Canadian Railroads > Greater Vancouver plans its transit future.

Recently, the mayors and councils of the several communities that make up the Greater Vancouver Regional District announced their plans for transit in the Vancouver area. They suggested these plans be financed by an addition 5 cent a litre gasoline tax (on top of the current 4 cent a litre tax). The citizens of the GVRD will get to vote on the tax, and on the transit plans. Based on past experiences, this will be a vocal debate which will carry on for some time until transit plans come to fruition.

Highlights of the proposals include light rail transit in Vancouver from the University of BC east to downtown, with some tunneling to connect with the current underground portions of the "Skytrain" transit system, and south of the Fraser River, an LRT line along the King George Highway through the several communities that make up Surrey.

All previous transit improvements have been the subject of much time consuming debate, and plans have changed or have been discarded over time and I have no doubt these proposals will be the same.

Everything that I have read about the referendum states that the levy will be .5 percent added
to the present sales tax. That wouldn't necessarily be 5 cents.

Sid

Sorry but there's no planning involved here. This transit "referendum" has been dumped on the region because of the incompetence of the provincial government. They have abdicated their responsibility to provide leadership and guidance in this matter...

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

Would this be part of the authority which runs the West Coast Rail Express trains? Or a different outfit altogether?

Thanks

Yes, the West Coast Express is operated by TransLink.
Sid

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> Recently, the mayors and councils of the several
> communities that make up the Greater Vancouver
> Regional District announced their plans for
> transit in the Vancouver area. They suggested
> these plans be financed by an addition 5 cent a
> litre gasoline tax (on top of the current 4 cent a
> litre tax).

No, they did not suggest that. As another poster has replied, the mayors propose adding 0.5 percentage points to the provincial sales tax within the Metro Vancouver Regional District. That would mean a sales tax of 7.5 per cent instead of the current 7 per cent.

The gasoline tax would not change, but it is not four cents per litre as you state (Vancouverites would love it if that were true). The tax is currently 17 cents per litre.

>
> Highlights of the proposals include light rail
> transit in Vancouver from the University of BC
> east to downtown, with some tunneling to connect
> with the current underground portions of the
> "Skytrain" transit system.

That is not correct. What is proposed in this plan is an extension of SkyTrain's Millennium Line westward from the current VCC-Clark terminus (which is not downtown and not underground) to Arbutus Street at Broadway, much of that in tunnel under Broadway. Any further extensions toward UBC are beyond the scope of this 10-year plan.

Another rail improvement cited in the plan is the acquisition of five more coaches and a locomotive for West Coast Express in the first five years of the plan and another five coaches in the second five years.

An overview of the plan can be found here.
http://mayorscouncil.ca/transportation-investments/

In the US, there's been some discussion of variable fuel taxes. The tax would be expressed as a % of the selling price, with a floor. So the tax might be 10% per gallon, with a floor of 30 cents per gallon.

If the price rose to 4.50 per gallon, the tax would rise to 45 cents additional. If the price per gallon dropped to $2.60, the floor would hold the tax at 30 cents.

I'm just reporting what the media outside the Lower Mainland had to say regarding the Greater Vancouver transit plans.

Those of us "beyond Hope" are miffed we have to pay a toll on the Port Mann bridge in order to visit Vancouver.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> Those of us "beyond Hope" are miffed we have to
> pay a toll on the Port Mann bridge in order to
> visit Vancouver.

Are you suggesting that visitors should be exempt from the Port Mann toll? It seems to me that every user should help to pay for the bridge. Besides, out-of-towners coming to Vancouver can fill up with cheap gas without paying the 17-cent TransLink tax if you gas up in Abbotsford or points east, which are outside Metro Vancouver.

But there's away around the toll for those coming from beyond Hope. Turn north at Abbotsford, cross the Fraser at Mission, take the Lougheed Highway to Port Coquitlam, and then the Mary Hill bypass to rejoin the freeway just north of the Port Mann bridge. It shouldn't take much longer, although whether it's worth it to save $3 is debatable.

I got a Toll bill from the Port Mann bridge about 4 weeks later! CJ