VOTE NO to Tran$Link tax
- Thread starter vancouverman
- Start date
I disagree and say YES. I agree that the agreement and management of Translink is inefficient and a morass, but we actually have one of the most efficient public transport systems in the world.
This is a vote about ensuring adequate resources for Vancouver to have a properly functioning transportation infrastructure and to meet future demand, not about what we think of the governance. A NO vote is going to affect everyone in the metro area, drivers (with more heavily congested roads and longer travel times) as well as transit users. And a NO vote won't address or fix the governance situation.
This is a vote about ensuring adequate resources for Vancouver to have a properly functioning transportation infrastructure and to meet future demand, not about what we think of the governance. A NO vote is going to affect everyone in the metro area, drivers (with more heavily congested roads and longer travel times) as well as transit users. And a NO vote won't address or fix the governance situation.
Are you kidding me..???
What kind of IDIOT would have a transportation system with NO FARE GATES.
I live in Montreal, Toronto and other cities and its NO PAY...NO GO.
Try to get on a bus and not pay and your ass is out the door.
If its so great ...why do we need Transit Cops.
Build a new Putello bridge...that's a joke.
Great idea and bring more congestion to New Westminster. More cars...more trucks on Royal Ave.
If this is the best they can do with more than adequate funding; throwing more money at them will not serve any purpose. The phrase "spending money like drunken sailors" comes to mind.
Do any of the board actually have any track record (elsewhere ) with running a transit system of the same magnitude as the GVRD? No.
Notice how all the stakeholders, big unions etc are spending more of our money to get us to support spending money for their cause?
Do any of the board actually have any track record (elsewhere ) with running a transit system of the same magnitude as the GVRD? No.
Notice how all the stakeholders, big unions etc are spending more of our money to get us to support spending money for their cause?
There was a very good business case to not have fare gates. They simply didn't make economic sense. Translink had been doing the studies and tracking the level of fare avoidance on the system. Putting in and operating fare gates and their police force costs them more than what they were losing on fare avoidance. They only added the police force and fare gates because they were FORCED to by the government. Otherwise, there actually wasn't a good business case for it. They were monitoring the level of fare avoidance on the system.
The time to have put in the fare gates was when the system was created. Retrofitting has been extremely costly. What we had was actually a much more efficient and cost-effective system.
The time to have put in the fare gates was when the system was created. Retrofitting has been extremely costly. What we had was actually a much more efficient and cost-effective system.
I use public transit whenever I visit the Lower Mainland. Therefore I hope all you Lower Mainland voters decide to pay the tax and keep maintaining and improving the transit system. And the great thing is, I won't be paying the tax, except when I visit!
I'm always in favour of taxes being used to improve my life, when I don't have to pay the taxes myself!
I'm always in favour of taxes being used to improve my life, when I don't have to pay the taxes myself!
Berlin, Seattle and Portland are 3 system without fare gates also. I remember seeing a homeless guy sleeping in the station in Montreal, how the hell did he get in there? Every transit system has security/police. Toronto has gates, then why do they need those special constables?
Is Translink perfect?, of course not but you can find waste in every transport system.
Add San Francisco and San Diego to this list. San Diego on the trolley system (Tijuiana Trolley) and San Francisco on the streetcar system outside of the downtown area. Anybody travelling downton on one of these routes can bypass paying.
The rhetoric for voting yes is so lame. the yesers are trying to shove this tax down our throat, blahblahblah we need this tax for our future or else we have no future? All I can see is more pissing away money in the future...
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retrofitting has been extremely costly because they've been fucking the dog so much on getting it done. if they had just gotten at it, by allocating a sufficient workforce to 'git-er-done', the job would have been over when they originally said it would be done. i'm not sure what their motivation is for stalling on it - but i guarantee it's politically motivated
they were forced to hire and arm the police by all the instances of low-lifes assaulting the riders. a lady i was with was assaulted out of the blue one night by a scum-bag that had muliple such assaults on his record already - on the friggin' skytrain! he's a homeless fuck with attitude that rides around for free all day and night and strikes out at people whenever he feels moved to do so
fare gates would reduce his ridership significantly
(after his first hit on the lady, i was able to insert myself between him and her, and my sheer size seemed to bring him to his senses. the whole time, the words of a wise gentleman fighter that i know were ringing in my ears, 'don't fight these fucks, you never know when they're carrying a blade, and you also never know how well they know how to use it,' so aside from shielding her, i let him go)
stupid fuck walked forward a few cars and boarded the same train we did!! i called translink security on my cell phone and they were able to nab him a few stops later
until the board of governors of translink are specifically elected to do the job, not selected out the mayors of the constituent municipalities, i say 'NO'. these people HAVE to be directly accountable if they want to raise and spend public money
I'm not buying what they are selling. I'm with Lo-Ki on this one. You can argue until your face is blue about the wisdom or lack thereof in not putting in the fare gates in the beginning. But having no fare gates means the people who put up the money (taxpayers) are having to subsidy the fare evaders in more ways than one. That lack of foresight and common sense is disturbing. Besides, throwing more money at this problem will end up lining the pockets of the translink executives and the workers who will be doing most of this work (I'd bet their unions are already eyeing a bigger piece of the pie). It's a big fat NO for me.
there is no rush to have to implement any of this work. Translink needs to go first. The top group are sucking it dry of money for no reason. If our money is buying the best people maybe we need to change and go with people from the middle of the pack. 2700km more bike paths are in the plans?? To where?? and I ride my bike! They say the money will build a new Patullo bridge...great..then why are you going to add a toll to the bridge? Isn't that double taxing the people of Vancouver? You know when they fear monger the citizens with their press releases there have no credibility.... vote NO
Hornygandalf..they have been monitoring what? They count on the drivers to accurately record the numbers of evaders on the bus line but they don't do it. I have a few buddies who drive buses and none of them record the actual numbers of free loaders.
change the system first, ask for money later. time to put communism into translink. otherwise, we are all f**k up!
Why is transportation so expensive under Translink? Seriously?? WHY????
I've been around the world in Europe and Asia, and our system is above average - it does not move a lot of people at a time, there are constant breakdowns, and worst of all, it seems very expensive for what we're getting. Very expensive. WHY?????
I know a female who quit her job where I work and got hired by Translink to greet people coming off the Sea Bus in North Van. She needed to be able to do first aid. She loves her job - in that she gets loads of time off, paid almost twice what she was making as a data entry person in our 500 person company, gets extended medical benefits, and is part of the union. Is she an indication of how, at every level of Translink - from employees to contractors - money is carelessly thrown at everybody having any employ to do with them to drive up costs at every level??
I've heard that road maintenance companies submit almost non-competitive bids to city governments that also self-report on the conditions of roads, provide future maintenance estimates, and the city just rubber stamps them. It's a sure-fire way to keep these road crews employed and non-competitive. I'll bet Translink uses the say ideas.
What do you guys think, you think there's any truth to all this?
They seem exaclty like BC Ferries but 10X worse because they run all of transportation infrastructure, not just for crossing the waters.
I've been around the world in Europe and Asia, and our system is above average - it does not move a lot of people at a time, there are constant breakdowns, and worst of all, it seems very expensive for what we're getting. Very expensive. WHY?????
I know a female who quit her job where I work and got hired by Translink to greet people coming off the Sea Bus in North Van. She needed to be able to do first aid. She loves her job - in that she gets loads of time off, paid almost twice what she was making as a data entry person in our 500 person company, gets extended medical benefits, and is part of the union. Is she an indication of how, at every level of Translink - from employees to contractors - money is carelessly thrown at everybody having any employ to do with them to drive up costs at every level??
I've heard that road maintenance companies submit almost non-competitive bids to city governments that also self-report on the conditions of roads, provide future maintenance estimates, and the city just rubber stamps them. It's a sure-fire way to keep these road crews employed and non-competitive. I'll bet Translink uses the say ideas.
What do you guys think, you think there's any truth to all this?
They seem exaclty like BC Ferries but 10X worse because they run all of transportation infrastructure, not just for crossing the waters.
But the trolley cars are not serious mass people movers like sky train or a real subway system you would find in London England or Seoul Korea.
