British Columbia to benifit from $14 Billion Transit Plan

On the heels of recent cutbacks in transit service in the Silicon Valley I came upon this news item that was published January 14, 2008 in the Times Colonist. In what was billed as the largest provincial infrastructure spending plan in history; the plan would double the number of buses in the area by 2020 and create two new rapid transit lines.

Some of the money will go to:

• $1.2 billion for high capacity rapid bus service along nine routes in Kelowna, Victoria, and Vancouver.
• $1.4 billion to be earmarked for four new rapid transit lines in Vancouver.
• $1.6 billion will be spent on 1,500 clean energy buses provide improved bus service around the province.

According to the article, "Greater Victoria's transit system is already in its biggest expansion in a decade with the purchase of 16 new double-decker buses. A record 22.2 million passengers used transit in the region in 2006-07, an increase of four per cent over the previous year."

In comparing this with the VTA; Vitoria BC had ridership last year of 22.2 million passengers in a city of 79,000 in 2006 verses VTA's passenger count of 31.0 million passengers in the valley. San Jose alone has a population 930 million. Santa Clara County's population topped 1.6 million residents in 2006. A ridership rate of 282 trips per person verses Santa Clara County's 19 trips per person! Let me repeat that 282 vs. 19.

see also Miss 604's transit blog.

Photo by Dennis Sylvester Hurd at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/