"Boondoggle."
"Gobbledygook."
These were just two of the choice words Burnaby council had for TransLink's business case for its faregate and SmartCard system at Monday night's council meeting.
Council is asking that TransLink stop construction on the project until it is given a more in-depth business case analysis for it.
Coun. Colleen Jordan, who presented the report from Burnaby director of planning and building Basil Luksun on the issue, said she was appalled at how much had been blanked out in the business case study released by TransLink.
Mayor Derek Corrigan agreed that the lack of information was troubling but also questioned the financial estimates.
"I don't believe the numbers are accurate," Corrigan said.
The project capital cost was estimated at $171 million, with annual costs of $7.7 million. The province is slated to cover $40 million of the initial cost, with the federal government putting in up to $30 million. TransLink is covering the majority of the costs.
The projected annual benefits, according to the City of Burnaby's report, are $20.3 to $32.9 million per year.
Coun. Paul McDonell said the finances were "all gobbledygook," while Coun. Nick Volkow called the project "a boondoggle."
The Compass SmartCard is intended to replace cash, passes and FareSaver tickets, allowing TransLink to charge riders based on distance travelled on SkyTrain lines, rather than the current zone system. Faregate turnstiles are also being introduced at the same time, to prevent fare jumpers from not paying for using transit.
But fare evasion losses are not costly enough to warrant such a system, according to Luksun's report.
In June 2002, the TransLink board estimated SkyTrain evasion amounted to a loss of about $3.3 million per year, and in December 2005, the estimate was $4 million per year, the report stated.
Burnaby is asking TransLink for more information on the context provided by previous analyses of faregates, separate financial analyses of smart cards and faregates, explanation for the rational for the estimated benefits, and consideration of project costs before making a single choice.
Burnaby council had previously suggested TransLink only implement the SmartCard, without the turnstiles.
SkyTrain stations are currently being retrofitted for the turnstiles. The card and system projects are expected to be completed by 2013.
