Gordon’s Transportation Legacy

Below, a little breakdown of the provincial transportation infrastructure investment in the Greater Vancouver area (Translink jurisdiction) under Gordon’s Campbell reign so far (note that we discount most of the road infrastructure project to retain only the Gateway related and currently engaged one)

Project	Current cost (in Billion)[1]	Estimated original cost (in Billion)[2]	Over budget	share of the Province[12]
Road
Port Mann Bridge / Highway 1	$3.3[3]	$1.5[4]	114%	100%
South Fraser Perimeter	$1.1[5]	$0.8[4]	37.5 %	100%
Pitt river bridge	$0.108	$0.130[6]	-20%[7]	55%
Total road	$4.508	$2.43	86%	98%
Transit
Canada Line	$0.430[8]	$0.415[9]	3%[10]	21.5%
Total Public transit	0.430	$0.415	3%	21.5%

Under the Campbell leadership, The BC government is spending on road infrastructures   10 times more than on public transit ones, and still counting…and  that

• In the Translink area jurisdiction alone
• Taking account only the “gateway” project!

Is it justified by a transportation mode split reason?

Not really:

	Public transit	Drive
Commuter Mode split[11]	16.5%	74.4%
Province investment	8.7%	91.3%
$ per commuter	$2667	6201$

When come transportation infrastructure, the provincial government spend nearly 3 times more per driving commuter than per transit user

One could note that road are not only for commuter use, but also for goods movement etc…, we have to answer that in Vancouver area, road infrastructure are added to address congestion essentially induced by commuters use since there is no congestion due to good movement on the road enhanced by the province government. The picture below can give an idea of the congestion type:

congestion related to goods movement in UK

traffic on the highway one

Does someone still believe that the BC government is promoting Transit use?

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[1] It is the cost effectively paid by the province to the project so far

[2] It is the cost made public at the time of the political decision to go ahead with the project, and committed provincial contribution at this time

[3] http://www.vancouversun.com/story_print.html?id=1336991&sponsor

[4] http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/reports/Gateway_PDR_013106.pdf
or http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/reports/Gateway_PDR-ExecSumm.pdf

[5] http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/60823757.html

[6] The Pitt River bridge and Mary Hill Interchange, has been budgeted as part of the North Fraser Perimeter Road and not individually. North perimeter road extending from New Westminster to Mission is budgeted in total at $0.4 Billion, including the Pitt River and Mary Hill Interchange (see [4])

[7] The overall cost the project is $198 million, so well over what has been budgeted under the Gateway Project at time of political acceptation, but thanks to a contribution of $90 million from the Federal government, the cost for the province has been reduced accordingly (http://www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2007/07-h020e.htm).

[8] http://www.gov.bc.ca/fortherecord/canadaline/cl_transportation.html?src=/transportation/cl_transportation.html

[9] http://www.canadaline.ca/files/uploads/docs/doc752.pdf

[10] This is in fact the difference between the number published by the government, and the one reported by an audit agency of Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc.

[11] http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-561/p35-eng.cfm

[12]represents the share of the province in the financing of the overall project