#SaveTheBus

This was another thing that came up recently. Translink, the local organization responsible for providing public transit and maintaining traffic infrastructure, was facing a funding cliff. I posted this in a social chat at work:

Vancouver: Rally for Transit on Sunday

Hey! There’s going to be a rally this weekend asking the government to make up for Translink’s catastrophic pending funding shortfall. It’s going to be at Metrotown Skytrain Station, from 1PM to 2PM, on Sunday, March 23rd. https://movementyvr.ca/save-the-bus-rally/

Translink’s facing a funding shortfall for a whole bunch of reasons. Translink released an explainer video about it last summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EygwqNiz4rQ

The TL;DW:

• Fare increases haven’t kept up with inflation since 2020.
• Fuel tax income (which is flat, not a percentage) is dropping.
• They’re getting hit by inflation, which increases their operating costs.

They’re projecting a $600 million shortfall for the next few years. If funding is not acquired, they’re going to have to take drastic action, such as potentially removing bus service from entire cities. Or reducing frequency, making our already crowded buses even worse.

Even if you don’t use transit, it affects you. A lot of people will have to start driving everywhere. Our already terrible car traffic will become even more severe.

The provincial government recently released its new budget, and it doesn’t have any additional funding for Translink.

Talk to your MLAs, city council, etc. And show up on Sunday.

(I didn’t mention it, but keeping fare increases below the rate of inflation was a condition of accepting emergency funding during the height of the pandemic. The move to flexible work also meant that folk who used to buy monthly passes opted for à la carte fares instead, saving them money and reducing Translink’s revenue. All this was happening while transit usage recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic volumes, leading to overcrowded buses, particularly in Surrey.)

I went to the rally. It was a miserable day, but there was a crowd of people. MovementYVR had a slate of speakers of all ages and backgrounds, talking about how important transit is to them and to everyone else.

Rally for Transit

I ended up calling my MLA for the first time ever. I left a message on his machine. His assistant called back, and scheduled an actual chat with my MLA in early April. Here’s what I wrote about it:

I had a quick chat with my MLA about Translink and #SaveTheBus (pinging @MovementYVR)

• There are talks happening behind the scenes.
• Transit is apparently something that is supposed to be handled municipally here. Elsewhere in the province, cities pay for hospitals, and the BC gov handles transit. It’s the reverse in Metro Vancouver. That’s why TransLink was established: so the local cities could get together and manage transit.
• Introducing new tolls or congestion charges would be political suicide these days, unfortunately.
• If we want stable transit finding, then we should harass our city councils.

It was a good call!

Ultimately, the provincial government came through with some additional money. Here’s a summary from the CBC’s Justin McElroy; here’s another from the Daily Hive’s Kenneth Chan¹. The funding cliff is delayed … until 2027, when we’re probably going to have to fight with the different levels of government again. I should probably harass city hall.

Props to MovementYVR. They did a great job organizing. The rally at Metrotown was a huge success, despite the miserable rain.

Relatedly, Metro Vancouver recently announced that they were reducing next year’s household tax hike from 5% to 2.5%, for a cost savings of about $22 per household. As Global News writes, “The plan will see the district postpone some capital projects, while finding operating savings through spending cuts, resource optimization and lower debt servicing costs.” I’d much rather pay the money now: new capital projects are not going to get cheaper any time soon, and we’ll have to pay eventually.

We need to fund our public services.

#SaveTheBus