The head of Vancouver's transport authority talks to Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
The proposed Dublin Transport Authority will fail unless it is given control over the planning and funding of major projects as well as the regulation of all public transport services, a leading Canadian transport executive has warned.
Pat Jacobsen, chief executive of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (GVTA) and a former deputy minister for transport in Ontario, said there must be regional control of transport planning "so that it's not dependent on the minister or government of the day".
Ms Jacobsen knows Ireland quite well, having spent several holidays in Connemara. In her experience, Dublin was "second only to Mexico City" for traffic congestion and clearly needed an agency with the capacity to plan and deliver an integrated transport system.
In an interview with The Irish Times, she said the remit of a regional transport authority should cover all modes - roads as well as bus and rail services - and it should seek maximum public support for its plans "because transport in a city affects everybody".
The GVTA, which uses TransLink as its brand name, is currently implementing a €2.8 billion investment programme in regional roads and public transport, which has the support of more than three-quarters of the region's 2.3 million population.
Part of the plan, a new tramline serving Vancouver airport and some of the city's southern suburbs, is being financed by a public-private partnership deal with a consortium in which Bank of Ireland is a major lender. "They'll be our partners for 35 years," Ms Jacobsen said.
When she took over as chief executive of TransLink in 2001, public transport's market share was declining, services were being cut and staff laid off. As in Dublin, there had been decades of underinvestment and much inter-agency squabbling over what should get priority.
Five years on, 74 per cent of the public have a favourable impression of TransLink and around 45 per cent of all commuters into the city centre are using public transport.
Ms Jacobsen believes this would not have been possible without TransLink's consensus-building approach to its investment plan, which includes two new rapid transit lines, one-third more bus capacity, the renewal of an ageing fleet of trolley buses and seven road projects.
She cited the fact that both the British Columbia Business Council and Federation of Labour were major advocates of the plan, despite the fact that it contains such "challenges" for them as north America's first commercial parking tax and first privately operated rapid transit line.
But TransLink built the case for its plans. "We spent one full year talking about the 'do nothing' scenario - what it would be like moving around Greater Vancouver in 2020 with our current network, and how long it would take people to get to work or their favourite ski hills."
Another key building block was investing in data, to "change the transportation dialogue from one of which agency or project should get funded, whose constituency is rewarded, or a road versus transit fight, to transportation planning based on actual need and impact".
How the plan was developed was as important as what it contained. "Collaborative planning is not having a plan and showing it to a group of people, and asking 'how do you like it?'. It must involve all interests - environment groups, road users, business, labour, transit, cycling."
TransLink set up a transportation "round table" of 15 stakeholders, organised three waves of public opinion polling as well as an interactive web strategy, 30 "town hall meetings", and some 50 meetings with business, labour and transportation interest groups.
The level of public consultation was much higher than anything that has been attempted in Ireland, with the possible exception of the Dublin Transportation Initiative in the early 1990s. But in Vancouver, everyone has a much more direct stake in the transport system.
Only 36 per cent of TransLink's annual turnover of €571 million is raised from public transport fares. Of the rest, 31 per cent comes from a tax of 12 cents per litre on fuel, 28 per cent from municipal property taxes and 4 per cent from parking levies.
"Dedicated, legislated funding tools are essential to enable a transportation agency to fulfil its mandate. Without them, the agency will fail and the organisational cost of integration has no payback," Ms Jacobsen told politicians in the US state of Washington last January.
Now, Washington state plans to set up a similar agency to integrate transport planning and delivery in the Seattle area. And TransLink's chief said she would be happy to talk to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport.