We’re getting a clearer picture of the massive cuts TransLink says are coming to Metro Vancouver’s transit system after 2025 if it can’t secure stable funding.
The agency has repeatedly warned that it faces an annual funding gap of about $600 million from what is needed to operate the system.
A new report prepared for the TransLink Mayor’s Council obtained by Global News and set for release Thursday outlines the potential for severe system-wide cuts.
Those cuts would include slashing bus service in half, reducing SkyTrain and SeaBus service by up to one-third and potentially scrapping the West Coast Express rail service entirely.
“We’re just trying to let everybody know the table stakes here, the tremendous impact these potential losses would have to the region,” TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn said. “We can’t let that happen.”
“What we are really looking for here are all levels of government to get around the table and look for a solution.”
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TransLink blames the gap in operating funding on falling fuel tax revenues as drivers switch to electric vehicles, fare increases that haven’t kept pace with inflation and increasing costs including labour, fuel and maintenance.
The funding appeal comes with ridership surging on the Metro Vancouver transit system. TransLink has seen North America’s fastest rebound in transit usage since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agency has previously reported some bus routes in Surrey and Delta have more than doubled pre-2019 levels, and warned that by 2025 nearly 40 per cent of rush hour bus trips will be overcrowded.
According to the report, other service cuts could include cancelling 145 bus routes and all NightBus service, reducing HandyDART service by 35 per cent and scrapping a funding program that helps pay for road maintenance and local infrastructure upgrades.
Those cuts would result in up to 500,000 people no longer living within walking distance of a transit stop, and a surge of cars on the road that could increase congestion by 20 per cent.
The communities of Langley, White Rock, South Delta, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and much of the North Shore would be left with “almost no transit services,” TransLink claims.
“It would be very dramatic for anybody trying to move in those regions taking transit today,” Quinn said.
“I am thinking of health-care workers trying to get to work, kids trying to get to school – they would be absolutely unable to do that.”
In June, TransLink announced $90 million in cost-cutting measures aimed at shoring up its funding problems, which included cutting jobs, research grants and fare evasion enforcement.
The gap in operating funding is separate from the $21 billion in capital funding TransLink is seeking to pay for its 10-year “Access for Everyone” vision that would massively expand bus service and rapid transit.
Ottawa has pledged to create a new Federal Permanent Transit Fund that would disburse $3 billion nationally every year, but not until 2026.