth economy and no budget should be expanding in times like these.

Expanding services or increasing spending is simply not a realistic option anymore. With no new wealth coming into being someone, somewhere is always being made to pay for this failure to cut costs.

put some semse into it

Has anyone asked bad drivers and wobbly bicyclists if they are out there messing things up, because they can't afford transit? If so, I, as an every-day driver, would gladly pay to get them off the road! But if there won't be an increase in ridership, nor less fat streams of trafic on the roads, then I guess we have to realize that transit will never be the choice for enough people to make it pay. What to do then? Well, one thing that could make it more attractive as an option is to put more service in when people are going home from work. In the morning, there are lots of buses to get people to work. If not, employers would scream, but in the evening after hours, service dwindles, because then people are on their own time and nobody gives a damn that one can spend 45 minutes waiting, when a car could take one home in twelve minutes. In other big cities, buses are coordinated, so that at places where an east-west busline meets a north-south one, they will either be there at the same time or wait for the connecting one. That is just a couple of ideas that Translink for sure hasn't acted on at this point, and which might make things better.

Don't want to subsidize business anymore.

If Translink wants to raise the money for operating and infrastructure then business should pay it. Transit is being used by people to get to work,shopping and entertainment. If a business wants use people to make a buck then they should pay the cost of getting the employee,shopper or entertainment seeker to and from their location.

same as it ever was...

Let's see, since the inception of Translink on April Fools Day 1999, this so-called public agency's spending has always outpaced its revenue and continues to come cap in hand to the taxpayer for another hand-out.

Perhaps postponing the Evergreen Line until potential boardings can justify this level of public expenditure is in order.

The thirst for taxpayer dollars by Translink will never be satisfied.

The public has no real representation on Translink's board. The local Mayors continue to blunder due to the fact that they are incapable of thinking beyond their own spending desires.

In the US, any request for taxpayer dollars requires governments to go to the people. Transit projects in the US require taxpayer funding and therefore must undergo the scrutiny of the citizens through a referendum.

I think there is great duplication in administration because of the formation of various subsidiaries which apparently operate independently from Translink for other purposes than efficient administration of a public transit system.

The thing is broke, needs professional help,call David Gunn who has retired in Canada but is probably the best transit administrator/manager on the continent. Gunn knows how to bring service to the public while cutting fat and inefficiency.

The executive cartel at Translink needs to be dethroned and replaced by competent transit management not affiliated with the transit industry (engineering firms, rail and construction companies).

Just wait to see how long its going to take boarding buses at busy stops when the 'dumb' cards are introduced.

mmmm... not so sure

"If Translink wants to raise the money for operating and infrastructure then business should pay it. Transit is being used by people to get to work,shopping and entertainment."

Well, I rather think this particular public good is more about accommodating lifestyle choices. The people who want the nice lifestyle of living on a large lot in the Valley and commuting every day to their downtown job have made a choice that business cannot hope to either analyze or accommodate. I chose to live in the city close to my work, and to make my life close by around me. Coincidentally, what I ended up with as a side benefit is a very accommodating and decent bunch of neighbours, all of whom help each other out.

OF course my Maple Ridge coworkers have different priorities - most of them can't even see their neighbours' houses, while we in the city cultivate that peculiar blindness so necessary when washing dishes at one's kitchen window only 6 feet from the other's makes you a party to their every tic and sniffle.

There are certain things business should pay the cost of - packaging for instance - but I don't think the transportation choices of either its patrons or its workers is one of them.

Carbon Tax

Why no mention of the Carbon Tax, was it not suppose to help with Transit? Until I see this tax used for what it was intended there should be no other taxes added for anything.

Get rid of....

Christy and her gang of BCLibs and then the carbon tax would have to be used for Translink, what it was always supposed to do....WHERE does it go?