I was on CKNW on Tuesday talking about “waste” at TransLink, prompted by my post poking holes in the “TransLink is extremely wasteful” myth. Personally I think the interview got a little side-tracked (I was expecting to talk more about the “waste” than general TransLink issues), but people have told me that I did a good job. Thanks to everybody who listened!
And after I was on, Jordan Bateman was on The Jon McComb Show to offer a rebuttal. If you listen, it wasn’t much of a rebuttal.
When Mr. McComb asked Mr. Bateman what the total amount of waste the CTF has found is, Mr. Bateman couldn’t answer, prompting Mr. McComb to say
That’s pretty weak, Jordan.
Mr. Bateman then talked about how TransLink was found to have a cost per revenue passenger about 30% higher than Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto’s transit system, and that this is a sign that TransLink is spending way too much money to transport people around.
Unfortunately that was thoroughly debunked in 2013.
When you consider the amount of bus service hours that are provided per passenger revenue dollar in fares, TransLink significantly outperforms Toronto and Montreal in this regard. TransLink provides more transit service per revenue passenger than other transit agencies.
TransLink can provide the same amount of service hours for just 81% of the cost as the Toronto TTC. Alternatively, for every tax and fare-payer dollar, TransLink provides 22% more transit.
Trotting out debunked numbers to make your argument? That’s pretty weak, Jordan.
And then Mr. McComb asked Mr. Bateman if the CTF is going to release a list of their contributors. Mr. Bateman hid behind an argument that he doesn’t know what the rules are and nobody knows what the rules are, saying that he’d think about releasing them. Keep in mind that they have a post about protecting the privacy of their donors so I think that Mr. Bateman was just paying lip-service to the idea to get Mr. McComb off his back.
That’s pretty weak, Jordan.