Sobering article about the financial trouble Canada’s public transit systems are in (and public finances in general).
Quote:
Vancouver public transit is in trouble, and it’s not the only one
…During the pandemic, a scheduled fare increase was cancelled. In subsequent years, those increases have been held at levels below inflation. (TransLink couldn’t raise its rates to cover annual inflation percentage increases that reached 6.8 per cent in 2022 because, it argued, people couldn’t afford it. Also, the B.C. government almost certainly wouldn’t have allowed giant fare increases).
Meantime, the costs to TransLink of things such as construction, labour, fuel, maintenance and new vehicles have been increasing at astronomical rates.
It’s all added up to a pending disaster for the B.C. government.
And we haven’t even talked about the costs of transit-related initiatives such as the expansion of its light rail system. It was recently revealed that a planned extension of the SkyTrain system is already facing a $2-billion overrun, bringing the now-anticipated final bill to around $6-billion. There are other transit-related projects facing similarly daunting cost pressures.
I wish this was a uniquely B.C. story that could solely be blamed on government and bureaucratic incompetence, but it’s not. This is a countrywide phenomenon that highlights the mind-numbing challenges facing governments when it comes to funding transit systems.
This was underscored in a report released in May by Leading Mobility Canada, which warned that the country’s biggest cities were struggling to keep their transit systems running. Without a solid and sustainable funding plan going forward, the report said, these same transit systems would begin a rapid downward spiral that would take years to reverse…
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...-take-transit/
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Tldr: Costs for building and operating transit systems have risen dramatically, there’s no way fares can be raised to match those costs, and governments are reluctant to impose higher property taxes to shoulder a larger burden of the costs. Especially when the costs of other infrastructure projects, like replacing aging water infrastructure, is soaring.