Archive for the 'translink' Category

Port Mann Bridge Tolls

Published on August 27, 2010 in british columbia, coquitlam and translink.

If you drive down High­way 1 between Lan­g­ley and Van­cou­ver, you will see the phe­nom­e­nal upgrades that will open up the Fraser Val­ley and Sub­ur­ban Metro Van­cou­ver to the Asia-Pacific Gate­way and poten­tially save time and money for res­i­dences liv­ing in the area.

PGC_Port_Mann_archive260.jpg

The 10-lane high­way is expected to be com­pleted in 2013, but will open 8 of the 10 fin­ish lanes to traf­fic in 2012, for a whole year. The Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion said “there will be four lanes instead of the exist­ing two lanes, so peo­ple will start see­ing the ben­e­fits right away and they’ll start pay­ing the tolls right away.”

The cost of the bridge will be: Con­tinue read­ing ‘Port Mann Bridge Tolls’

Translink Smartcards and Faregate System

Published on July 10, 2010 in translink.

Ear­lier this year, I posted on Face­book and Twit­ter about Translink want­ing to move to a more ver­sa­tile (and I guess envi­ron­men­tal friendly) method of fare sys­tem. If you did not read my tweet or post, I will sum it up for you. Translink is look­ing into imple­ment­ing a Fare­gate Sys­tem at all Sky­train Sys­tems (Expo Line, Mil­le­nium Line, Canada Line and the Ever­green Line) and using a Smart­card System.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘Translink Smart­cards and Fare­gate System’

UPASS for BC Colleges/Universities

Published on June 9, 2010 in ams, british columbia, sfss, sfu, translink and ubc.

The Upass pro­gram was started by VanCity and Translink in part­ner­ship with the UBC AMS and the Simon Fraser Stu­dent Soci­ety at SFU. The Upass pro­gram was later expanded to Capi­lano Uni­ver­sity and Lan­gara Col­lege. UBC stu­dents cur­rently pay $23.75 per month for the Upass. SFU stu­dents cur­rently pay $26.09 per month for the Upass. Capi­lano Uni­ver­sity stu­dents cur­rently pay $32.00 per month and Lan­gara Col­lege stu­dents pay $38.00 per month for the Upass. Stu­dents who attend other post sec­ondary insti­tu­tions pay $81.00 for a one-zone bus pass, which can be used in all zones with their stu­dent card.

In the 2009 provin­cial gen­eral elec­tion, the BCLib­eral Party promised to deliver the UPASS to all post-secondary stu­dents in British Colum­bia. The BCLib­eral Party will be deliv­er­ing their promise this September.

Gor­don Camp­bell made an impor­tant announce­ment at Van­cou­ver Com­mu­nity Col­lege (VCC) today — an announce­ment that pro­vides afford­able uni­ver­sal tran­sit to all post-secondary stu­dents in British Colum­bia. The pre­mier announced today that schools will be able to hold ref­er­en­dums to opt into the Upass program.

Your stu­dent union (ie, Dou­glas Stu­dent Union, Kwantlen Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion) will be able to hold ref­er­en­dums before Sep­tem­ber to opt into the upass pro­gram. Suc­cess­ful schools will be able to take advan­tage of the $30.00 per month Upass for all the students.

The Cana­dian Fed­er­a­tion of Stu­dents in BC have reacted to this announce­ment. This is likely the first time in years where the CFS-BC have praised the work­ing of Pre­mier Gor­don Camp­bell and his exec­u­tive min­is­ters. The CFS-BC chair­per­son Nimmi Takkar said“the province and TransLink are to be con­grat­u­lated for imple­ment­ing a com­mon U-Pass pro­gram at an attrac­tive price.”

This announce­ment affects stu­dents of SFU and UBC! The con­tract between UBC AMS and SFU SFSS will be expir­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2011. Instead of using the old pric­ing, stu­dents at both schools will be pay­ing $30.00 for the Upass as well. This means a total increase of $6.25 per month for stu­dents of UBC ($25 per term, $50 per semes­ter) and a total increase of $3.91 per month for SFU stu­dents ($15.64 per semes­ter). The prices will need to be passed through a ref­er­en­dum next Spring.

Your cur­rent UBC AMS and SFU SFSS rep­re­sen­ta­tives will most likely be nego­ti­at­ing with Translink and Translink is most likely going to offer stu­dents the $30 Upass. I encour­age stu­dents from SFU and UBC to email their exter­nal rep­re­sen­ta­tive (UBC AMS VP Exter­nal Jeremy McEl­roy and SFU SFSS Exter­nal Rela­tions Offi­cer Kyle Acerino) to tell them that you do not want a fare increase to hap­pen. I also rec­om­mend you to email your local MLA, the BC Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion Shirley Bond, and the BCNDP Trans­porta­tion Critic Harry Bains to tell them that you do not want your bus fares to increase!

Evergreen Line and the Tri-Cities

Published on March 19, 2010 in coquitlam and translink.

Start­ing late 2010, con­struc­tion on the Ever­green Line will begin. The project is funded by Translink, Provin­cial BCLib­eral Gov­ern­ment and the Fed­eral Con­ser­v­a­tive Gov­ern­ment. The cost of the project is $1.4 bil­lion and will cre­ate more than 8,000 jobs within the region through­out the course of the con­struc­tion. The project will stim­u­late com­mu­nity growth and new depart­ment, as you can already see in Port Moody.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘Ever­green Line and the Tri-Cities’