Vancouver and Hong Kong- On Transit and Politics

SkyTrain malfunction. Photo from CBC

"Umbrella Movement" in Hong Kong - Oct, 2014, photo taken from demotix

And so it is, on a hot summer sleepless night in Vancouver, a stumble across a CNN article on the success of Hong Kong's metro system, the MTR, finds myself discussing politics inside my head. A true sondry serendipity.

I voted "no" on the recent transit plebiscite held in metro Vancouver. Why did I vote no? I think I, along with many others who voted no, support developing transit to be more convenient so we can take transit instead of driving a car. It's occasionally thrilling to feel the speed and listen to the tune of of a 6-cylinder-twin-turbo engine, but the costs - in currency and carbon footprint - spurs us to get up from our lazy bums and walk to our nearest bus stop.  The biggest reason for saying "no" to the mayors' council's transit plan is that Translink has now developed an unbreakable image of inefficiency in both its administration and its operations. Paying taxes is not too different from purchasing a good or a service: We all want to make the most of our money, and investing more money in Translink clearly doesn't seem a good idea.

Why isn't a good idea? Commuters on the Canada Line may have seen ads that are trying to tackle the "myths" of inefficiency. Apparently, the cost per kilometre of transit in Vancouver is cheaper than our counterparts in Toronto and Montreal, and administration costs are lower than most other North American transit agencies. An article on Vancity Buzz titled "Vancouverites are spoiled with SkyTrain" compares how the SkyTrain fares much better than Toronto and Portland, and is very competitive when it is viewed along with other Canadian and American transit systems. I trust that all of these information are correct, and frankly quite appealing. The SkyTrain system has a on-time performance of 95%, a daily ridership of 390,000 (according to Wikipedia) which is 15.6% of the population of Greater Vancouver. The fastest frequency of the SkyTrain during rush hours is having a train in 2-3 minutes. However, this is precisely why Translink is sorely out of touch with the demographics of the city.

BC coins itself as the "Pacific Gateway," and Metro Vancouver is home to many ethnic Asians. Whether Asian or not, the culture and mindset of the people in Vancouver do not revolve around Toronto and New York. Our horizons do not settle in this continent, but on our neighbouring one as well. Whether it'd be a second home or a memorable destination, we have experienced transit systems that are leagues above what Vancouver has. Seoul Metro moves 9.8 million riders, which is 38% of its population, and its entire network is 4G and wifi accessible. Tokyo has a daily ridership of 6.4 million (even up to 10 mil in some sources), which is 18% of the population of metropolitan Tokyo, while train service frequency is as fast as 30 seconds during rush hour. The Hong Kong MTR system, if you've read the first link in this article, has even more amazing features. If you think the SkyTrain system is cool with 95% on-time performance, the MTR has 99.9% on-time performance while achieving a daily ridership of 5.2 million, which amounts to 72% of Hong Kong's population. It is also one of the most profitable transit systems in the world, and they've got their smart card payment system working since 1997. The MTR corporation does not hide its secrets of its success: A World Street Journal report tells us that it has helped the London Underground and Melbourne metro reach on-time performances of 96.7% and 93.7% respectively, up from 88% and 84%. 

So, Vancouverites are not spoiled by the SkyTrain. Maybe if you're from Portland and are moving to Vancouver, then maybe you'll feel spoiled. It's all about the expectations. And we've got plenty of people who has much higher expectations. 

Is this the purpose of me writing this? Just to diss the SkyTrain and praise the MTR to the heavens? No! In fact, Hong Kongers regularly criticize the MTR, even when the MTR must submit reports to the government for any delays that are longer than 8 minutes and will be fined proportionally for every delay that is longer than 30 minutes. Of the 0.1% occurrences of its delays, some have shut a small part of its system for more than a few hours. In their latest project, the connecting of the High Speed Railway to China, the MTR is grossly over the estimated budget and construction time. Hong Kong media is relentless in finding fault in that rail system that attracts the envy of the entire world. 

There is a Chinese saying that goes like this: It is easy to go from being frugal to being extravagant, but it is difficult to reverse this process. It is all about the expectations. It is the spirit of expecting more that drives progress and excellence. For Hong Kong, people are in political dissatisfaction because expectations are not met. Things seem to go downhill since Hong Kong became a part of China in 1997. Large infrastructures have turned to white elephants and blunder, promises are not being kept, values of integrity and excellence are being corroded. Many in the rest of China will think that Hong Kongers are "spoiled" because it has already enjoyed much more than the rest of the country and yet are still complaining. But Hong Kong is promised to receive much more in terms of political freedoms and are accustomed to excellence, integrity and efficiency.


The same can be said of Vancouver. People who say that the SkyTrain "spoiled" Vancouverites are not recognizing the spirit of excellence, integrity and accountability while in service to the public. Politically, we are much freer than the people of Hong Kong. But this freedom carries no meaning if there are no repercussions when the governments elected are not producing the results that are mandated by the people. 

So this concludes my sudden epiphany, and I'm sleepy enough to go back to bed.