Last year, TransLink delivered more and better service more efficiently and achieved record-level customer satisfaction.
This is the opening statement in TransLink’s invitation to their Annual General Meeting on May 29.
That statement is a travesty. Over 30,000 HandyDART trips were denied last year. TransLink has taken 10,000 hours of HandyDART service and given it to taxis. Up to 28 HandyDart drivers are to be laid off on July 22.
Devastating working people’s lives and forcing vulnerable people into taxies is no answer to a crisis. HandyDART passengers are not ‘satisfied’ while being stranded in their homes. HandyDART passengers receive safe, door to door service in a HandyDART when they can get it.
Taxi trips cannot replace HandyDART, a service that took over 30 years to build.
Eroding HandyDART by removing hours of service and dispatching cabs is not a solution. HandyDART’s drivers have training and accountability that will never be equaled by the taxi industry.
The provincial government ran under a family first banner. Now untold HandyDART passengers are put at risk and HandyDART drivers are forced on to the streets to look for employment.
Instead of taking the carbon tax and improving public transit, the provincial government and TransLink hurt the very people they are meant to serve.
Mark Beeching
Langley