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Originally Posted by Vonny
You make the traditional mistake to mess up " where the rail tracks are" with " who they benefit to".
- Is it people of Collingwood who are roaming the Skytrain Expo line?
- Is it people of Saughnessy who are roaming the Canada line?
You will get some insight from this post
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Is it people in South Surrey that would benefit from a line to Langley? Is it people in Walnut Grove? Is it people in Hope? Is it people in Port Moody? Maybe we should build lines down every road of Vancouver? Remember though Translink also = busses and the service in Vancouver is still light years beyond SoF.
So your point is rather moot.
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We could build a skytrain between Langley and White Rock to please the SoF political game, but it happens it could be of little use to people... and on Broadway, you will find more than half of the people from outside Vancouver
...Then you mess up the Province with Translink (forgetting there is only one taxpayer at the end):
Expo Milenium line has been paid by the Province, not Translink.
So it is very fair to include the Gateway in the picture:
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It has nothing to do with politics and has everything to do with how much money is contributed vs how much service is given back. Just take yourself outside your opinion for 2 seconds and into the shoes of people who have lived SoF for more than 5 minutes. People in SoF contribute roughly 50% of all the funding to not just the Translink but the Province itself through taxes. On the SkyTrain people SoF contribute more than 50% of fares given it costs us at least double the amount to use the line than a typical Vancouverite (3 zone vs 1). YET, again I'd like you to take the time and think of how much investment in reverse has happened to SoF. Is it getting better? Maybe. But only because the population has been annoyed long enough and it will start to hit the parties politically if they ignore the region where 75%+ of the population growth is and 45-50% of the population lives.
As for Gateway, maybe you should re-read my post you quoted. I didn't include Gateway. And for the record Translink = rebranded BC Transit which is who built Expo line. It is owned and operated by Translink today. And yes you can make the argument that they are one and the same but if you actually understood where the budget dollars come from (read through some financial reports) you'd realize that we have to include Expo line in there if you are going to include the other lines and Golden Ears Bridge.
Expo and Millenium were paid for by BC Transit which became Translink. Same thing different name. Same funding sources on the books.
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- $1 Billion for the SFPR
- $3.5Billion for the PortMann bridge alone
- lot of very expensive provincial project along Hwy 99 (including bus lane)...
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SFPR you're correct on but it is Province/Federal not Translink.
PortMann same thing and the overall Gateway project benefits the entire region not just SoF.
And that bus lane on Hwy 99? It was what 10 million or something around there? And it has been under construction for 3 years and is still not open? Yah that's really helping.
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You will return that the PortMann Bridge will be tolled: does that means it will paid by toll?
Nope, it will be not...not a chance...
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It will pay for part but Vancouver paid tolls for the Lion's Gate so I will agree with you on that. The people using it should pay for it I don't disagree.
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already $5.5B invested by the taxpayer in transportation infrastructure in the Surrey area in the last 5 years: when enough is enough?
...and still counting: Translink is considering to pour $1B in the Pattullo bridge...SoF can't have its cake and eats it: it need to set its priorities: road or transit but simply the region, the province can't afford the both.
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Unfortunately like a lot of people on these forums you're mixing apples with oranges. You can't start throwing Province/Federal projects into Translink projects or I'll start throwing things like the Sea to Sky highway, the Vancouver convention center, and BC Place's new roof and retrofit into the mix. I mean I paid for those being a tax payer. It's not road infrastructure but it doesn't directly benefit me right?
I also guess with Gateway that people in Vancouver and Burnaby get 0 benefit from cheaper goods movement regionally?
The flip side is I get _0_ benefit living SoF from Canada Line, Millenium Line, and Evergreen line. All I'm arguing for and will continue to argue for is that the 50% of money contributed by people SoF DIRECTLY into Translink's pockets should go DIRECTLY back to SoF residents in the form of Translink projects.
That's it.
Am I being a bit unrealistic? Sure same way BC residents will never get as much in the way of Federal dollars as people in Ontario or Quebec. That's just reality.
Is it getting better though? Yes.
Are we there yet? No.
If the last 5 years wasn't filled with people like me jumping up and down and shouting though, I doubt half those projects would have been done or even on the books. Hell the Patullo bridge expansion was slated for 2020-2030 and only because people started yelling has it been moved up. Not because Translink cares, but because they are worried about upcoming elections.
That's it.
It just never seems like people in Vancouver or Burnaby ever have to say boo. They just get their new busses, expanded transit, and additional services without question.
I'd like to just feel like I'm not a second class citizen living in Metro Vancouver because I wasn't born long enough ago to be able to afford and live in Vancouver itself. People in Vancouver say "Hey we need a line down Broadway" and it seems like there is a study the next day. People in Surrey have been saying we want an expansion of SkyTrain for well over 10 years and only now are we getting a preliminary study. And honestly it's not just us. How long did it take for Evergreen Line?
Evergreen Line was on the books before even the Millenium line.
Anyway that's enough on this topic. Yours and my opinion are both clear to each other so let's just move forward.