After Translink announced transit fares will be going up in the new year the Vice Chair of the Mayors Council admits running the system isn’t an easy task.
Langley City mayor Peter Fassbender says when it comes to transit affordability is always an issue.
“It always is a challenge. On one hand there are people who say we should have a user pay, if you use it you should pay what it costs, and then we have heard a position out of a particular group in Vancouver that you should have free service in areas and while that is a wonderful concept then how do you pay for the service you have got to come up with the money some place else
Fassbender says the $ 32-million raised by the new fare hikes is not new money and does not address the existing transit funding shortfall.
“That factor was already built into the base plan so it isn’t like it is new found money that all of a sudden we have said oh we have some new money it has been built into the plan since it was approved so it isn’t like it is an additional 32-million dollars that nobody had ever thought about before it was already in the plan.”
He says Transportation Minister Mary Polak will be joining the mayors at the next Translink council session.
Fassbender says priority number one will be working with her on funding options from the province to help foot the transit bill
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