SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 4(a)
P&E COMMITTEE AGENDA
OCTOBER 10, 1996
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: October 1, 1996
TO: Standing Committee on Planning & Environment
FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT: BC Transit Five Year Plan and Funding Strategy
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT Council receive the TransAction 2002 Service Plan and
Funding Strategy for Information.
B. THAT Council recommend to the Vancouver Regional Transit
Commission, the BC Transit Board and the Province that they
provide sufficient resources and funding to meet Transit's
obligation to Transport 2021, the Regional Transportation
Plan.
C. THAT Council recommend to the Vancouver Regional Transit
Commission that generally, the first few years of the Five
Year Plan focus resources into the inner area of the Regional
Growth Concentration Area.
D. THAT Council recommend to BC Transit that operating
improvements be aggressively pursued to enhance regular
services and to establish more innovative neighbourhood-based
services.
E. THAT the Province be requested to give negotiating governance
and funding of the Vancouver Regional Transit System the
highest priority.
F. THAT the Vancouver Regional Transit Commission be urged to
not increase its local share of transit funding until there
is a commitment from the Province to negotiate a new
governance and funding arrangement for Regional
transportation services.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council s priorities for transportation modes are walking, cycling,
transit, goods movement, and the automobile.
Council supports measures to increase transit use as a means of
reducing the impacts of general vehicular traffic growth and improving
regional air quality, per the Clouds of Change initiatives.
The CityPlan direction is to increase transit use into and within the
City by improving existing transit service, using smaller buses and
implementing new rapid transit lines.
Council generally supports Transport 2021, the Regional Transportation
Plan.
PURPOSE
This report summarizes and discusses the recently completed Transit
Five Year Plan, what it means for the City, how it fits into the
Regional Transportation Plan, and makes certain recommendations.
BACKGROUND
In 1994 the Vancouver Regional Transit Commission directed BC Transit
staff to examine ways to accommodate the various municipal transit
requests into an overall regional Transit Plan. The Transit Commission
subsequently approved a program (including funding for extra staff and
consultants) that would develop a Five Year Transit Plan and Funding
Strategy.
Transit staff were assisted in the development of the Plan by a
Strategic Consultant who provided input on transit service options and
policy, a Public Consultation Consultant, a Municipal Advisory
Committee comprised of staff from the Regional municipalities and the
public through surveys and focus group meetings.
The development of the Plan started in the Spring of 1995 and took 15
months to complete.
SUMMARY OF THE PLAN
Five Year Plan Service Strategy
Council has already received a copy of TransAction 2002, a five-year
transit service plan and funding strategy.
The Five Year Plan proposes a 15% increase in service hours over what
is provided today (from 4.13 million hours to 4.75 million hours).
The annual cost of providing this service increases from $554 m. in
1996/97 to $627 m. in 2001/02.
The service strategy proposes an expansion of the transit fleet as
follows:
1. 175 new buses available for peak period service
2. Redeployment of 20 existing trolley buses
3. 20 new SkyTrain vehicles
4. 1 additional West Coast Express train
5. Undetermined number of small buses
Six categories of service improvements are proposed:
1. Improve the Frequency and Reliability of Existing Services (23% of
new service)
2. Provide more service along major Corridors to Central Broadway and
the Downtown (12% of new service)
3. Provide more local Services within the Downtown/Central Broadway
Area (17% of service)
4. Improve Regional/Municipal Connectors (34% of new service)
5. Provide some new Local Services outside the Downtown/Central Area
(5% of new service)
6. Test the feasibility of alternative transit services through three
pilot projects.
In the Ten-Year Development Plan, BC Transit identified the need to
expand the SkyTrain fleet by 60 cars. As part of the Five Year Plan,
Transit is recommending 20 more cars be purchased to meet the
increasing demand along the SkyTrain corridor.
Transit is further recommending acquiring a 6th West Coast Express
train set comprised of one locomotive and five passenger cars.
Specific Proposals for Vancouver
Council has previously recommended BC Transit provide a number of
service improvements in the City. These are summarized in Appendix A
of the companion report dated October 1, 1996 on the 1997/98 Annual
Transit Service Plan. The following transit improvements are contained
within the Five Year Plan:
1. Review of services in the downtown including provision of service
to the North Shore of False Creek (initially diesel service and
then trolley service), service to the library, and West End loop
service.
2. Review of downtown fare structure.
3. Provide service to the Fraser Lands/Riverside area.
4. Improved transit linkages between the downtown and Central
Broadway.
5. Increased peak service frequencies and improved service
reliability on major Vancouver routes.
6. Introduction of express service on Granville Street
(Vancouver-Richmond Rapid Bus).
7. Increased service frequencies on the Broadway Express service.
8. Development of Service Design Guidelines.
9. Potentially, Vancouver included as one of three small bus pilot
projects.
10. Permanent extension of service to the Upper Zoo of Stanley Park.
Council recommended transit improvements not specifically identified in
the Five Year Plan:
1. First Avenue Bus route.
2. Extension of the #22 Knight/Macdonald service to the Dunbar Loop.
Financing Strategy
The annual budget increases from a 96/97 budget of $554 m. to $627 m.
in 2001/2. The total 5 year transit expenditure is about $2.96 billion.
The Provincial share rises from $259 m/yr to $285 m/yr over the 5 years
for a total of about $1.36 billion. The local Transit Commission
share rises from $289 m/yr to $334 m/yr over the 5 years for a total of
$1.56 billion.
The transit budget is shared by the local Vancouver Regional Transit
Commission and the Province through a formula. This formula is
somewhat complicated but apportions costs on the basis of
responsibility, accountability and acceptance of risk. For example,
the Transit Commission is responsible for setting the level of service
and so pays about 70% of the operating budget. The Province, on the
other hand, accepts a larger responsibility for paying off SkyTrain and
West Coast Express. These major transit links can be viewed as urban
highways and because they reduce the need to construct more lanes of
highways, are funded more by the Province, somewhat the same as
arterial highways.
The local Transit Commission share is paid from revenues received from:
- Passenger fares
- 4 cent/litre gasoline tax
- Non-residential property tax
-$1.90 per month residential hydro levy
The Transit Commission can also use the residential property tax but
has chosen not to use it yet.
The Five Year Plan recommends 5% fare increases in September 1997 and
in the year 2000 as well as a review of the fare strategy to better
balance the amount riders pay and the cost of providing the service.
For example, it costs a rider the same to ride from the West End to the
downtown as it does from White Rock to Horseshoe Bay in the off peak
period. The cost of providing these services are significantly
different.
The Transit Commission s share of providing the extra service
identified in the Five Year Plan can be easily met. In fact, the
Commission ends up with a $53m surplus at the end of the five years.
This is a very significant dilemma for the Transit Commission as the
Province is not able to easily meet its commitment, given the present
budget crisis that exists and will presumably continue for the
foreseeable future. As a result, Transit staff is recommending the
Transit Commission consider increasing its share of the cost of transit
in exchange for greater certainty of provincial funding. This may be a
risky move by the Commission as it changes the cost sharing formula
with no guarantee the Province will continue to meet its funding
obligation. This is not satisfactory. Governance and funding/cost
sharing issues not only of transit but many other transportation
services are major roadblocks that obstruct the Region from achieving
the Transport 2021 targets. These are very complex and controversial
matters that will ultimately have to be addressed if the Region is to
achieve its transportation and land use goals.
We strongly believe the Transit Commission should not increase its
share of local funding until there is a strong commitment from the
Province to negotiate a new governance and funding arrangement for all
Regional transportation services. Recommendations E and F address this
matter.
DISCUSSION
The following are the positive aspects of the Five Year Plan:
1. The Plan reflects an implicit change in Transit policy by focusing
most of the extra resources identified in the Five Year Plan into
the Growth Concentration Area.
2. Many of Council s outstanding requests for new and improved
service appears to be provided in the Plan.
3. The Plan provides for a 15% increase in service over what
presently exists. The recently announced Transit 10 Year Plan
only anticipated a 12% increase over the same time period.
4. The local share of the cost of providing this increased service
can be easily met by the Transit Commission.
The Five Year Plan attempts to strike a balance between the need to try
and meet the myriad of transit service improvements from all the
municipalities in the Region, its obligation to the Regional
Transportation Plan (Transport 2021) and the Livable Region Strategic
Plan and developing an achievable Plan within a very constrained
funding envelope. As such, the Plan has some major shortcomings:
1. The Regional Transportation Plan (Transport 2021) calls for a
number of initiatives including transit improvements,
transportation demand management measures and road improvements
all working together to achieve a balanced transportation system.
The Region must largely rely on BC Transit and the Province to
provide the necessary infrastructure to achieve Transport 2021.
Transport 2021, for example, calls for about 500 more buses to be
purchased to meet the 2021 transit ridership goals. The Transit
Five Year Plan only provides 200 new buses. Transit staff
maintain that demand management and other parts of Transport 2021
that will change automobile driver behaviour have not yet been
implemented and so transit ridership will be lower than
anticipated by Transport 2021. As a result, Transit estimates
only about 200 vehicles are needed to meet projected ridership
targets.
The Transit Five Year Plan should be criticized because it falls
short of the amount of service it provides to achieve the Regional
transit goals. If the Regional Plan is to be achieved, all the
elements must be provided, including a significantly expanded
transit system. If Transport 2021 is not achieved the Livable
Region Strategic Plan is at risk and the Region will likely find
itself on a very different course in the future.
Upon completion of the final draft of the Plan, Transit staff were
requested by the Municipal Advisory Committee to determine what
the cost would be to meet the objectives of Transport 2021. This
is reported on in the Addendum to the Plan.
Significantly more resources (more buses, SkyTrain vehicles,
transit depots, etc) and a doubling of the five year capital
budget are required. The five year budget increases by $224 m.
over the Plan. The Provincial share increases by $76 m. and the
local share increases by $148 m. over the five years.
The Vancouver Transit Commission has a significant transit fund
balance so an expanded transit plan that meets the objectives of
Transport 2021 is reasonably affordable. However, at the end of
five years the transit fund is used up.
The following year additional local funding would have to be
found. This could be from funds collected from TDM initiative
such as tolls or increased parking taxes or from an increase in
the Commission s own sources. Transit staff estimate that in the
year following the Five Year Plan, ie 2002/03, the cost per
household to pay the local share would be in the order of $40 to
$50.
The cost to the Provincial Government for its share far exceeds
the government s Debt Management Plan.
2. A significant portion (34%) of the new service provided in the
Plan attempts to address the growing demand for suburb-to-suburb
travel. The increase in intrasuburban trips is not a phenomenon
confined to the GVRD. It is happening throughout North America
and Europe as the public continues to move away from the denser,
inner-city areas.
These kinds of trips are very dispersed and total transit trips
between any two regional nodes will always remain low relative to
trips made within, or to higher density areas of the region.
Transit has always been most successful in providing service
within the higher density inner area of the Region (eg. Vancouver and Burnaby) and to the downtown. Transit has, and never will be
successful in meeting the growing suburb-to-suburb demand except
for a few major Regional nodes.
We believe the Plan should reduce the amount of service dedicated
to this category and reallocate it generally to improving service
quality and reliability of existing services, to improving major
corridors to the downtown and to improving service within the
downtown/Central Area. As well, BC Transit should, for the first
two or three years of the Plan, focus its financial and staff
resources on reducing overcrowding and improving reliability
generally within the City, to providing new services to the North
Shore of False Creek and Fraser Lands/Riverside and to
re-evaluating service within the downtown/Central Broadway.
Recommendations B and C address this generally while the companion
report on the 1997/1998 Annual Service Plan addresses this in more
detail.
3. The Plan calls for Transit to improve productivity by reducing the
operating cost per service hour by 1% per year. Even more than 1%
per year could and should be achieved through productivity
improvements. However, this would require some fundamental
changes to the way Transit does business including private sector
involvement in the provision of transit service, more innovative
services, use of part time drivers and other major changes to the
collective agreement to allow more flexibility and cost savings
measures. Recommendation D addresses this matter.
4. The efficient operation of the Transit System will, in part be
determined by effective Service Design Guidelines and sufficient
information gathering to allow informed decisions to be made. It
is encouraging that Transit is developing new Guidelines.
However, there is no information to determine the commitment to
information gathering. Significant staff resources are required
to reach the staffing levels of only a few years ago.
It is hoped new Guidelines will allow the Transit Commission to
address the issue of what to do with the least productive bus
routes. Previous reviews have identified the inefficiencies but
clear solutions have not been apparent. Issues that needs to be
discussed and resolved include the level of basic mobility Transit
should be providing generally throughout the Region and in
particular the levels of service in the low density areas of the
Region where the population base and land use densities cannot
support transit.
These concerns will be reviewed by staff when BC Transit completes
a draft on the Service Design Guidelines and will be the subject
of a future report to Council.
CONCLUSIONS
The Five Year Plan largely achieves the objective of the Vancouver
Regional Transit Commission of dealing with the many municipal
requests for service, within an affordable budget framework.
Council s outstanding requests for new routes and improved
existing transit service are largely provided for in the Plan.
The level of funding from the Province to achieve the Five Year
Plan is uncertain and may not be in place. The Transit Commission
may have to take on additional financial responsibility to achieve
the Plan.
The Plan does not meet the level of transit service required to
achieve Transport 2021. However, the ability of the Transit
Commission to pay the local share is possible noting that in five
years the Commission will have to deal with a deficit. The
Province s share is outside of its Debt Management Plan.
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