More Extended Thoughts on the New Investment Plan

April 10, 2025

Movement has taken some time to digest today’s TransLink funding announcement and discuss with volunteers on our Discord server. Here are the key themes:

What does this agreement mean?

The agreement would increase bus service by 5% compared to current levels, focused predominantly on overcrowded routes, industrial areas, regional parks, and corridors that are intended to be upgraded to BRT service in the future. The largest investment of transit service is the extension of the R2 to Metrotown, which is slated for sometime next year. Service will also be increased for the HandyDART system. TransLink would be increasing its spending on its share of the funding for the Major Road Network, as well as on active transportation infrastructure and capital projects related to bus speed and reliability.

This will increase service beyond 2020 levels, but the population has increased by 13% since 2020, so service is still down on a per-capita basis.

This will be paid for by a contribution from the province, as well as increases to fares, the property tax, and the parking tax.

The provincial contribution is temporary, so a new funding source will be needed by 2027 to prevent cuts.

A tough time to give funding, but tariffs mean transit is more important than ever

This decision took political courage, and we thank Transportation Minister Farnworth, Parliamentary Secretary Anderson, Mayor West, and the rest of the team for standing up for public transit riders in these uncertain times. Many are predicting a recession, which means people will be looking for ways to save money. Transportation is the second largest household expense after housing, and an investment in transit during a recession means more Metro Vancouverites have the option of saving money.

Let’s not forget, transit creates more local jobs than any other kind of transportation investment.

Fares go up the most, driving gets cheaper

The biggest beneficiary of all this may be the regions’ motorists, who will be seeing decreased congestion with very little extra cost being borne on them. Transit riders will pay an extra $64 to $120 per year, while property owners will pay an average of $20 more. Meanwhile, motorists get $110/year back from ICBC, and fuel has become far cheaper with the removal of the carbon tax.

It’s time for all Metro Vancouverites to pay their fair share, so that we can have a functional, reliable transportation system. We expect that to be an important part of the discussion going forward. When driving gets cheaper, people drive more. Even drivers know that we need to offer an excellent alternative to driving so that the road in front of them is clear.

Movement’s challenge: Find a permanent funding fix

We challenge the people at the negotiating table – TransLink, the Mayors’ Council, and the BC Government – to identify a funding solution that will allow us to significantly boost transit service and deliver some of the exciting projects that would transform transit in Metro Vancouver.

We know that new funding tools can be politically challenging, which is why we’ll help. Later this year, we’re going to organize a “Dragon’s Den” for transit revenue tools. Should it be sales tax? Vehicle Levy? Decongestion pricing? Something else? Or a combination?

We aim to identify a clear set of revenue tools that politicians can implement with the assurance that they have broad support.

Here’s what we like in the plan:

Overcrowding relief will be funded, in the form of more buses in places that are really needed. We know that when overcrowding is addressed, it attracts more riders, which can lead to more overcrowding. Over the 3 years of this plan, we expect more overcrowding relief to be needed.
Investments in Surrey like all-day weekday service on the 388 and a new route on 68th Avenue will boost service in the exact places where they are needed.
More HandyDART is long overdue as users report trip “denials” where the bus will sometimes simply not be bookable.

While overcrowding persists, municipalities & MOTT can help by adding bus lanes

There’s a cheap trick to making transit more cost-efficient: bus lanes, and other forms of priority. Streets are generally owned by municipalities, and they have an opportunity to save TransLink serious money by painting bus lanes and doing other tweaks to make transit faster.

Urgent measures to speed up buses could save millions and stretch the dollars provided in this deal even further. The same thing goes for provincially-owned highways like Highway 91. We call on the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, as well as the municipalities to embark on an urgent program to implement transit priority this construction season.

Where is the federal government?

The Federal Government gives $3 billion per year to transit capital projects across the entire country. That’s enough to cover 11% of the Ontario Line, currently under construction. How is that supposed to be enough for a growing country? There’s no question we need to find ways to reduce the cost of transit construction, but we also need to get way more funding from the federal government.

We’d also like them to start providing operating funding. They’ve been insistent that they will not help fund the operations of transit, but we’re hoping that a newly elected government will change course. We don’t just have transit overcrowding in Vancouver, it’s now in Castlegar, Halifax, Kelowna, and Brampton. It’s everywhere, and the feds should step in.

How the “Save the Bus” campaign changed Movement

The Save the Bus campaign was by far our biggest operation in our organization’s history to date. It took countless hours of work getting the message out, organizing our responses, and planning our rally. It took incredible effort from our staff and especially our tireless volunteers to make any of this happen. It has been a period of tremendous growth for us: Over the course of the past month alone, our mailing list has grown more than four times over, and the number of people registered to volunteer has roughly doubled. Over 6,000 emails have been delivered to mayors and MLAs. When we first floated the idea of a rally, we thought we would be lucky if 50 people turned out. In reality, even in the pouring rain, nearly 300 people came to fight with us and voice their support for public transit in Metro Vancouver. We are incredibly grateful for everything our supporters and volunteers have done for us. We would also be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the support of our first set of donors, and the comprehensive support from Environmental Defence Canada, who sees transit as a climate solution that has all sorts of other benefits.

What you can expect next from Movement

We’ve got a few projects in the pipeline for the next few months, but the most important is to find consensus on a sustainable funding source before we reach the precipice of the fiscal cliff again in two years’ time. We plan on organizing a “Dragon’s Den”-type event, where we offer the public a chance to craft a solution that would best raise revenue while also being workable for the taxpaying public. In the meantime, we will be celebrating this major victory for our cause and continuing to agitate for the transit-riding public whenever such issues arise, and we hope you are willing to join us as we settle in for the longer haul.

What are we asking of the public?

Thank your mayors, and thank your MLAs! No seriously, they never get thanked. Send them thankful e-mails.

Also, TransLink is consulting on the funding plan until April 24. We’d love transit riders to submit a quick comment here.

Quote

“Environmental Defence applauds Translink, the B.C. government and Metro Vancouver Mayors for digging deep and pulling back from the potential death spiral wherein cuts to transit service lead to lower revenues, deeper deficits, followed by more cuts, and on it goes. It is essential that this proposal to avoid cuts to transit service and fund operations until the end of 2027 succeed, and equally critical that, in the next couple years, B.C. find a new, sustainable funding model that puts Translink on track to deliver on its goal to double transit ridership in the next decade. This is a goal that should be adopted nationwide, for the sake of our climate and communities.”

-Keith Brooks, Programs Director, Environmental Defence