PLANS to expand Lower Mainland transit service - including more frequent SeaBus runs and upgrades to the SeaBus terminal at Lonsdale Quay - have been put on hold until TransLink, municipal leaders and the provincial government agree on a way to pay for them.
TransLink chief executive officer Ian Jarvis announced the freeze on expansion Tuesday, saying upgrades to the transit service will be put on hold "until we know how we're going to pay for those improvements."
The announcement came after a standoff between the province and Metro Vancouver mayors left a $30 million hole in the budget, essentially nixing all funding for the projects. The provincial government recently rejected requests from TransLink's Mayors Council to consider a new regional carbon tax or vehicle levies to fund the expansion plans. In turn, the mayors told TransLink they wouldn't go ahead with an additional property tax hike to pay for the upgrades.
TransLink Commissioner Martin Crilly also dealt the organization a blow last week, rejecting a 12.5 per cent fare increase. Crilly told TransLink brass they should be able to find savings by more closely examining operations, including administration costs and inefficiencies in how the bus system is run.
But Jarvis said it wouldn't be responsible to rely on that. "We need the province and the mayors' council to work on sustainable funding," he said.
Improvements that are already underway - including some earlier morning and later evening SeaBus sailings - will still go ahead under the freeze. But new service, including a plan to increase SeaBus runs to every 15 minutes, will not.
Planning work will continue on upgrades to the aging Lonsdale Quay SeaBus terminal. But no construction will happen until the funding issue is resolved.
The Evergreen Line will still go ahead under the freeze, but plans to expand transit service in rapidly growing areas south of the Fraser River will also be put on hold.
Mayors' Council chairman and District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton said Tuesday he's not surprised by TransLink's decision. Walton said the province needs to have more "meaningful discussion" with municipal leaders on how to fund the TransLink system. "We can't have those conversations on our own," he said. "It's a stalemate right now."
Walton said the current transit system is operating well, but the system needs more money to keep up with population growth in the Lower Mainland.
Jarvis defended TransLink from its critics Tuesday saying it's a "well-run organization" and he welcomes a provincial audit.
TransLink has already put measures in place aimed at attaining efficiencies pointed to in Crilly's report, he said. Those measures include running smaller mini buses on routes with low demand and putting more resources into high demand areas.
