TransLink needs $600M annually: report

In late September, the TransLink Mayors’ Council released a report outlining the company’s current financial struggles. The report outlines two scenarios that involve service cuts to save funds. If nothing is done, TransLink will face a net revenue shortfall of $600 million annually from 2026 to 2033. 

In the first scenario outlined in the report, the least productive routes in Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, and central Surrey will be cut, leaving much of the Northeast sector, Langley, White Rock, South Delta, and the North Shore without sufficient access to transit. The second scenario would involve cutting a mix of both low and highly productive routes to maintain some coverage throughout Metro Vancouver and the region. 

The report also outlines the potential effects of service cuts on residents of the Metro Vancouver area, including longer travel times, higher living costs, lost income, and job opportunities, among others. According to the report, more people will buy cars, leading to greater road congestion. Not only will this affect quality of life, but it will also affect access to emergency services, as first responders will have to navigate congested roads. 

“When individuals are pushed to use alternative forms of transportation due to the unreliability of public transit, they often must spend more. In most cases, public transportation is substantially more affordable than driving, ridesharing, or using taxi services when all costs are included. Commuting by transit is one-third to one-half the cost of commuting by car in major cities in Canada, according to the Canadian Urban Transit Association,” the report said. 

“TransLink right now, basically gets its revenue from three primary sources. One is gas tax revenue, so TransLink gets a portion of the gas tax, but that revenue has been declining and is going to continue to decline as more and more people switch to EVs,” said Brad West, chair of the mayors’ council, and mayor of Port Coquitlam, who spoke with the Beacon about TransLink’s financial situation. The other two funding sources are transit fares and property taxes. 

“If you were to increase fares by such a significant degree that those fares became cost prohibitive to people, you’re really acting in a way that’s counter to encouraging transit use,” West said. “And property taxation was never designed as a way to fund the transit system. It primarily exists to fund municipal operations, which are under significant constraints. So there’s very limited ability to use property taxation to further expand and operate the transit system.” 

Although the province has mandated that by 2035, only electric vehicles (EVs) will be sold in BC, West said that in the short term, transit cuts will lead to increased emissions and greenhouse gases due to the increase in vehicles on the road. 

“I think it will also have a very significant impact on our local economy because the transit system is very foundational to people being able to get to their places of work, and that’s why I think we’ve seen a lot of business leaders and business associations speak out very strongly on this issue because they know that it will have a huge impact on their business if their employees are unable to get to work,” West said. 

With the provincial elections underway in BC, the major political parties have released some information about their transportation plans for BC; however, what is missing is the details of what they intend to do about TransLink’s financial issues. 

“We have not heard any details as to what they might actually do to ensure it doesn’t happen,” West said. “So I’m hopeful that over the course of the election, we will have more details from them about what they plan to do to make sure this doesn’t come to pass.”

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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