mr.x
April 15th, 2007, 09:06 PM
No idling for TransLink board
Must decide on $64m in spending before members are replaced
Frank Luba, The Province
Published: Sunday, April 15, 2007
When TransLink's board meets Wednesday, it will decide on whether to approve more than $64 million in spending on two projects that won't come to fruition until long after members have gone their separate ways.
Provincial Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon is changing how the regional transportation authority is run -- and by this fall, the current 12-member board of mayors and councillors will be replaced by an as-yet-unnamed board of professionals.
The new board will be left the pleasant legacy of $116.7 million more in TransLink revenues than expenditures in 2006 -- $52.1 million more than was budgeted.
But it will also have to deal with the fallout of decisions that will be made Wednesday.
Among those decisions will be whether to spend $34.535 million for an expanded SkyTrain operations and maintenance centre and another $30 million to add 45 buses to the TransLink fleet by the fall of 2008.
Current TransLink chairman Malcolm Brodie believes the current board has to keep making decisions instead of parking its business.
"We have a choice to make, of course, as to whether the board is going to function until it is phased out later this year or whether we simply pass on the responsibility to later boards," said Brodie, who is the mayor of Richmond.
"My attitude is, the board is in place, we have a statutory and corporate duty to continue to do what is in the best interests of TransLink and the public," he said. "If we delay on these decisions, given the time it would take a new board to get fully up and running, you're going to lose at least a year."
Given that it takes 12 to 18 months from when a bus is ordered to when it is delivered, Brodie doesn't think there is any time to waste.
"We have overcrowding and under-service," he said of the bus system.
The new operations and maintenance facility is required to accommodate the 34 Mark II SkyTrain cars that Bombardier is to deliver early in 2009 to address overcrowding.
Another 38 Mark II cars are needed to meet ridership requirements to 2021.
fluba@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2007
Must decide on $64m in spending before members are replaced
Frank Luba, The Province
Published: Sunday, April 15, 2007
When TransLink's board meets Wednesday, it will decide on whether to approve more than $64 million in spending on two projects that won't come to fruition until long after members have gone their separate ways.
Provincial Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon is changing how the regional transportation authority is run -- and by this fall, the current 12-member board of mayors and councillors will be replaced by an as-yet-unnamed board of professionals.
The new board will be left the pleasant legacy of $116.7 million more in TransLink revenues than expenditures in 2006 -- $52.1 million more than was budgeted.
But it will also have to deal with the fallout of decisions that will be made Wednesday.
Among those decisions will be whether to spend $34.535 million for an expanded SkyTrain operations and maintenance centre and another $30 million to add 45 buses to the TransLink fleet by the fall of 2008.
Current TransLink chairman Malcolm Brodie believes the current board has to keep making decisions instead of parking its business.
"We have a choice to make, of course, as to whether the board is going to function until it is phased out later this year or whether we simply pass on the responsibility to later boards," said Brodie, who is the mayor of Richmond.
"My attitude is, the board is in place, we have a statutory and corporate duty to continue to do what is in the best interests of TransLink and the public," he said. "If we delay on these decisions, given the time it would take a new board to get fully up and running, you're going to lose at least a year."
Given that it takes 12 to 18 months from when a bus is ordered to when it is delivered, Brodie doesn't think there is any time to waste.
"We have overcrowding and under-service," he said of the bus system.
The new operations and maintenance facility is required to accommodate the 34 Mark II SkyTrain cars that Bombardier is to deliver early in 2009 to address overcrowding.
Another 38 Mark II cars are needed to meet ridership requirements to 2021.
fluba@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2007