July « 2009 « The Transport Politic

Vancouver's TransLink Faces Serious Funding Gap

July 31st, 2009 |

» Meeting long-term transport needs will require a major new governmental commitment, as well as new financing options like central-city tolling.

This week, metro Vancouver’s TransLink presented three options for the region’s elected officials: with an infusion of new cash, the transit authority could dramatically improve service and expand rapid transit along three new corridors; it could maintain the status quo and cut bus service by 40%; or, it could do something in between. Politicians in the region’s cities and in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, have until October 31st to make up their minds. They’ll either have to find significant

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American Transport Policy, Stuck in Highway Mode

July 30th, 2009 |

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» The highway and transit lobbies are mutually dependent, with the much more powerful roads interest playing the dominant role.

Beginning in the early 1960s, a coalition of mayors, environmentalists, neighborhood groups, and other supporters of cities worked to expand federal aid to transit, arguing that the massive investment in the Interstate Highway System was depriving urban areas of their well-being. They suggested that more investment in public transportation was a necessary antidote to the destruction caused to inner-city communities as a result of megalomaniacal post-war planning efforts. In many ways, their work was successful even in the early years — Congress

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University of Minnesota Wants More Mitigation for Central Corridor LRT

July 29th, 2009 |

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Proposed “floating slab” is claimed necessary to protect lab space.

When it’s completed in five years, the Central Corridor will connect downtown Minneapolis with the state capital 11 miles down the road in St. Paul, and it’s expected to become the Twin Cities’ most popular transit line. But opposition from prominent landholders along the route — including the University of Minnesota and Minnesota Public Radio — continues to challenge the project proponents’ contention that they will be able to maintain reasonable completion costs.

A little more than five years ago, Minneapolis opened its Hiawatha Light Rail line to great acclaim, and the project

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Veolia and Transdev, Transport Operators, Propose Huge Merger

July 28th, 2009 |

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Domination of new company puts into question the role of private operators.

Neo-liberalism has become the defining approach most western political systems take to developed their economies after the fall of the Berlin Wall The repeated failure of left-oriented regimes to articulate a popular alternative to corporate welfare and reductions in government size hasn’t helped much. One prominent consequence in Europe and North America has been a privatization of formerly public services. This embrace of the so-called Washington Consensus has had a major effect on public transportation systems, which remain largely owned by local, regional, and national governments, but whose operations increasingly

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