Public Transportation

I don't remember any chart exactly the same, but try this site: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/

The PQ government had announced 4 Blue Line stations connecting St. Michel to Anjou. I think those got shelved, or maybe it was a pre-election political announcement. Or a promise Couillard doesn't have to keep. 

A large number get on the orange line at Jean Talon station from St. Michel. I use the blue line to go to St. Mary's on the other side of town, and the train empties out as I get on. St. Michel (and its feeders) might be just as much of the overloading problem on the orange line as Laval.

I think that is actually on the scarborough LRT line. The Montreal Metro cars are from the 60s and 70s and also need to be replaced.

NorthReport wrote:

Things that come back to haunt you.

TransLink funding woes began under NDP government, former transit leaders recall

Lol.

In 14 years, no one's been able to solve the problem? 

Metro mayors powerless to cut TransLink managers' pay

TransLink salaries published. CEO Ian Jarvis made $468,015 in 2013

OP-ED | The Bitter Twilight of Social Democracy: NDP, unions and enviro NGOs back transit referendum

This spring, the provincial government will be asking Metro Vancouver residents if they approve of a new TransLink funding proposal. The social democrats are coming out of the woodwork to throw their weight behind the ‘Yes’ side in the referendum, as though it were some kind of grand cause. In reality, neither a ‘yes’ vote nor a ‘no’ vote will have an impact on the political direction of transit in our region: privatization, criminalization of the poor, racial profiling, and ‘service’ geared to corporate profits rather than people’s needs.

In backing the referendum, provincial NDP, Vision Vancouver, union bureaucrats, middle class environmentalists and the Christian church establishment have also found unity with the main institutional representatives of the ruling class in BC: the Vancouver Board of Trade, the BC Chamber of Commerce, and the Building Owners and Managers Association of BC.

This unholy alliance wants us to vote to slightly increase funding for TransLink, a neoliberal institution that not only works against our interests as working class people, but has actually been on the front lines of containing, criminalizing, incarcerating and deporting the most oppressed and marginalized sectors of our class. What’s the actual political content of this proposition by the social democrats? Let’s take a look....

http://themainlander.com/2015/02/13/op-ed-the-bitter-twilight-of-social-...

Vancouver Transit Police end agreement with CBSA

On Friday February 20, Vancouver Transit Police announced that it will cease its agreement with the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) and end its enforcement of federal immigration law.

The termination of the agreement is a huge victory for the Transportation not Deportation campaign.

“Transit Police informed representatives of the Transportation not Deportation campaign that they will terminate their Memorandum of Understanding with CBSA, that officers must receive permission from a Watch Commander to initiate contact with CBSA, and that they will not detain people without warrants for items that are simply contravention of immigration law,” confirms Omar Chu of Transportation not Deportation in an email to rabble....

http://rabble.ca/news/2015/02/vancouver-transit-police-end-agreement-cbsa

NorthReport wrote:

Why don't they let the people who use and need the system design the system? 

Exactly what everyone was asking in the early 2000's, after a 4-month long transit strike, punishing fare hikes and service cuts (including late night service), and then millions of dollars spent adding fare capture gates to Skytrain.

Not sure whether the Bus Riders Union or Transit Users Group are functioning any more.

I have seen both Jack Layton and Bob Rae on the Toronto subway :)

jas wrote:

 100 + reasons the BC Liberals must go

In February 2008, the public learned that Campbell’s [new] TransLink board voted themselves a 500% pay raise. Only a few weeks later, the premier’s BC Ferries directors received an increase of up to 60 percent — on April 1, 2008 – the same day ferry fares were increased for British Columbians.

At the time of the BC Liberal restructuring of the Translink board, Kevin Falcon was quoted as saying that the old board had no "skill-set to understand major, multi-billion projects." That's a frequent Socred/neocon justification for inflating salaries so as to "attract the brightest and the best". So, what have Falcon's "brightest and best" accomplished in their 7+ years? And what happened to Translink's $1.5 billion real estate empire?

The problem isn't the BC Liberals. The problem is that somehow people remain convinced that neoliberal policies are best for the economy and that we can't afford public services when the opposite is true. 

Progressives need to focus on the economic benefits of efficient affordable public transit.

The right has focused on government "not being able to afford" projects to justify privatization.

The left has to focus on government "can't afford privatization" of public services and must provide them to sustain the economy.

Be good if public transit was a key priority for all governments going forward.

The Québec Liberals are pretty damned "Neoliberal" as well".

It is incorrect that government debt is bad. In terms of being an investment, government debt is a high-quality instrument. Government debt can be structured so there are no interest payments, as the US has started to do. When the bond expires, you simply reissue it in the new denomination. If you want liquidity from a bond portfolio you sell them on the open market for cash.

"Balancing the budget" is austerity dogma in a time when we are facing huge labour deflationary forces from all around the world. We need to be issuing as much debt and currency as we can during these times. They would rather buy our sovereign debt and currencies than shitty oil company shares which cut their dividends. Canada is in very good shape in this respect. Our dollar is the fourth largest reserve currency in the world. This gives us huge borrowing power we have hardly touched.

Insisting on balancing the budget gives what we saw from Paul Martin, and what we saw and see from Charest-Marois-Couillard. Balanced budgets, what Liberals are famous for, are exactly what we are afraid of on the left. You cannot possibly call yourself progressive and sing the praises of the Axe.

Issuing debt is a much better solution than PPP deals for infrastructure projects. If we can borrow money at virtually zero interest rates, we should heed that call. A $150 billion national energy/infrastructure program would make a serious dent in our infrastructure deficit and increase economic efficiency.

This debt never has to be paid back, and the world doesn't want us to pay it back. Austerity and balanced budgets maintain a "hard currency" which is good for people hoarding money off shore. Several Canadian banks have branches in the various offshore jurisdictions in the Carribbean, such as Barbados, home of Canada Steamship Lines. You can even get Canadian dollar accounts there.

We need to stop running Canada for the benefit of shipping company owners, and start running it for the benefit of its people.

Does this vary by government?  I'm trying to choose between Venezuelan bonds, Greek bonds and Canadian bonds.

OK.  You had me at "seigneurage".

If you want a NO, hold a referendum. If you want a YES, PASS A LAW!

Oops.

Quote:

Why can’t the ‘Yes’ side seem to galvanize public opinion for a mere 0.5 per cent increase in the provincial sales tax to fund transit infrastructure?...

Why, if the fares go up by $0.05, do regular transit riders and transit advocates totally lose their shit, like the fare just doubled?

If the people who regularly use the service, and who directly and clearly benefit from the service, don't care to pay an extra nickel per ride to support the service, is it all that hard to imagine why people who don't use the service and who don't directly benefit from it might not want to pay an extra half percent on every purchase they make in order to support the service?

I ask this, by the way, as someone who's never had a driver's licence, and who uses transit.

I just find it funny that the people who don't use it and don't want to pay more for it are cheap-ass, miserable pricks, but the people who DO use it and don't want to pay for it are justifiably outraged over that nickel.

Quote:

Another reason the ‘Yes’ campaign has struggled is Translink’s richly deserved bad reputation.

Here in Ontario we have our own ORNGE air ambulance service, and eHealth Ontario for similar examples.  If you held a referendum proposing to increase sales tax to help fund either, it would probably tank, and for similar reasons. 

Saying "Oh, sorry, but we mismanaged the funds you already gave us so we'll need you to cough up more funds" loses its charm.

Did I get the number of nickels wrong?

Okay.  So if a family who doesn't use transit spends $20K a year on whatever, that would work out to $100 in new tax per year.

If a person uses (and enjoys the benefits of) transit every working day, a nickel would be $2 per month, or $24 in new cost per year.

If the fare were to go by to a dime, that would be $48 per year.

But let's not forget, we're talking about people who use transit and will enjoy the service increase paying for it versus those who don't use the service paying for it.

Here in Toronto, the cost of a TTC token just went up a dime.  Is it really more reasonable to expect someone else to pay that dime for me -- when I'm the direct recipient of the service and they aren't -- than it is to pay it myself?

And to be clear, I'm not arguing against the tax increase, and certainly not against the planned service improvements.  I just don't think it makes common sense to portray anyone who opposes this as some kind of Mean Mister Mustard.  Particularly if transit is already well funded through things like gasoline tax, but just can't seem to manage the funds they've got.

At what point should anyone be able to say that $16 glasses of orange juice aren't how they'd like to see their tax dollars spent??

We elect government to do a job, including building transit. Holding a referedum should be about serious issues like how we vote, and not the purview of the transportation ministry.