No Vote = more delays = more costs for taxpayers

It is official; the electorate has voted overwhelmingly "No" in the TransLink Referendum.  It is also now official that we will pay more for transit infrastructure expansion and improvements and it will take longer for those improvements to arrive.  In essence, the very electorate that voted down the P.S.T. increase is a representation of the TransLink Board itself.  Like the costly lack of foresight constantly exhibited by TransLink officials, the electorate has shown a lack of foresight that will cost us much more in the short and long term.

I have already pointed out how a "No" vote would be more costly (TransLink Referendum).

One of the next inevitable options will be road and bridge pricing.  Whereas with a PST hike everyone would have contributed to transit development, only car users will pay with road pricing, leaving those that solely use public transit off the hook (other than the fares that they pay, at least ones that actually pay in the first place).  

As for those that voted "No" because they only drive everywhere they go anyways; 

Way to go, you will be the only ones paying for transit improvements once road pricing kicks in.

This following board promoting the Compass fare gate system is posted on the Canada Line at Sea Island Station YVR. and it sums us up perfectly.  I took a photo of it last month.  The Compass system was scheduled to be operational during the Fall of 2013.

While transit systems around the world are constantly improving on their already superior service on scales that make ours look like a joke, we are unable to come up with competent officials and secure funding to just run what little we have.  Why do we have so little?  That question should be aimed at our so-called "leaders" of all political stripes.

Brentwood Station Faregate Installation

Parts of Brentwood Station have been walled up to prepare for the faregate installation scheduled for completion next year.  Some of the details are in the sign below.

TransLink officials should be fired

Here are 3 of the many reasons that TransLink officials should be fired from the "jobs they do".

1. Due to its inability to manage finances in a market where it has no competition, TransLink must make up for a $30 million shortfall by leaving 2 busy SkyTrain stations without turnstiles, one of them Metrotown Station which is the busiest in Burnaby.
2. The turnstiles will not ensure that all riders will be paying for their ride because the turnstile gates are the paddle type which can be circumvented by people athletic enough to go over and under them.  Great.  Our TransLink decision-makers opted for a flawed system of fare collection to overcome its original decision to have a flawed honour system of fare collection when there have been fare gates that prevent circumvention for decades in places that probably weren't consulted.  I wonder how much they got paid to make such a bad decision?
3. I just heard that Brentwood Station will have 3 new turnstiles built into one of the fastest growing areas of not only Burnaby, but Metro Vancouver.  It has been long known that Brentwood is projected to be a major residential/commercial and transportation hub in Metro Vancouver and TransLink is putting in only 3 turnstiles into a station that will sit next to an expanded Brentwood Mall accompanied by at least 10 new residential high-rise towers within 100 metres in the next 5 years in addition to the existing high-rises in the area.

TransLink Officials receive lucrative salaries to make decisions that reflect complete incompetence.  They must be fired for their inability to run a business in which they have no competition.