2024-01-17 19:11:28
Émilie Carlen and Pierre-Hugo Lecomte return from work this late December afternoon. Their SkyTrain station, the name given to the light rail there, is in Richmond, 15 km south of downtown Vancouver, where they live.
Public transportation is essential in their lives. I don’t have a driving license. With the weather in Vancouver, the SkyTrain has its advantages, insists Émilie with a smile.
The two work colleagues are part of the average 400,000 users who travel on the network every day. Vancouver’s public transit is almost back to its 2019 ridership, after a dip caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have regained 90% of our pre-COVID traffic. We are the leaders in North America,” says Kevin Quinn, CEO of TransLink, with pride. The figure corresponding to Montreal is around 80%.
Thanks to special assistance of more than $1 billion from the British Columbia government, which will extend until 2025, TransLink has eliminated almost no service and has adjusted to changes in user habits. COVID has really changed the way we travel in the region, so we have adapted our offer. It helped us maintain our goodwill and attract new users, explains Mr. Quinn.
About 20% of TransLink’s revenue comes from ticket sales, roughly the same proportion as in Montreal. To access the three zones of Greater Vancouver, Pierre-Hugo pays $180 per month for his pass; it’s $10 less than the Montreal card which allows you to go to the northern and southern suburbs.
I arrived downtown specifically to use public transportation and not to have a car, so I was ready to budget, he says. But it’s true that this is the high end of what I had planned.
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The Vancouver SkyTrain has 53 stations.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Sébastien Cloutier
Several taxes dedicated to public transport
Government aid and ticket sales therefore help TransLink to make ends meet. But the most important difference with what is done in Quebec is the value of the taxes collected to finance public transport. In 2022, they represented 46% of the Vancouver society’s revenue, compared to 4% for the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM), which coordinates public transport in Greater Montreal.
In Greater Vancouver, motorists pay, among other things, a tax of 18.5 cents per liter of gasoline to finance public transportation compared to 3 cents in Greater Montreal. In Canada, only Victoria, also in British Columbia, also imposes this type of tax.
A portion of property taxes and a sales tax on municipal parking lots are also used to finance buses and the Vancouver SkyTrain.
They are, I think, a couple of ropes ahead of us because they have plans to diversify their revenue streams.
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Florence Junca-Adenot was president of the Metropolitan Transport Agency from 1996 to 2004.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Sébastien Cloutier
Paid real estate development?
TransLink now has its own real estate development department, while the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), which requested similar power from the Legault government, is still waiting for a response.
In partnership with the private sector, the Vancouver Corporation has just launched its first project: a building with 200 housing units, 20% of which will be rented below the current price. We will thus be able to add affordable housing while generating new revenue. We want to develop this type of project near our SkyTrain stations, says Kevin Quinn.
We have seen an increase in the number of users of up to 30% in stations where there are real estate developments.
The number of towers that have sprung up near Brentwood station, in Burnaby, or the scale of the OakRidge Park real estate project, in Vancouver, illustrate the extent to which the region’s population is becoming much more dense than that of Montreal near train stations. train.
It’s always something that I take into consideration when I’m looking for accommodation because, for me, it’s super important to be next to efficient public transportation, explains Émilie.
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Real estate projects are being developed near Brentwood Station in Burnaby, in the Greater Vancouver Regional District.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Sébastien Cloutier
Florence Junca-Adenot recalls that the space to build in Montreal is larger than in Vancouver and that the city is much larger. Montreal would do well to imitate Vancouver, she believes.
From 1996 to 2004, Ms. Junca-Adenot was president of the Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT), whose responsibilities have since been taken over by the Exo organization. I had an assessment of the real estate development potential done, she recalls. And at the time, 50% of metro stations presented development potential in Montreal. In general, our stations are all alone on large plots of land.
5:46
A financial pit to come despite everything
Emergency aid from the British Columbia government is set to end at the end of 2025 and without further action, TransLink will also plunge into deficit.
From 2026, we expect to enter a financial crisis. We will have a hole of around $600 million per year, worries Kevin Quinn. The fault, in particular, of inflation, labor costs and the electrification of the automobile fleet, which reduces revenues from the gasoline tax.
Always looking for new revenue, some officials want to charge electric vehicle owners more in the coming years.
Is it possible for them to pay when they buy the car? Is it possible that they pay a little more for insurance? suggests Dan Ruimy, the mayor of Maple Ridge, a small town located a 45-minute drive from Vancouver. Its municipality is growing twice as fast as the national average and could have up to 30,000 more residents in 10 years.
Mr. Ruimy, who sits on a regional committee of elected officials for transport, is launching an appeal to governments. Without help, the Maple Ridge Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project may not see the light of day.
If we don’t add services, we can’t move! We need to change the thinking that public transportation is just something “nice”. It must be seen as an essential service.
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Dan Ruimy is the mayor of Maple Ridge, a municipality in the Greater Vancouver Regional District.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Sébastien Cloutier
What to expect in Montreal?
The president of the STM, Éric Alan Caldwell, who is also a member of the executive committee of Valérie Plante’s administration, praises Vancouver.
They are in the process of building robustness and resilience for their public transportation network by having sources of revenue that ensure its sustainability, argues Mr. Caldwell. Yes, there are challenges there too, but at least they have tools that get us out of the psychodrama that we constantly experience in Quebec, that is to say: who pays the bill?
He also calls on the provincial and federal governments to invest more than ever in public transportation.
Public transport must be a social choice, he insists. If we cannot have a service offering that is sufficiently funded, therefore frequent enough and of sufficient quality, there is a danger for public transport. And yes, if we cut the service, people leave public transit, we increase the income crisis, and it’s a death spiral.
Quebec predicts that the anticipated deficits of public transport companies will total $2.5 billion over the next five years.
The STM will look at ways to save money. She also hopes to be able to diversify her income, like in Vancouver.
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Éric Alan Caldwell, responsible for mobility on the executive committee of the City of Montreal. (Archive photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers
The Montreal Metropolitan Community suggests the implementation of a kilometer tax which would replace the gas tax, recalls Mr. Caldwell, while admitting that there are not yet any successful projects of this type on the planet. .
Then he reiterates the STM’s desire to launch into real estate, like TransLink, to benefit, in particular, from the upcoming extension of the blue metro line to Anjou. We must release this development potential and capture part of this growth. Yes, on that, we have some catching up to do in Quebec, he said.
Éric Alan Caldwell agrees that Montreal will benefit from increasing the number of buildings near metro stations.
We must again draw inspiration from best practices around the world, he believes. The important thing is to create living environments. And yes, we are capable of doing it at high density on public transport infrastructure.
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