Editor:
Re: SkyTrain trumps light rail, letter to the editor, Jan. 14
I see, Surrey's transit whiz, Daryl Dela Cruz, is trying to discredit Portland's famed light rail system.
Comparing Vancouver to Portland is rather an apples to oranges comparison, as both cities have different transit issues to deal with.
Portland's initial LRT line was built instead of a freeway and the vast majority of riders who took MAX were new to transit, unlike Vancouver where SkyTrain's customers are forced to transfer from bus to metro.
Unlike Portland, Vancouver's SkyTrain and Canada Lines see over 80 per cent of its ridership being forcibly transferred from bus to metro, thus the SkyTrain system depends largely on recycled bus riders for its high ridership numbers. American transit users detest forced transfers, so the higher numbers for Vancouver are in part due to Canadians being more accepting of this practice.
Also not mentioned, Portland has about one-third the population density than Vancouver and Portland's ridership numbers certainly demonstrate this.
Then TransLink has the $1 a day U-Pass, which Portland does not, and with 110,000 ride at will passes issued to post-secondary students, has our transit system clogged with cheap fares, while full fare passengers are treated as steerage. It is a strange coincidence that TransLink's financial woes came at about the same time as the mass issuance of the U-Pass!
Cruz ignores the fact that our SkyTrain system has been rejected by almost every city in the world and many of his claims are not valid.
Portland's LRT has met or surpassed ridership targets since the first line opened and it is the problematic economy that has deterred ridership.
Then Cruz bleats about Portland losing its city centre free zone, yet TransLink does not offer a free zone, unless one is a fare evader.
What is important is the Portland taxpayer has, by referendum, approved every bond issue needed to build each LRT line, while in Vancouver the taxpayer has been denied any input at all. "You will get SkyTrain whether you like it or not," has been the refrain from big government.
Portland's LRT is one of a now over 150 new LRT systems built since the late 1970s, yet during the same period only seven SkyTrain-type systems have been built and not one has been allowed to compete against LRT. Sales are so scarce that Bombardier is now rumoured to be soon discontinuing SkyTrain ART and consign it to the history books.
Cruz's transit fantasique, SkyTrain, will very soon be a $9 billion museum piece. C'est la vie!
Malcolm Johnston
Rail for the Valley
