News Features

Vancouver transit service lagging behind U-Pass program

by Carlito Pablo on October 13th, 2010 at 3:06 PM
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      TransLink could be running on empty with an expanded U-Pass program.

      As early as January 2011, more postsecondary institutions could be handing out universal transit passes to their students. Whether the regional transportation authority can keep up with demand for more services is another story.

      “We don’t have the resources to significantly increase services,” TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

      According to an update report presented on October 7 by TransLink to Metro Vancouver mayors, $85.1 million is needed to support a bigger
      U-Pass program. The money will cover more bus service hours and infrastructure along routes from 2011 to 2020.

      In the same document, the expansion of the U-Pass program is included in an array of potential investments that may cost homeowners $68.2 million in new property taxes each year. These include upgrades to SkyTrain stations and additional bus services to accommodate population growth.

      This package is the second and more costly option laid out for the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation. The plan also provides a less expensive choice, which is to focus only on the building of the Evergreen Line and the first component of the North Fraser Perimeter Road. This represents $39.3 million in new property taxes each year.

      When Premier Gordon Campbell rolled out the new U-Pass B.C. program on June 9, the provincial government didn’t give TransLink the necessary funds to back up the expansion. Hardie recalled that the transportation body received only $18 million, an amount that is expected to cover the program until April 2013.

      Hardie explained that part of this funding covers the difference in revenue between the previous, higher cost of U-Pass cards issued to students at Langara College and Capilano University and the $30 price that the two institutions implemented beginning in September of this year.

      UBC and SFU, which are the two other postsecondary schools that have U-Pass programs, will maintain their old rates this year.

      The new U-Pass B.C. program provides for a standard $30 cost per student. Seven other publicly funded colleges and universities in the Lower Mainland are entitled to join the scheme.

      Hardie also explained that a portion of the $18-million outlay from the province will cover potential losses when regular transit users are displaced as students flock to the system because of the U-Pass.

      “That’s really what that funding is for,” Hardie said. “But it is not funding that can be used to add additional service.”

      Of the entire range of possible investments identified in TransLink’s update report to mayors, the cost of the U-Pass expansion is second only to the transportation body’s $412 million contribution to building the Evergreen Line.

      Tiffany Kalanj, spokesperson for the student-based OnePassNow coalition, is hopeful that a new investment will be made by the province when the initial funding for the expanded program runs out in 2013. According to Kalanj, student unions at Douglas College, Emily Carr University, and Vancouver Community College are preparing for campus referendums on the U-Pass this fall.

      “We haven’t yet set the date because we’re still finishing the planning stage of what it would look like,” Kalanj told the Straight by phone.

      Students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the Justice Institute of B.C., the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and the Burnaby campus of the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology may also join the U-Pass program through a vote. Kalanj added that the coalition has no position yet on what revenue sources can be tapped to sustain the expanded U-Pass.

      Regional politicians like Coquitlam councillor Brent Asmundson and Port Moody mayor Joe Trasolini are disturbed that TransLink has proposed the funding of new transit services, including the expanded U-Pass, based solely on additional property taxes.

      Asmundson, who drives a bus for TransLink subsidiary Coast Mountain Bus Company, told the Straight in a phone interview that local officials want “more long-term revenue sources of sustainable funding”.

      Trasolini cited one example of this kind of funding. In a separate phone interview, the Port Moody mayor pointed to the carbon tax, which he said brings $125 million to $150 million to the province.

      “If they give that to TransLink for sustainable funding, there would be no need to look out anywhere else,” Trasolini told the Straight. “That’s basically the way out.”

      Comments

      12 Comments

      huh Ken?

      Oct 14, 2010 at 12:30pm

      Ken, didn't we raise TransLink’s operating bugdet by $130 million/year a few months ago to maintain services or was it $150 million, I can’t remember? What did TransLink do with it, pay for the RAV Line? There is no way that the revenue from the RAV Line can even support its operating costs, never mind its capital costs, when most passengers are just transfers from diesel buses.

      If you want to save money, do something about operating redundant transit service in Metro-Vancouver and in particular to UBC. What is the point of operating express transit service to UBC late at night, weekends and holidays on the #99 route when the #99 is just passing empty trolley buses? Couldn't TransLink combine the #9 and #99 routes during these times to just operate trolley buses and to save money? It would only be a few hundred thousand dollars in savings perhaps, but a few hundred thousand here and few hundred thousand there adds up after a while, right?

      Couldn't it do the same thing on other routes where we have way too many buses running around the Lower Mainland empty during non-peak service hours? Other transit companies cut the fat while TransLink is always back asking for more and more money. How much is the smart (dumb) card costing TransLink?

      TransLink has plenty of money. Learn to live within your means or we’ll find professional engineers to replace all the patronage appointed hacks working at TransLink after the next election.

      Ken, please help!

      Oct 14, 2010 at 6:22pm

      Ken, I’ve done a little back of the envelope expense and revenue tally for the #99 B-Line and am arriving at a $30 million windfall for the U-Pass at UBC. Can you confirm this? Maybe we can use this windfall to help pay for the U-Pass at the other secondary institutions.

      According to my rough calculations, the major expenses for the UBC U-Pass on the #99 route are about:

      Ӣ Annual fuel cost for forty #99 diesel buses (based on 2009 TransLink Annual Report) is $2 million.

      Ӣ For the forty #99 diesel buses costing $750K each and amortized over 17 years, scrap time for buses as you mentioned recently, annual loan payment is $2 million.

      Ӣ Annual driver wages for median wage of $25/hr and forty #99 B-Lines operating 19 hours daily is $7 million.

      Ӣ Therefore, annual total #99 B-Line expenses less maintenance and overhead is $11 million.

      According to my rough calculations, the revenue generated for the UBC U-Pass on the #99 route is about:

      Ӣ Annual revenue from 30,000 riders (20,000 students paying $25/month for 8 months and 10,000 regular riders paying $81/month for one year) is $14 million.

      Ӣ Annual transit subsidy from taxpayers (riders only pay one-third of fare) is $28 million.

      Ken, am I missing something here? The windfall on the UBC #99 U-Pass route is about $30 million ($14 million + $28 million - $11 million - $1 million) if you allow for $1 million in maintenance and overhead. Ken, please help, what am I missing? It seems like TransLink won’t have any problem paying for the other U-Passes even without the transit subsidy.

      edoherty

      Oct 14, 2010 at 9:35pm

      The crazy thing about TransLink is that their road building plans trump transit service. A prime example is funding the North Fraser Perimeter Road (NFPR) ahead of buses to serve new U-Pass riders. The NFPR freeway is part of the province's multi-billion dollar Gateway freeway expansion scheme.

      Has nobody at TransLink heard of global warming or peak oil?

      danielle

      Oct 14, 2010 at 10:39pm

      "students flock to the system because of the U-Pass"

      Well, maybe. All students at participating Lower Mainland institutions are forced to pay for the pass, but many cannot use transit to get to and from school. As a Fraser Valley resident I have paid hundreds of dollars for Upasses while studying at SFU and UBC, but the 5.5 to 6 hours round trip to either institution is completely unworkable for a student who is also a parent or working person (let alone both!). The UPass system subsidizes transit on the backs of students whom it does not serve, as much as it does anything else.

      And don't forget the recent experiment in which three students left together and traveled between the Surrey and Langley campuses of Kwantlen - one by bus, one by bicycle, and one running. The transit rider got there last.

      @edoherty

      Oct 14, 2010 at 10:57pm

      Peak oil is going to catch TransLink with its pants down and by surprise. The time to plan for peak oil isn’t when the price of oil sky-rockets and diesel prices go through the roof, but now. We haven't seen anything yet and everyone at TransLink forgets what happened when oil hit $143/barrel in 2008.

      TransLink can insulate itself from peak oil now by selling off its diesel buses to operate trolley buses on trolley bus routes. Then it can expand its trolley bus fleet to get rid of the rest of its diesel buses. Trolley buses are powered by clean hydro-electricity which isn’t going to be impacted by peak oil. Currently TransLink only operates trolley buses about 15% of the time on most trolley bus routes and uses cheap diesel buses, instead, the other times.

      Anyone who has lived in the Lower Mainland for any length of time knows the drill by now, however. TransLink through sheer incompetence floats along with its head in the clouds. When the sky starts falling, it pleads for and gets more money. TransLink is going to cry about how it wasn't its fault for not anticipating peak oil and ask for more money when diesel hits $5 per litre. Demand for trolley buses will increase and TransLink won’t have the time to order trolley buses, as well

      The Mayor's Council will cough up whatever amount of money TransLink wants, oui? Time to send the losers making the decisions at TransLink packing. Bring back BC Transit before it is too late.

      @danielle

      Oct 15, 2010 at 12:40pm

      You are so right. I live in Point Grey and am amused at all the students who park their cars near my home and then walk a few blocks to the bus stop, which is located 1 km from UBC, to catch the B-Line at the corner of Sasamat and W10th Avenue.

      There are hundreds of students doing it and Safeway near this bus stop has to tow some of them away. I suspect that these students are forced to pay for the U-Pass and just use it to avoid paying for parking on campus at UBC. Of course, TransLink takes credit for removing all the cars driven by these students, even though; TransLink is cooking the statistics in favour of transit and the exaggerated environmental benefits of the U-Pass when it does so.

      TransLink also doesn’t talk about all the empty 99 B-Lines (not in service) heading east to Commercial Drive after dropping off the students at UBC. How many cars are these “not in service” B-Lines removing?

      tippy

      Oct 15, 2010 at 10:16pm

      You'd think we would have had all the funding in place before the universal U-Pass was announced for another photo-op by our glorious Premier. Good work.

      Charter of Rights

      Oct 16, 2010 at 7:20pm

      Isn't the U-Pass violating the Canadian Charter of Rights by disciminating against non-students? I want my $25 monthly pass, too!

      U-Pass for lazy sloths

      Oct 17, 2010 at 4:00pm

      Despite all the hoopla, many students at UBC don't use the U-Pass and are forced to pay for it to promote transit. I cycle every day and don't appreciate paying for lazy students who just want to take transit to become transit sloths.