Transit Funding International Comparison
I just got this from a tweet about Chicago being starved for funding for transit. I must admit I was quite surprised to see Vancouver as a comparator – and that we come so high up the list. In 2012 we got only slightly less than Toronto and were doing better than place alike Berlin or Boston. We had more operations funding per capita than Toronto, who seem to be getting more capital spending that year. Given the lumpy nature of capital spending that is no surprise. This year the building of the Evergreen Line would bump that up quite a bit.
Of course, we did not get anything like enough but that isn’t the point. Transit – especially in North America – does get short shrift compared to road funding. And of course London and Paris fund much more per capita than we do. But it does seem newsworthy to me that we came out of this comparison so well.
Stephen Rees's blog 
The graph come from this document
The figure 12 giving the number of trip per capita is pretty interesting,
We spend much more per capita than cities like Montreal or Berlin, and for much less trip per capita
It is probable that the Translink structure can partially explain this bleak picture (very large geographic area overall low density, and integrate eventually spending on road) but still
That bring to talk about inefficiencies one can find either and there affecting on the Translink network The Champlain detour on route 49, costing $500,000 .being one of them
The figure above eventually demonstrates the need to fix them before talking about more transit….
Voony
March 13, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Translink greatly improved transit service in Surrey a few years ago. In metropolitan regions with multiple transit agencies under elected councils, costly efforts to make transit viable in similar suburbs might not be possible politically.
The bus network in the City of Vancouver is not filled with deviations like the one on the 49. This is one of the few exceptions in a network characterized by long, straight routes along arterial streets.
The bus network in Burnaby is an endless series of deviations. Its slow, windy, infrequent routes, useless to nearly everyone, somehow invaded New Westminster and took over the southeastern corner of Vancouver. Burnaby’s bus network is not really underfunded, even if the poor service makes it seem like it. The problem, like in the southern half of Coquitlam, is that the network is primarily designed as a means for people to get to a poorly sited municipal complex (of all things). Burnaby has enough service to create a mostly frequent network as it is, it just has to follow its arterials to its rapid transit stations.
mike0123
March 13, 2014 at 8:33 pm
One thing I learned when it come to all kinds of statistics, is that, all too often the figures come from all sorts of different people or companies, are based on different years, and done with different methodologies…
At any rate, even if Vancouver had the same per capita as London and Paris, their total amount is way way more than for Vancouver.
From http://richardcampbell.org/category/transit/
Scroll down to rapid transit is an investment in the future
“….Greater Toronto has a rather bewildering array of plans and changing plans. From what I can tell, between TTC, Metrolinx and GO Transit, they have around $16 billion, $2,650 per person, worth of projects underway or at least funded over the next ten years. Metrolinx has just announced an additional $34 billion, $5,600 per person, worth of transit projects and is starting the conversation on how to fund them.
Perhaps the project that is most similar to the Broadway Subway is Toronto’s Eglinton LRT that will cost around $5 billion for 19km. That’s a half a billion dollars more than the Evergreen Line and the Broadway Subway put together. In the denser areas where Eglinton is a width similar to that of Broadway, a 10km tunnel is planned with the remainder being on-street. The fully grade separated SkyTrain lines will provide more frequent reliable service with a higher capacity. With around 320,000 riders per day expected by 2041, the Broadway Subway will carry many more passengers as well.
Paris is investing over $33 billion in the Grand Paris Express project. This project involves 200km of new automated grade separated metro lines linking suburbs to the core and other regional destinations. In addition, the plan also includes $9.2 billion for upgrades to existing lines and two light rail lines. Together, this amounts to $3,600 per capita from 2013 to 2030….”.
Red frog
March 13, 2014 at 9:28 pm