WEB EXTRA: Light rail the answer to transportation woes

There has been a great wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding Premier Campbell's carbon/gas tax. The Light Rail Committee (LRC) views the new tax as a cynical attempt by the provincial Liberals to make them appear eco-friendly.

If Campbell and the Liberal party wish to reduce pollution and highway congestion, the LRC advises that at least 300 kms of modern light rail must be built in order to provide a viable transit alternative. Modern LRT is very adaptable and able to track-share with regular railways, and construction costs for LRT can be as low as $10 million per km. This means that a 300-km light rail network, costing $3 billion to $5 billion, becomes a viable proposition to the taxpayer.

To emphasise the message this committee has tried convey many times over the years, even if the quoted $3- to 5-billion cost of LRT were to be padded to $10 billion, the cost of a region-wide Light Rail Network pale in comparison to the costs of the Bombardier/SNC-Lavalin SkyTrain alternative, which are already proven to exceed $100 million/km. A 300-km SkyTrain network (at a minimum of $30 billion) is a pipe dream.

Just last week, TransLink sounded the alarm bells over a projected $300-million shortfall by 2012, much of which is/has been caused by the debt-servicing costs for the Expo, Millennium and Canada Line projects.This, above all else, shows the folly of building metro SkyTrain and SkyTrain look-alikes on routes that do not have the ridership to support the mode.

Yet, in the face of these facts - facts which are recognized by international transit experts - Premier Campbell and Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon want to build more. In British Columbia, it seems, modern LRT, with over 600 examples of the transit mode in operation around the world need not apply.

 The LRC has always predicted that, because of its huge costs, SkyTrain:

1. Would encourage new highway construction in the region; and,

2. Would dramatically increase municipal, regional, and provincial taxes.

 Both predictions have come true. The LRC is not surprised, therefore, that the Campbell Liberals need more tax revenues. As it stands, the carbon tax at 2.4 cents/litre is not revenue neutral, but it is just the beginning. 

 By the time the bills are all in, not even the projected seven cents or more per litre will cover the costs of the decisions to build SkyTrain - a proprietary metro that has only five operating installations, even though it has been on the market for almost 30 years – despite this knowledge, and despite the fact that not one SkyTrain has ever passed public scrutiny in the U.S.

 The SkyTrain Evergreen Line's business case has been shredded by Gerald Fox - a prominent U.S. transit expert, furthering Vancouver's reputation as a "transit anomaly," as Vancouver's transit planning "is contrary to what every other city in the world is doing."

 For too long, provincial governments and TransLink have played the media for fools and the carbon/gas tax is more of this sad legacy. To a large extent, transit plans have been given a "free pass" by the media and the result is more dubious transit planning and higher taxes for dated and obsolete "rapid transit" construction, which has to date, done little to alleviate traffic congestion and associated pollution.

 The LRC views the carbon tax as a gas tax, with a one-time $100 bribe to the taxpayer to attempt to sell it. Better urban public transport has never been further away.

Malcolm Johnston

Light Rail Committee

Delta