Saturna Island Property Owners’ Association P. O. Box 27, Saturna Island, BC, V0N 2Y0 Email: SIPOA@saturnanet.net Ian Jarvis, Chief Executive Officer TransLink 400 -­‐ 287 Nelson's Court New Westminster, BC V3L 0E7 December 10, 2013 Dear Mr. Jarvis, Re: The announced cancellation of the 09h00 bus departure from Bridgeport Canada Line station to Tsawwassen and the 10h00 return from Tsawwassen to Bridgeport Canada Line station The announcement that the 09h00/10h00 Route 620 round-­‐trip is going to be cancelled is causing grave concern to Southern Gulf Islands’ residents, who are increasingly relying on transit to connect with the Lower Mainland due to sky rocketing ferry fares.. Over the past 25 years, ferry fares to the SGI have increased more than four times the rate of inflation and more than two and one half times he rate of TransLink fares. Unlike TransLink fares, ferry fare increases are not protected and limited by provincial legislation and with further 4% ferry fare increases scheduled in both 2014 and 2015, in tandem with ferry service cuts, more SGI traffic will shift out of vehicles and on to transit. Let me assure you, that our members, who make up more than half of property owners on Saturna Island, understand and support increased efficiencies in our transportation networks, and in particular those subsidized by government. We are also well aware that we fall outside of TransLink’s service region and that, as property owners, we do not contribute directly to TransLink’s tax based funding. Having said that, it should be recognized by provincial and regional decision makers that a well-­‐functioning transportation network relies on connections inside as well as outside the Metro Vancouver region. The provincial goal of increasing transit mode share, which is one of TransLink’s stated objectives, affects all of BC, not just Metro Vancouver. To that end, some of the SGIs are, or will shortly, be implementing local community-­‐funded transit services to provide a more affordable travel option to manage steeply rising ferry fares. These initiatives will fail without effective transit connections to the Lower Mainland. The 09h00/10h00 Route 620 round-­‐trip serves one of two daily sailings from the SGI’s, but is one of the daily seventeen round-­‐trips, representing less than 6% of daily capacity. By cancelling this run TransLink is impacting 50% of the SGI transit traffic. By cancelling the 09h00/10h00, the wait time for SGI passengers increases from 30 minutes to 90 minutes, a tripling of the existing wait time. This will push SGI travellers back into their cars (an incremental cost of $100+ per trip), or force them to incur the cost of overnight stays, or they will simply not travel. The response from your Customer Service department states that you will “carefully monitor” the effects of the cancellation, but this appears to be a hollow promise: how does TransLink propose to monitor the impact of lost ridership on a specific bus departure that no longer exists? Page 2 We have been told that the revised schedule is a matter of “realigning” the 620 Route to better match the ferry schedule and to address overloads that occur on BC Ferries Route 1. This appears to be a rational decision. Currently TransLink runs hourly departures whereas BC Ferries, for most of the day, has ferry departures every two hours. Someone in your planning department appears to have taken this data and decided to shift all departures to coincide with Route 1 departures every two hours. This had one unintended consequence: the cancellation of a heavily used departure (the 09h00/10h00 round-­‐trip), which serves one of two SGI sailings and the Duke Point sailing. We say heavily used based on anecdotal evidence–the bus is often crammed with passengers standing leaving the Tsawwassen terminal – but despite repeated requests from TransLink, we have yet not received data on what the actual passenger loads are on this departure, by day. Therefore, from SGI’s perspective, the decision to cancel the 09h00/10h00 Route 620 round-­‐trip seems to have been done without the support of proper business analysis and a disregard of regional policy considerations. If it were that the passenger data, when and if available, does not lend support to running the 09h00/10h00 round-­‐trip, has TransLink investigated lower cost alternatives, such as extending buses that normally serve Tsawwassen (city) out to the ferry terminal or by using another bus to connect to Ladner loop so morning SGI passengers could be accommodated with other than a 90-­‐ minute wait? I am looking forward to your response in this matter and, notwithstanding our concerns about the cancellation of the 09h00/10h00 Route 620 round-­‐trip, I want to relay the praise many of our residents have expressed for your excellent transit services and your staff, who are always courteous and helpful. Sincerely, Bill Schermbrucker President, SIPOA CC: Haydn Acheson, General Manager, Coast Mountain Bus Company Doug Kelsey, Chief Operating Officer, TransLink Todd Stone, Minister of Transportation