One councillor’s plan for a Lonsdale Avenue shuttle limped to a stop May 30.
The city should keep pushing for a rubber-wheeled trolley that would ferry commuters from Lower to Central Lonsdale, benefit merchants and complement bus service, argued Coun. Don Bell at the Monday council meeting.
“I have no doubt at this point that there isn’t a lot of interest from TransLink … but I think we should continue to pursue it,” Bell said.
The city would only be pursuing a “classic boondoggle,” warned Coun. Rod Clark.
“It’s not going to happen,” he said. “Put yourself in TransLink’s shoes: if they give this to us, how many municipalities in Metro (Vancouver) are going to be right at the door asking for exactly the same thing?”
While the notion of a “hop-on, hop-off” shuttle service from 23rd Street into Lower Lonsdale might be fantastic, Mayor Darrell Mussatto reminded council TransLink was “emphatic” about not supporting any service that competes with their buses.
Before the rubber-wheeled trolley could meet the road, TransLink would have to approve the project.
Any transit service that threatens to decrease TransLink’s revenue or create more cost for the transit provider is barred under the Independent Transit Service policy.
While some municipalities have rolled out independent transit, neither New Westminster’s pilot shuttle to River Market nor White Rock’s now defunct trolley significantly overlapped with major transit routes.
Conversely, at least eight buses are scheduled to make hourly runs up and down Lonsdale.
The trolley would cost between $200,000 and $300,000 annually, and would chug up and down Lonsdale three days a week at forty minute intervals.
Any sum would be too much for the city, according to Coun. Craig Keating.
“My bottom line is this: we’re not paying for it,” he said.
Keating, a former MLA candidate with the NDP, bashed the province for continuing to “play games” with transportation funding.
“I’m not in favour of the City of North Vancouver paying anything for public transit beyond what is coming out of the TransLink budget,” he said.
While Coun. Pam Bookham was sympathetic to Keating’s concerns, she said the situation was complicated by the province not “stepping up and doing the job.”
The city’s rapid pace of development has made transit increasingly crucial, according to Bookham.
“That transit isn’t there, it’s not there in the foreseeable future, we don’t have a plan to fund it,” she said. “I don’t want to see this idea simply put on the shelf.”
Bell called on council to add service to what he called “the spine of our community.”
“I would not like to see the dream, if you want to call it, die.”
Bookham joined Bell in voting for the city to keep pushing for the shuttle, but the duo were outvoted 5-2.
Rather than investigate providing a shuttle service integrated with TransLink – which could necessitate a $70,000 feasibility study – council elected to file the report.
