Thought-provoking article from the folks in Seattle analyzing why Vancouver buses get more riders per bus and, more important, why increasing bus frequency typically does not automatically mean more bus riders. (You can bet TransLink planners are looking at this kind of research while they figure out which bus routes they’re going to scale back [...]

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The whole debate over putting in turnstiles on SkyTrain has been boiling along for a couple of years now, with TransLink insisting for the most part that it’s not cost-effective (it would be more expensive to put them in and maintain them than the fares you recover) and the public + former minister Kevin Falcon, [...]

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TransLink is pretty darn happy with itself these days, winning awards for service-in-the-face-of-crushing-Olympics-crowds and other categories. This came out earlier this afternoon. Transit numbers after the Games: You came, you rode, you kept riding While TransLink earned worldwide applause for its performance as part of the Transportation Plan during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter [...]

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I wasn’t at the day cruise/TransLink AGM (see previous post) but others were. Here are the reports from two pretty dedicated TransLink watchers, Frank Luba at the Province and Vancouver city councillor Geoff Meggs.

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The social season seems to be in full swing. These two notices here today.  MEETING NUMBER ONE: VPD PUBLIC FORUM   The Vancouver Police Department is inviting the public and the media  to an open community forum to explain and discuss the VPD’s planned move this fall  to the Vanoc building at 3585 Graveley.   [...]

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There has already been a lot of information and discussion posted here and elsewhere about TransLink’s early planning for the Broadway Line. Here’s my Globe story today, which has a bit more reaction and commentary from various observers and TransLink’s new planning guy, Mike Shiffer, the public point man on this.

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Public-policy nerds, transit buffs, anxious Broadway merchants, anxious off-Broadway residents: start your engines. TransLink held its first quiet stakeholders’ meeting Thursday to introduce the tentative six options for Broadway rapid transit. As people kept reminding me, these aren’t fixed in stone. The idea is to put preliminary ideas out there to get public feedback and [...]

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In case anyone missed it, the region’s politicians are buzzing with anxiety about what the province has in mind in terms of paying for the Evergreen Line. It’s difficult to imagine what is getting cooked up in Victoria, given how many options the province has already rejected, so people have taken to guessing and worrying. [...]

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Talking to all the parties involved in trying to resolve TransLink’s financial mess is starting to remind me of sitting at the dinner table every night with your about-to-divorce parents. They keep insisting everything is fine and they’re having long constructive talks about some differences they’ve been having. But then you overhear them exchanging bitter [...]

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It was a busy day at council, but I was working on another project and then, later in the afternoon, ended up SkyTraining it out to Metrotown for yet more news breaking there: the province’s announcement that it is reviewing the governance, finances and jurisdiction of our two transportation agencies. Then, after getting the info [...]

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