Bus drivers warn delaying transit referendum is a bad idea
Posted February 8, 2014 1:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Get ready for more traffic on the roads, and less people taking public transit. That from bus drivers, who warn delaying the transit funding referendum will have a ripple effect on our roads.
Bus Driver Union President Nathan Woods says delaying the referendum to spring 2015 means a gap in funding, equating to more transit crowding, delayed service and missing buses–pushing more people into cars. Without money now, Woods says the future of public transit in our city is bleak.
“By 2016 the system is going to implode. It takes two years to get a new bus into the system, and without new funding for buses, without more funding for service, you’re not going to see the system grow at all. It’s going to become more burdened as more people move into the region,” says Woods.
Wood says transit users should get ready for more hardship. “Crowded buses, delayed service, missing buses, those are all the things that the riders are going to see more of. The concern we have is that upset riders are going to take it out on our drivers.”
Woods says the delay does allow them to rally more stakeholders before voters head to the polls, but adds the province shouldn’t need a referendum to make funding a priority.
David Black with COPE 378, representing transit workers, says a referendum itself is a terrible idea. “Everyone recognizes that Translink is broken. The governance is not appropriate for the transit system. We have an unelected group board that is making decisions around taxation and services and are not accountable to anyone other than the provincial government.”
BC Transportation Minister Todd Stone announced Friday he would be willing to move the referendum from this November to June 2015.
