But taxpayers remain liable for ridership levels on the transit line, chief executive Larry Bell says
WILLIAM BOEI
Sun
BILL KEAY/VANCOUVER SUN From Waterfront . . . Waterfront station will be the starting point for the RAV line. The plan is to postpone building walkway from here to the cruise-ship terminal.
IAN LINDSAY/VANCOUVER SUN . . . to YVR SNC-Lavalin’s plan would provide a 24-minute one-way trip between Vancouver and the airport, and Vancouver> and Richmond.
TransLink and the B.C. public will be insulated from more construction cost increases on the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line, RAVCO officials said Friday.
“This is a fixed-price, date-certain contract,” said RAVCO chairman Larry Bell.
Bell said the impact of the line will be equivalent to adding 10 lanes of traffic capacity to the busy Vancouver-Richmond corridor.
It will be one of the few rapid transit systems in the world that will not need operating subsidies once it is built and operating, RAVCO said.
“The operating revenues exceed the operating costs during the 30-year period,” said RAVCO chief executive Jane Bird.
The low bid for the RAV Line came in at $1.899 billion, in part because of escalating steel and concrete prices, and the players in the public-private partnership project have been trying to find ways to reduce its cost and find new sources of money.
The “preferred” bidder for the project, SNC-Lavalin, has agreed to shoulder most of the financial risks, Bird said.
That means that once a contract is signed, SNC-Lavalin will be responsible for any construction cost overruns, all tunnelling risks, on-time delivery risk and operating performance risk, Bird said.
If construction costs increase beyond SNC-Lavalin’s projections, “It’s their problem, not ours.”
The one significant risk that taxpayers remain liable for is ridership. If the line doesn’t achieve the ridership projected by planners, TransLink, the regional transportation authority, is on the hook for 90 per cent of the resulting revenue shortfall.
Bird said that’s necessary because TransLink does not want to give up control of the three major factors that affect ridership: The right to set fares, the marketing of transit and the level of bus service feeding passengers into the rapid transit line.
SNC-Lavalin is responsible for 10 per cent of ridership risk because it is responsible for providing and maintaining stations, lighting and washrooms, which could also have an effect on ridership.
Few financial details of the proposal were made public other than ballpark budget figures.
Bird said it calls for SNC-Lavalin to receive “an annual operating payment in return for performance specifications” such as travel time and train frequency.
“If they don’t perform, they don’t get paid.”
RAVCO said SNC-Lavalin’s plan would provide a 24-minute one-way trip between Vancouver and the airport, and Vancouver and Richmond.
Fares would be the same as on the rest of the regional transit system, with one major exception.
One of the revenue-raising measures in the plan, agreed to by the airport authority, is to charge “a premium fare” of $5 to $6 for passengers and “meeters and greeters” who ride the RAV Line to and from airport terminals. The regular two-zone adult fare between Vancouver and Richmond is $3.
Bird argued the premium fare is still a bargain compared to the cost of taking a taxi from downtown Vancouver to the airport or paying for parking at the airport. It is also considerably lower than public transportation charges at many other major cities.
Airport employees and employees of other companies on Sea Island will pay regular fares, possibly using a swipe-card or fare-card system. Bird said the details remain to be worked out.
Among other measures to increase revenue or reduce costs in the revised RAV Line plan:
• One of the five stations planned for Richmond will disappear. The proposed Westminster station will not be built, and the nearby Richmond Centre station will be moved a few hundred metres north of its planned location.
• A proposed walkway for cruiseship passengers between the RAV Line terminus at Waterfront Station in Vancouver and the cruise-ship terminal will not be built for the time being.
• TransLink, rather than the builder, will shoulder the cost of moving trolley wires along the RAV Line route.
• TransLink will incorporate the cost of operating insurance for the RAV Line into its own global insurance policy to get a better rate.
The plan calls for a longer tunnel — to 63rd Avenue rather than 47th, as originally planned.
Tunnelling under downtown Vancouver and False Creek will be done by underground boring equipment; along Cambie, it will be a “cut and cover” tunnel.
Bird promised there will no net loss of green space along Cambie, and since most of the tunnel will run beneath traffic lanes rather than the boulevard down the centre, few trees will have to be uprooted.
THE CANADA LINE
The plan that regional officials will be asked on Dec. 1 to approve
Tentatively dubbed the Canada Line, the fully automated service will whisk commuters and travellers from one end to the other in just 24 minutes. With up to 17 stations (plus four future ones), the system will operate both underground and on an elevated track that does not interfere with ground traffic. Engineers calculate its carrying capacity equals 10 road lanes.
